'Net Features : ad networks

The Highest Quality Ads are Directly Purchased

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:45:00 GMT

For the first time ever, the digital media advertising intelligence provider Integral Ad Science’s “Semiannual Review” will include insights from the company’s proprietary TRAQ score, which provides a single holistic metric that helps buyers and sellers determine the overall quality of each one of their ad placements, and particularly how this impacts consumer engagement.

The review, which provides key discoveries on “media quality themes across the digital advertising industry,” analyzes billions of ads and Web pages every day, and the new TRAQ score is based on various environmental and exposure factors, such as brand safety, page content and structure, viewability and share of view, ad clutter, ad collisions and the likelihood of fraudulent or suspicious activity.

According to the report released by Integral Ad Science, ad placements that were purchased directly from publishers had the highest average TRAQ score with 720 out of 1000. Following those placements were advertisements bought through ad networks (with an average TRAQ score of 593), hybrids (587) and ad exchanges (560), and all of these values fall within the company’s “satisfactory” range. Higher scores suggest better performances for both direct response and brand advertisers.

Integral Ad Science’s review also looked at different verticals, where “shopping” had an almost perfect TRAQ score of 980. It also revealed that around 20 percent of all ad impressions are suspicious of being fraudulent, and when looking only at advertisements from ad exchanges, that number increases to 30 percent. Moreover, the number of ads viewed on mobile and tablet devices have nearly double, and nearly 20 percent of ads now collide with an advertisement from the same campaign. Finally, the Semiannual Review said that viewability had remained (mostly) consistent since the last report, with an average of 44 percent of ads staying in view for at least one second across channels, while less than 20 percent remain in view for 15 seconds or longer.

The Video Race: Who’s Winning?

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:36:00 GMT

Comscore today released data from its Video Metrix service showing that U.S. Internet users watched an average of 13.6 hours of online video content in February 2011, engaging in more than 5.0 billion viewing sessions.

As you might imagine, when it comes to the top online video properties by video content views, the usual suspects appear. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in February with 141.1 million unique viewers. Microsoft Sites captured the #2 ranking (up from #7) with 48.8 million viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 46.7 million viewers. Facebook.com came in fourth with nearly 46.7 million viewers, while VEVO ranked fifth with 45.9 million viewers. Google Sites had the highest number of viewing sessions with 1.8 billion, and average time spent per viewer at 262 minutes, or 4.4 hours.

For those struggling with video content, video advertising is coming on strong. In fact, Video ads accounted for 12.4 percent of all videos viewed and 1.2 percent of all minutes spent viewing video online.

According to Comscore, Americans viewed 3.8 billion video ads in February. Hulu generated the highest number of video ad impressions at more than 1.1 billion. Tremor Media Video Network ranked second overall (and highest among video ad networks) with 548.3 million ad views, followed by ADAP.TV (396 million) and SpotXchange Video Ad Network (343 million). Time spent watching videos ads totaled 1.7 billion minutes during the month, with Hulu delivering the highest duration of video ads at 454 million minutes. Video ads reached 42 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 30 times during the month. Hulu also delivered the highest frequency of video ads to its viewers with an average of 48 over the course of the month.

Real-time Bidding Makes an Impression

Linc Wonham — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:30:00 GMT

Real-time bidding was one of several emerging technologies in online advertising last year that we believed would drive the resurgence of display in 2011. Based on the most recent data from advertisers and agencies that have already used the functionality, it is well on its way to becoming one of the year’s biggest trends.

Google and DIGIDAY conducted a survey of more than 300 online advertising professionals in February, and more than 90 percent of those who have used real-time bidding said they will continue to spend at least some budget on the functionality this year. Almost half (47 percent) said that real-time bidding was the most satisfactory method for buying online display ads, whether through a demand-side platform, ad exchange or network.

In real-time bidding, advertisers make bids on impressions based on the website, the placement of the ad, the number of impressions desired and any data for use in retargeting and other segmentation. The sellers then auction off the ads in real time based on the bids and the users who are actually visiting the site at that time.

This method holds a lot of value for advertisers and agencies because they are purchasing highly targeted audiences at costs they can control. For publishers and ad networks, the biggest advantage is that they can sell their inventories quickly and seamlessly to the highest bidders, often at a premium.

