You probably have a CTR of 0.009%. Sad but true. Now, imagine swapping that for a CTR of app. 2.15%!
Good news. It’s possible and here’s how…
Instead of having your sales funnel stopped in its early tracks, you could be reaping the rewards of the explosive growth and effectiveness of video advertising.
Video ads captivate web users
Video ads are taking over in full effect. Why? Because it gives web users better online experiences – and you oceans of dwell time.
Now, another study conducted by MediaMind shows that video ads are the bees knees of online advertising. Illustrated by the fact that:
70% of web users play the entire video – and 75% play three quarters of it
The benchmark CTR for video is now 2.15%
Online video advertising outperforms all other formats
Also, MediaMind concludes that:
The average American man spent 5 hours watching video on his PC in Q2 in 2011. The average American woman 4 hours. In other words, web users crave video ads
Video advertising spend will increase from $2 billion to 5.4$ billion between 2011 and 2016
Remember that time in the 80s when people gathered in front of the tv to watch commercials?
Well, the age of grateful ad consumers is back. All you have to do as advertiser or agency is get shooting, chopping and uploading.
That’s how many servers Google’s got struggling around the world to keep up. But that’s just now. Soon the 900.000 servers will be joined with many more. Why? Because Google is taking monitoring and targeting to the next level – and as a result setting the stage for The War of Big Brother.
With their new online policy Google pours all of their tracked behavior data from 60 different platforms into a single analytics system. In other words: Google is profiling you – pinpointing you – to target you with far more specific ads.
Simultaneously, EU-legislators are suiting up. Surely, because the outcome sets a precedant for future ways of monitoring and targeting.
Google vs. Justitia. Referee: You.
Now, how do you fit into this battle of the Titans? Well, you actually hold the power to tip the balance either way. And that’s why they’re both wooing you at the moment. Officials with standard ‘concerns’ and Google with their Good to Know campaign:
The ‘Giant 5′ each have a file on you.
At the moment, it seems to be enough for the general public to get Google off the hook. Especially, as you probably don’t even mind being monitored online.
Also, one of Google’s strongest arguments is that they don’t sell data to 3rd parties. But where does that leave the rest of the ‘Giant 5′: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft – and especially Facebook? Maybe each and everyone of them have you pinpointed down to your shoe size, Maybe they don’t. Maybe it doesn’t really matter.
As mentioned, studies indicate that we don’t mind being monitored – as long as we get ‘free’ services in return. And that practically leaves officials left holding the baby. How do you legislate an industry that quite frankly moves too fast – and breaks with standard beliefs?
In fact, Google’s new privacy policy may be violating European privacy laws. And Google was asked to postpone the roll-out until officials had the chance to investigate further. But Google didn’t.
You’ve been profiled since March 1.
By the way, the new policy was put in motion March 1. In brief, Google should have a pretty specific cross-platform profile of you by now.
Yes, it’s a fact and you probably already know it. When you surf the web, you’re being logged, targeted and offered products, you’ve showed an interest in by behavioral targeting. And you don’t care.
90% of us know that we’re being monitored
But, the game is changing now. Until now, legislators, civil rights movements and opinion formers have called for more transparency from Google, Facebook, Apple and so on.
The thing is: you probably don’t care. According to a new study conducted by The Danish Consumer Council, 90% of us know that we’re being monitored. And only 29% acts differently ‘to a minor degree’ due to surveillance.
All in all you’re just indifferent about behavioral targeting. Maybe it’s because you value what you get in return for your anonymity: free news, free services, social platforms, less crime, access to almost every bit of information ever published (good and bad) and much more. Maybe it’s simply the way the online – and offline – world is evolving.
Still confused about the new EU ePrivacy directive? Well, like the song goes: You’re Not Alone. Very few people are in the loop on the future targeting vs. ePrivacy. Luckily, Nick Stringer, Head of Regulative Affairs at IAB UK, spilled his two cents recently. We boiled it down for you.
‘Transparency, control and education”. Really, it comes down to these three little words.
To make data collection more transparent, the EU self-regulative programme and the industry itself are reaching out to web users with info-sites like Your Online Choices and the Good to know-campaign by Google.
However, how ‘control’ will be administered still seems an open question. Critics have said that as the global village shrinks even further, non-european countries will ‘corp-shop’ for increased BNP by offering looser legislation and tax demands. Luckily, this is not an issue at this point. The EU-countries seem aware that they’re walking a very fine line between web user privacy and offering data-driven companies decent conditions.
