Were one a
performance-based advertiser, this year’s show would be the
place to go in order to look for more distribution. What
isn’t obvious for a performance-based advertiser though is
how these companies could help them. This understanding
requires a greater level of understanding. This article
takes the perspective of one such company and their search
for increased reach.
The not
so hypothetical company in this example runs millions of pop
impressions daily across several ad networks. They came to
Ad Tech looking to understand what other avenues existed.
Thus far, their marketing consists of using a few brokers to
do run of network pop buys and a few of the smaller ad
networks that accept CPA. For them, the show offers a chance
to meet many new companies that they might have only heard
about. Their challenge is in understanding what each company
does and how they might get to work together.
The first
option available to them is the major ad networks. Companies
like Fastclick and TMP offer services that they understand.
The same holds true for another of the big sponsors, Casale
Media. They would also talk to Advertising.com, Tribal
Fusion, Blue Lithium, and Burst. They might also try
AJInteractive as the media division of Ask.com can leverage
their buying arm formerly known as Max Online. Not through
yet, this company would find Specific Media, ICMediadirect,
Valueclick, Intermix Network, Premium Network, Ampira Media,
and Undertone also offering pop-unders.
Having
tried pops from the ad networks and site rep firms from the
previous example, they could also tap into companies
offering contextual inventory from desktop applications.
These companies include the perennial badge sponsor Claria
along with the other well-known players WhenU, Hotbar,
Metrics Direct, eZula, and Cydoor. Several other, perhaps
lesser known companies, also offering contextual desktop
application ads include Findology, TargetSaver, eXact
Advertising AdMedian. Similarly, several companies
specialize in media buying on these and other desktop
applications. Those exhibiting were Conducive, Contextualnet,
Soho Digital, and Media Whiz.
Yet
another option open to this software advertiser would be the
performance-based affiliate networks – those that allow
their publishers to login and choose the ad they wish to run
across a variety of ad sizes and formats. In this category,
one finds Adteractive, Advertising.com, AzoogleAds,
WebClients, Commission Junction, AdDrive, Vendare’s
eMarketMakers, Media Whiz’s ROWise, Primary Ads, Precision
Play Media, Intermix’s Perfromance Marketing Group,
Metareward, and the YFDirect Trust Network.
Chances
are that our advertiser has heard of co-registration but
doesn’t know what or who offers it. To many single channel
advertisers, co-registration implies a user checking a box
on a site and then that advertiser receiving the email
address of the users. Today, this method of co-registration does
exist, but it pales in volume and overall conversion rates
when compared to the more dynamic offerings. In the dynamic
context, a user taking part in a registration path would
indicate a desire to learn more about a particular product
of service; upon doing so, the page being viewed would
expand to contain a modified landing page of the advertiser.
These pages could even be secure and collect credit card
information. Our advertiser, without having talked to
someone well versed in the space, wouldn’t know such an
option exists or the volume it can generate when done well.
Those exhibitors offering distribution in this form of
co-registration are Adteractive, AzoogleAds, PrimeQ,
Advertising.com, WebClients, Focalex, Ampire Media, and
Silver Carrot.
The final
channel available to our advertiser would be the
incentivized model. In this case, users would purchase their
software as part of their earning an unrelated reward.
Credit card companies have long used this approach to get
new, approved cardholders. End users looking to obtain their
free gift cards and iPods need to earn them by converting on
the available advertisers. Our software maker would find
this an option for obtaining higher volume, potentially
lower, long-term quality customers. Those exhibiting with
solutions in this channel include Adteractive, AzoogleAds,
Netblue, AdDrive, and Metareward.
While not meant to read like a
list of the exhibitors, what the article wanted to show was
the rather remarkable variety of options and companies our
advertiser could turn to while at Ad Tech. As mentioned
before, the great thing about this show was the comfort level a
performance-based advertiser would feel when walking the
floor and the optimism that this show had something to offer
them beyond technology solutions.
Jay Weintraub
