'Net Features : 72909

Video Advertising & Affiliate Network AffiliatePly

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Recent research from Doubleclick confirmed that rich media ad formats that contain video "overwhelmingly" outperform other types of creative media ad and converts better than banners in terms of click through rate (CTR) and engagement. That’s almost enough to make you break out the video camera – am I right?

PLYmedia, a company providing contextual overlays on top of online video has launched AffiliatePLY, a performance based affiliate network that uses video instead of banners. The platform is unique in that it is a CPA (cost per action – leads and sales, not impressions) network.

The action based video affiliate network provides publishers and advertisers with what is perhaps the first legitimate opportunity to converge viewer interest with profitable content. According to statistics from Forrester, online video ads greatly increase click through rates as users are attracted to more interactive content. Advertisers, empowered by video's influence, upload their video ads to the network, attracting online publishers searching for new content and media of interest to embed their videos onto their website.

AffiliatePLY further enables advertisers to fully optimize the video screen by adding layers of engaging information such as URL links to the landing page and interactive content, leading to profitable viewer activity. PLYmedia’s overlaying technologies stimulate user interaction and increase CTR (click-through rates) with viral videos, news feeds, and tutorials used as promotional information.

“AffiliatePLY’s model will trigger overwhelming revenues, confirming recent research revealing online video to be the most effective platform to attract audiences. PLYmedia’s understanding of the inner workings of online video and user behavior has served as the catalyst that led us to explore and to create this novel network,” explains Avishay Raviv, AffiliatePLY Manager.

Ad Pricing Increases in 2009: Seasonal Adjustment or Recession Ending?

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:38:00 GMT

Ad revenue optimization technology provider Pubmatic released a report which revealed that ad pricing levels have increased 35% since the start of 2009.

Pricing for ad inventory sold through indirect channels such as ad networks and ad exchanges has steadily increased every month, gaining 47% since the end of January (see chart below). It’s difficult to determine the actual cause of the increase in ad pricing. While it might be a seasonal adjustment as retailers gear up after their 2008 holiday and for 2009 campaigns, it might also signal that ad spending is getting a bit of a boost as the recession nears its end.

“Although ad pricing has not returned to year-ago levels, the industry has gone up consistently every month since January 2009. The worst may be behind us,” said Rajeev Goel, PubMatic Co-Founder and CEO. “There is more hope that Fall online ad spending may reach near-normal levels.”

Microsoft-Yahoo Search/Ad Pact: Alternative to Google

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:50:00 GMT

Microsoft and Yahoo have finally forged an alliance after months/years of on and off negotiations. Microsoft will power Yahoo’s search tool while Yahoo! will become the exclusive sales force for both firms premium search advertisers.

The terms of the deal are for 10 years. Microsoft will be licensing Yahoo's core search technologies, and Microsoft's Bing will become the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo sites. Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.

Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs at an initial rate of 88% of search revenue generated on Yahoo sites for the first five years. Yahoo sees the deal lifting annual operating income by around $500 million and capital expenditure savings of $200 million. Yahoo sees an annual operating cash flow benefit of $275 million.

"This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development," said Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. "Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities, and mobile experiences."

This alliance presents a more significant threat to Google by offering a legitimate, viable alternative to advertisers by combining Yahoo! and Microsoft search marketplaces so that, according to the release “advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70 percent of all search.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the agreement will provide Microsoft's Bing with the scale necessary to “more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.”

"Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company," said Ballmer. "Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we've created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there's so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search."

Twitter: Advertisers Show little Confidence

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:16:00 GMT

A recent Harris poll reveals some interesting opinions on Twitter (access here in PDF) - most notably that just 8% of advertisers say Twitter is "very effective" for promoting products and ideas.

Just under half of advertisers (45%) say that Twitter is something in its infancy and its use will grow exponentially over the next few years, while one in five (21%) believe Twitter will not move into the mainstream and is something mostly young people and the media will use. Just under one in five advertisers (17%) believe Twitter is already over and it’s time to find the next best thing while 17% of advertisers say they don’t know enough about Twitter to have an opinion on it.

Among consumers it is a different story altogether, as over two-thirds (69%) say they do not know enough about Twitter to have an opinion about it. Just over one in ten say it is just at its infancy (12%), 12% also say it is just something that young people and the media will use and 8% of consumers say it is already over and it’s time to find the next best thing.

What's most notable however is that just 8% of advertisers say Twitter is "very effective" for promoting products and ideas - that's not good. While half (50%) say it is "somewhat effective, 34% of advertisers say it is not that effective and 8% believe it is not at all effective for promoting products and ideas.

Can it get any worse for TWitter? Not much in my opinion.
Wait - did you hear that? Wasn't that the fail whale jumping over the shark?

DC Storm; More PPC Tracking for Affiliates

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:46:00 GMT

A new tool promising to help affiliates track and optimize PPC campaigns has launched. DC Storm, a web analytics, tracking and PPC optimization provider calls the service Storm for Affiliates(tm).

The solution enables affiliates to link commission generated through their programs on affiliate networks with money spent on pay-per-click engines such as Google, Yahoo, and others. Sound familiar? It is – in fact, we’ve covered a few of these software solutions catering exclusively to affiliates in Affmeter and StatsJunky.

How it works (according to the release): Storm for Affiliates achieves this (hyper level of tracking) by using enhanced StormAnalytics™ tracking integrated with sales data imports from all of the major affiliate networks APIs and click and spend data from the PPC search engines API’s. This means that data is collected, matched and aggregated automatically including any changes that are made to the status of a sale by the affiliate network.

Seth Richardson, CEO of DC Storm, said: “Affiliates are big PPC spenders however tracking commissions back to keywords and search terms that generated those sales has always been a challenge for affiliates. Storm for Affiliates takes the leg work out of tracking and reporting and presents the data within DC Storm’s market leading digital marketing platform StormIQ™. Affiliates are then able to utilise our robust reporting and dashboarding technologies as well as our PPC Optimisation technology StormOptimsier™ to help drive more revenue.”

DIY PR – MatchPoint 1.5

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:15:00 GMT

Everybody knows that the best way to take your business (whether it is web-based or brick and mortar) to the next level is to secure media attention. A common way to do that of course is to develop outreach programs through the practice of public relations.

Finding those interested in your “story” however is a time consuming and often exceedingly frustrating task. The situation is made worse of course because of the often strained relationships between media and PR professionals that have developed over the years. For example, quite a bit of attention was paid to the blacklist of 328 PR professionals that was put forth by Wired’s Chris Anderson.

MatchPoint, an application that allows PR pros to identify appropriate reporters and bloggers for a specific story might be just what you need if you want some do it yourself public relations and avoid the glares of those lofty journalists. Yes! Technology to the rescue – take that Chris Anderson.

The service has added more information on the journalists and bloggers within its database for version 1.5. As of today (July 28th, 2009) over 196,000 journalist listings were included. What will make you pay attention (or should) about MatchPoint is that it really is a integrated platform for DIY PR. The system enables user to engage media folks with personalized messages (like pitch notes) or send full-on multi-media press packs. Users can even monitor those they find that might be interested in covering their businesses by including notes on activity. Plus, new to MatchPoint v1.5 is the ability for journalists to evaluate the usefulness of story pitches and “rank” the sender.

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