How do you tie up ePrivacy with 1-to-1 targeting?
At the moment, behavioral targeting and data-driven marketing are in bad standing with web users. Partly, due to the fact that the media angles their stories from a big brother perspective. But also, because we – the online industry – simply haven’t lobbied our side of the story all too well (apart from Google).
The fact that web users are offered products and services based on their individual behavior is greatly overlooked. Also, that the advertising industry is getting far more user-focused and stepping away from carpet-bombing messages and urging consumption is nowhere to be seen.
But! This is only part of solution to a viable balance between eprivacy and legislation. What’s more important is reaching out to web users with new solutions. Trust is key. And that’s why Vodafone recently presented a ‘Privacy Dashboard’ making web users decide the degree of behavioral targeting themselves.
Standing on the shoulders of Google – or not?
Heard of Google’s proactive Good to know-campaign and subsequent cross-platform behavioral databank rolled out March 1? Without doubt this initiative sets a precedent for where the industry is heading.
Online advertising is predicted to grow by 11.2% in 2012 – and outrank newspapers to become the second-biggest global media category after TV.
Hand in hand with massive growth, however, comes ever more content, ever more advertising, ever more noise … it’s harder and harder for the average online user to actually get to what’s relevant, important and interesting for them.
So, cutting through the vast clutter of the Internet to increase both the reach and the relevance of your message will help you to achieve your best results – and it’s definitely smart to do that while respecting the privacy of your online users.
Localisation or geo targeting of ads and content has been identified as one of the key enablers to higher returns.
Targeting ads by country, region, city – or even postal code – means a huge reduction in wasted impressions together with improved click-through rates and response: a double bonus of reduced costs and increased revenue.
Targeting by connection speed, or whether the user is joining the internet from home or at work, can also be very useful parameters to make use of.
The Node Up the Road
IP intelligence and geolocation data, then, provide the information needed to deliver locally targeted ads and locally relevant content in a simple, cost-effective and privacy-sensitive manner.
Unlike other more invasive techniques, geolocation data is not derived from user interactions or cookies, but instead relies on Internet infrastructure analysis. It’s important that an IP database is kept up-to-date, since between 2% and 5% of global IP addresses will change every month.
The best providers constantly spider the Internet – similar to a Google bot, but looking at the paths and routes the data takes, not at the content itself – and employ a large number of different validation techniques to accurately pinpoint the location of where the user has joined the publicly routable internet. It’s not the user themselves who is being located, and it’s not the device that they are using. It’s the node up the road!
So, with IP intelligence and geolocation, advertisers and publishers have the opportunity to fine-tune both ads and content based on the real-world location of their users … that is, where they are logged into the internet right now, not necessarily where they normally are.
Customer Interactions through Geo Targeting
If you know this, you can build more engaging and meaningful interactions with your potential customers without them having to share any data about themselves. That’s both personalised and polite.
Of course, using IP address information to give users a more relevant online experience is not the only method available to you. Indeed many smart publishers employ a variety of methods – both standalone and in combination with eachother – depending on what you want to achieve and on your specific goal or campaign.
Want to avoid scaring off your visitors with an annoyingly slow website – maybe even garnished with ad serving test banners and malfunctioning rich media ads?
Then go with Friendly IFrames – a new ad technology – that we believe could be a lifelong buddy of yours.
But, Friendly IFrames is also the hidden gem of ad serving. We know that. That’s why we decided to get up on the soapbox and and tell why the concept actually lives up to its name.
The 3rd Party Ad Serving Christmas Tree Chain
Banner ads gather data from a long string of various 3rd party servers. E.g. one tag gathers data from EmediateAd, which gets behavioral data from another ad server, which gets geo data from another ad server, which gets the creative itself from a 4th URL. Indeed a Christmas tree chain if you ever saw one.
Obviously, the more server calls the bigger loading time – and the more glitches due to malfunctioning ad servers or creative. In this case, one rotten apple truely spoils the bunch.
Often this causes visitor frustration – and increases bounce rates.
Friendly IFrames takes care of all this by bypassing the string of data. Instead Friendly IFrames functions as simple ad tag containers that sends data back and forth from the ad container to the various ad servers. This is done asynchronously.
In reality, this means that while the web page’s HTML, CSS and JavaScript is compiled from the top down, Friendly IFrames jumps the queue and works independently – leading to far less creative problems.
