Doesn’t seem fair for an advertiser to pay for an ad that wasn't viewable, now does it?

For as long as I’ve been in the business of planning and purchasing digital media, we have been buying display ads by impressions served. That means that when the server serving up the banner ad to the site records that an impression has been served, it is counted as an impression. When you buy display ads, oftentimes you pay by impression, and part of my job is to ensure my client’s ad has received the number of impressions I have purchased.Read full post...

Before long, everyone will own a tablet. This means new opportunities as well as new challenges for marketers.

I’m not an early adopter. I let other folks experience first-generation electronics to pave the way for me. I wait to hear a little more, watch the products and read reviews to make completely sure of any new purchase.

But this past Christmas, I was starting to feel left behind. Young children were walking around with iPads. So we added not one, but two tablets to the Qualls household. And we’re not alone; lower-priced tablets further fueled tablet adoption at the end of 2012. More than half of the students in my daughter’s first-grade class received a tablet for Christmas.Read full post...

You have a paid search engine campaign for your client right? Of course you do. It’s 2012 — how could your client not be present in paid search results?

More and more often, online advertising has come to mean search engine advertising or, more simply, paid text ads that appear in search results. While this has become a staple of online paid media, few companies understand how to write effective text ads. What’s an effective ad? An ideal text ad appears first or second in paid search results and yields a click-through rate ranging from 0.80% to 2.0%.Read full post...

How much do online marketers really know about you?

“How did Facebook advertisers know I think James Franco is hot?”

Have you ever wondered if Google employees read your email? You’re not alone. Audience targeting in online advertising may seem creepy when you don’t understand how it works. And it’s even more threatening when the investigation of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! by data-protection agencies across the world is all over the headlines.Read full post...

A great alternative for out-of-home spending.

According to Media Life, digital out-of-home spending will leap 13.2% from 2008 to 2013 — total spending will reach $4.53 billion, up from $2.6 billion this year. Video ad networks (screens in office buildings, health clubs, fast food chains and gas stations) will make up the largest portion, but the fastest growth in the category will come from digital billboards.

Digital billboards are currently available in the Philadelphia market on the I-95 corridor, but there’s also good news for our Delaware-based clients: The first digital billboard in Delaware will launch mid-September on I-95 near Newark. Digital billboards allow for unlimited design executions with no associated production costs and can be purchased on a weekly, every-four-week or annual basis. Yet another outlet to keep in mind as we search for the most effective ways to get our message out there.

Advertising on the internet

Have you seen “Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet” by Eric Clemons?

Reads partially like another “pay for content” scheme. But it is totally true that most premium (and non-premium) content creators cannot sustain their business models based on their current advertising model.

NYTimes.com could not support its robust site and content without the proceeds from its print counterpart, leading to a vicious cycle of reduced content value as print ad revenue decreases.Read full post...