But real-time bidding still has a long way to go before it reaches the mainstream. There is definitely still an unfamiliar aura about it and only 4 percent of online advertising was bought in real time in 2010. That spending is due to increase by 133 percent in 2011, according to Forrester, as advertisers continue to invest more in display, video and rich media.

Death of the Ad Network?

Mike Phillips — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:45:00 GMT

Add The New York Times Co., Hearst, Tribune and Gannett to the list of big publishers looking to push ad networks to the fringe. Over the weekend, these companies announced they will eschew the big ad networks and instead rely on their own, private system to serve targeted online advertising. The hope, of course, is to ultimately drive up ad rates. This announcement comes right after CBS Interactive, Forbes and Weather.com announced a similar private network.

It is believed that these companies and their respective online properties will be able to better serve their advertisers and save a step in the process. Instead of advertisers bidding on ad space based on targeted parameters - regardless of the website on which the ads will appear - the same can now be done but with respect for the individual website or even down to the article level. This also gives the publishers much more control over the advertisers' data.

It's interesting to note that this announcement comes on the heels of Google's latest algorithm update, dubbed "Farmer", which seeks to downgrade low-quality websites in search results. The focus, then, is on quality content - something The New York Times and the others can all but guarantee to prospective advertisers. Ad networks have a much more difficult time making such promises.

Quality Assurance on Networks and Exchanges (IAB Guidelines)

Administrator — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:46:00 GMT

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today released the finalized “Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines,” a document that standardizes the information networks and exchanges provide to advertisers, enhances buyer control over the placement and context of advertising, and builds brand safety.

The guidelines, should they be adopted, are quite far reaching - allowing for transparentcy of inventory souces, publisher relationsjps, content tupes and ad placement details. The guidelines also provide universally define content categories for advertisers and require that networks and exchanges rate content for audience segments.

The “Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines” can be found on the IAB website.

“The feedback we received from marketers, agencies and publishers confirms that the guidelines are truly game-changing,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP, Industry Services, IAB. “The definitions, standards and practices covered by ‘Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines’ afford advertisers the highest level of brand safety when they buy on networks and exchanges.”

Content Advertising Storms Back

Mike Phillips — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:20:00 GMT

A survey by research firm Advertiser Perceptions (via Ad Age) shows that online advertisers are shifting away from ad networks and moving back to advertising on content sites directly. More than half (52 percent) of agencies and marketers surveyed plan to spend more on content sites this year. Just 35 percent said they would increase spending on ad networks.

"In the last two years ad networks have taken advantage of the recession, but what's missing from that is why advertisers advertise in the first place -- it's all about brand," said Randy Cohen, president of Advertiser Perceptions. "Content sites may not have efficiencies, but they have more context and more relevance to brands. There's a changing ecosystem for online display advertising."

A shift like this could be great news for publishers. They get the advantage of direct relationships with advertisers for more long-term business partnerhsips, and can essentially cut out another middle man. That's good for revenue.

One thing is for certain: If you plan on appealing to advertisers directly, you will need a robust media kit - including detailed analytics, demographics of your users, ad rates and any other information that will make your site more appealing than the competition. For a company to place ads directly with your website they will want to know as much as possible about your audience and feel secure that your audience feels a direct connection with your website. Also, expect to field questions about your reach outside your website, such as social media influence and statistics.

Top Ad Networks December 2009 - Comscore

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:18:00 GMT

Comscore released a list of the top 15 advertising networks based on their reach among U.S. internet users in December 2009.

The ranking showed that AOL Advertising remains the top ad network, reaching 187 million U.S. Internet users, or 91 percent of the total audience, followed by Yahoo! Network (180.9 million) and Google Ad Network (178.1 million). The fastest growing ad network by audience reach among the top 15 was Microsoft Media Network U.S., which grew 31 percent versus year ago, followed by Collective Network (up 22 percent) and Audience Science (up 16 percent).

“Ad networks continue to be a powerful mechanism for delivering a large audience online, with eight different networks reaching at least 75 percent of the entire U.S. online population,” said comScore senior vice president Jeff Hackett. “Increasingly, however, ad networks are improving their capability for reaching more targeted audiences as well, which delivers enhanced value to advertisers and helps sustain higher CPMs for the channel. 2010 should bring us continued innovation and performance from this growing online sector.

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