Dynamic Format Handling
Perhaps even better is the concept of dynamic format handling. A concept that really sets Friendly IFrames apart from the ol’ days of ad handling.
Before JavaScript and Friendly IFrames ad handling you had to predefine the tag that delivered the ad. Very static and not easily changed. Friendly IFrames combines the best of two worlds: Non-disturbing loading of IFrames and Dynamic format handling.
All in all, this makes you capable of:
‘Fitting’ different ad formats into a given placement (e.g. a 930 x 300 ad on a 930 x 180 placement) – Before you couldn’t run ads with other formats – dimensions – than the one defined in the tag.
Running alternative banner formats – like expandables – on fixed placements – Before you couldn’t serve ‘alternative’ banners like expandables simply because the format of the placement was fixed.
Choosing whether a banner should collapse to 1 x 1 pixel when something goes wrong. This way you avoid having an empty and odd-looking ad placement – Before you would have an empty ad placement if the banner was served inproperly.
To sum up, Friendly IFrames is tricky ad serving stuff made simple – and very, very effective. Enjoy!
As a publisher you know the problem. Ads slow down your website. In fact, it’s a simple formula – the more content the slower web page. However, a secret ingredient actually exists. Publisher, meet Friendly IFrames – the ad serving garnish that makes your ads warpspeed.
When a browser loads a web page it’s normally done from the top down. Like a Christmas tree chain or traffic that moves from A to B. Very simple and often effective. But what happens when one of the diodes in the chain malfunctions – or traffic jams up?
Friendly IFrames – the ad serving express lane of your dreams
Friendly IFrames is the concept of banner containers that are loaded asynchronously, which in layman’s terms means that your ads are loaded next to the rest of the web page.
For you as a publisher, this means that your ads don’t influence the loading time of the rest of the web page.
Or, in a automotive manner, imagine a freeway. Every few milliseconds a new race begins, and the entire traffic – Ferraris, trucks and Wartburgs – go into overdrive to get to the finishing line as fast as possible. However, all vehicles being not equally fast, traffic clogs up – and sometimes never arrive.
Enter: Friendly IFrames – express lane of your dreams. Not only does it allow custom cars – ads – to go independently to the finishing line. It also allows cars to go back and forth if they need to.
All in all, with Friendly IFrames you get rushhour traffic carried through at warp speed.
As you probably already know, no other factor influences bounce rates and – and equally important, Google rankings – like loading time.
In other words, Friendly IFrames protects your online business from poor performing 3rd party partners and iffy creatives, is endorsed by IAB as best practice – and as a whole one of those few features that kicks ass from under the hood.
With a 29.5% ad spend on digital platforms in 2010* and an expected 32.2% in 2012, Danish advertisers lead the way in allocating ad budgets to the web. Clearly, advertisers dig digital – but at the same time demand transparency and automated ad solutions. Publisher, you better bring your a-game.
Gone are the days of happy-go-easy digital advertising. Nowadays, advertisers expect far more from their publishers and agencies than simply a ROI-percentage.
Stressed Out Advertisers Demand Feature-rich Automated Ad Systems
In this economy, every marketing department needs to justify its budgets. And perhaps this is the simple most influential fact why budgets are moving online.
Simply because modern ad technology guarantees you far better control and optimization possibilities – e.g. the ‘In-Screen Measurements’-feature, that makes publishers able to prove to advertisers and agencies if the banner in fact has been viewed or not – and for how long. Imagine that happening offline.
The Safety Net
The frightening fact is that when the dust settles post-recession, the only publishers and advertisers left standing are the ones that were capable of justifying their ad spend. What it also means is that advertisers are increasingly cutting down on risks. No more ballpark figures. Instead they’re looking for publishers that provide safety.
As a publisher you will meet increasing demands for more and more data, more and more accurate data – and perhaps even more and more individual campaign data.
Of course, this leads the industry one way: towards feature-rich automated systems that guarantee data transparency. No advertiser or agency will hold the manpower to constantly keep every campaign optimized. Hence, the systems are taking over. Ad Spend on the web will, in a very symbolic way, function as advertising’s safety net.
And, with Denmark currently acting as ad spend world champ, the feature-evolution undoubtedly will happen here shortly.
So, Digital Ad Spend Explosion: a Blip or the Future?
Absolutely not a blip. Publisher, get ready for the ad automation demands coming from some very stressed out advertisers and agencies. Digital ad spending will accelerate. The recession only ignites the feature evolution.
Youtube
Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook