There are two sides of the industry, the advertisers and the publishers. The publishers are the web sites which provide the content which attracts the viewers. This is the platform on which viewers will potentially view both the content and the advertisement. The advertisers are the ones who have a product or message to market and promote to the viewing audience.
Advertising Networks: The publishers can sell ads to advertisers or use an ad broker which goes out and sells ads to be hosted on an affiliate publishers web site.
Advertising revenue models:
- CPM: Cost Per Mille (Latin for thousand). The advertiser pays an unit price per thousand impressions (viewings).
- CPC: Cost Per Click. The advertiser pays for every click a viewer makes on the advertisement. The ad typically links to the advertiser's web site.
- CPA: Cost Per Acquisition. The advertiser only pays when a click on an ad converts to a purchase or completes a transaction. Also can mean Cost Per Action where the action can be a customer phone call.
- eCPM: Equivalent CPM. This allows for a blend of CPM, CPC and even CPA to be normalized into an equivalent measurement of CPM. This assumes a formula for finding a CPM value for a single click to equate CPM and CPC.
- CPL: Cost Per Lead. The lead can be a form filled out by a user to request more information or a request for a call from a sales representative.
- CPS: Cost Per Sale. Also known as PPS (Pay Per Sale), or CPO (Cost Per Order).
- CPV: Cost Per-Click2Play View. Advertiser is charged only when consumers actively elect to watch the video.
- CPCV: Cost Per Completed View. Advertiser is charged only when consumers watch 80% or more of the video.
The Ad Networks are the entities who provide a mechanism to post advertisements on websites provided by the web publishers. Advertising Networks feed ads from their ad servers to be posted on the website, provide statistics about the ad feeds and send out a check to the web site publisher. Typically ad networks provide javascript which is the publisher posts on the web page which makes a request to the ad server for the ad which is displayed on the web page in the browser.
List of advertising Networks:
Network | Description and Link |
---|---|
24-7 Real Media: Geographic, behavioral, contextual, demographic, daypart, technographic and search targeting and retargeting. Lifecycle ad management and targeting. Supports all digital formats. URL: http://www.247realMedia.com | |
Ad Bid Central: Affiliated with 24-7 Real Media and ComScore networks for metrics. URL: http://www.AdBidCentral.com | |
Ad Blade: Targeted ads and uses a proprietary algorithm to maximize your ROI. URL: http://www.AdBlade.com/ | |
Adroit Digital: Based on MediaMath TerminalOne service platform. URL: http://www.adroitdigital.com/ | |
AdFunky: Latin America and South America. URL: http://www.AdFunky.com | |
AdGroups: Targeted towards ethnic groups: African-Americans, Hispanic, Asian American. URL: http://www.AdGroups.com | |
AdKnowledge: Utilizes powerful predictive technology to connect advertisers with consumers across multiple channels, including email, search, domain, and social networks. URL: http://www.AdKnowledge.com | |
AdManage: Ad solutions include pay per click search (PPC) and cost per click (CPC) banners, in text ads, xml feeds, display ads, cost per view (CPV,PPV) interstitials and domain parking. URL: http://www.AdManage.com | |
AdMarketplace: Use of roll over Ad tag clouds [demo]. PPC. Ad network and exchange. XML feeds. URL: http://www.AdMarketplace.com | |
AdMaxNetwork: Southeast Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. URL: http://www.AdMaxNetwork.com | |
AdMeld: Ad network and RTB. Hosts private exchanges for publishers. New York, London, Berlin, Toronto URL: http://www.AdMeld.com | |
AdOptim: Customized advertising solutions and formats needed to maximize site revenue through targeted advertising inventory and innovative technology. Display CPA CPL CPM campaigns, PPC network, multiple search tools adapted to all kind of content. AdOptim is fully ready to monetize an International Audience. Ad network, XML feeds. URL: http://www.AdOptim.com | |
AdParlor: Manage advertising on Facebook Ads (right-hand-column) for Facebook apps and games. URL: http://www.AdParlor.com | |
AdSafe Media: Online brand protection. Marketers' advertising only appears on sites with content deemed by the marketer to be consistent with brand image and corporate philosophy. Provides third-party content rating and certification platform. Ad Network, Ad Exchange, Creative agency. URL: http://www.AdSafeMedia.com | |
AdTech: Division of Advertising.com headquartered in Frankfurt Germany. Manage, report and optimize all interactive media campaigns. Adserving for publishers and ad networks. Demographic targeting. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, London, Paris, Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Cape Town, Sydney URL: http://www.AdTech.com | |
AdTegrity: Daily Hands on and Automated Optimization. Grand Rapids, MI URL: http://www.AdTegrity.com | |
Advertise.com: Ad solutions include PPC Search, CPC banners, Mobile & Remarketing. Publisher solutions include InText ads, xml feeds, display ads, bounce monetization and email offers. Ad network. URL: http://www.Advertise.com | |
Advertising.com: Platform-A = AOL content + Advertising.com ad network + TACODA targeting analytics. Demographic, channel, Standard Industry Classification (SIC) IP address matching, psychographic, dayparting, zip code and geographic targeting. URL: http://www.Advertising.com | |
AdXDirect: Geo-targeting, time-targeting, frequency capping. CPM/CPC/CPL/CPA/CPV URL: http://www.AdXDirect.com | |
Affinity: CPC/CPA contextual advertising. Ad network, ad exchange, ad serving. Chicago, India, ... worldwide. URL: http://www.Affinity.com | |
Aim4Media: Uses demographics to target ads (sports, entertainment and gaming arenas, as well as men’s interests, women’s interests, teenage, leisure, music, hobbies, and general news and media). Started with sports niche. International customer base. Netherlands URL: http://www.Aim4Media.com | |
Alcance Media Group: Focused on Latino/Hispanic Market. San Francisco, CA URL: http://www.AlcanceMG.com | |
Alphabird: Works with targeted publishers and application developers to place content editorially in-page. Video and print. Alphabird can also manage in-banner, rich media, and pre-roll media buys. Video CPV and CPCV ads. San Francisco, CA URL: http://www.Alphabird.com | |
Atlas Solutions: Microsoft Advertising. Seattle WA, San Francisco CA, New York, Raleigh, London, Paris, Hamburg, Milan, Australia, Tokyo URL: http://www.AtlasSolutions.com | |
Banner Connect: Global (European, Arabic) Located in the Netherlands. URL: http://www.BannerConnect.net | |
Batanga Network: US Hispanic. URL: http://www.BatangaNetwork.com | |
Behave Media: CPA, CPL, CPC campaigns. Optimization on location, category. Search, Social, Contextual, Digital and Mobile solutions. URL: http://www.BehaveMedia.com | |
Bidvertiser Ad Network: Site targeted for relevancy. Ads for eBay Sales. XML feeds for CPC text ads. URL: http://www.Bidvertiser.com | |
Boot Camp Media: CPM, CPC or CPA. Real time bidding. Partnered with the Eq network. Targeted advertising. 100% fill rates. Toronto based URL: http://www.BootCampMedia.com | |
Brand Reach: Internet Ad Consulting company. They help each client formulate a strategy and then execute this strategy. Ad Network, ad exchange, affiliate marketing. URL: http://www.BrandReach.com | |
Bravenet Media: XML PPC feeds. RedVase ad server. British Columbia Canada. URL: http://www.BravenetMedia.com | |
Bright Roll: Video ad network. Minimum publisher requirements: 500,000 page views/month and 5,000,000 video views a month. URL: http://www.BrightRoll.com | |
Broadstreet Interactive: Media buying, ad serving, PR, paid search. Austin TX URL: http://www.BroadstreetInteractive.com | |
Buy dot At: . Global affiliate marketing. UK URL: http://www.Buy.at | |
Casale Media: Focus on brand safety, premium media, and smart technology solutions. We serve the needs of top-rated publishers, Fortune 500 brands, and leading media agencies. Our business is selling intelligently optimized brand name display inventory within our highly controlled, short tail environment. Categorized ad channels for targeted ads. Ad network. Toronto Canada URL: http://www.CasaleMedia.com | |
Clickbooth: CPA Affiliate network. Ad network, ad exchange. URL: http://www.Clickbooth.com | |
Cox Digital Solutions: Ad network, direct sales, CPM, RTB, sponsored links. South San Francisco CA URL: http://www.Coxdigitalsolutions.com | |
CPX Interactive: New York US, Milano Italy, Madrid Spain, Istanbul Turkey, Hamburg Germany Built upon the Right Media/Yahoo RMX platform URL: http://www.CPXinteractive.com | |
Fox Networks: US, Argentina, China, France, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Japan, ... URL: http://www.FoxNetworks.com | |
Google Adsense, DoubleClick: auction leads to highest revenue US URL: http://www.Google.com, http://www.Google.com/doubleclick/ | |
GumGum In-image ad network. Image analysis pairs advertisements with contextually relevant images. URL: http://www.GumGum.com | |
LookSmart: PPC search advertising network. Serves keyword-based text ads on their targeted network of publisher sites. XML feeds. URL: http://www.LookSmart.com | |
Media Served: Global ad network based in London. CPM/CPC ads URL: http://MediaServed.com | |
Media Shakers: Global ad network URL: http://MediaShakers.com | |
Media.net: (Yahoo/Bing network) Premium contextual advertising company that dynamically identifies and delivers the most relevant and engaging ads related to a web page. Blend contextual analysis with behavior data, audience profiling and past performance cues to substantially enhance value for both web publishers and advertisers. eCPM Austin TX, Dubai, Mumbai India, Bangalore India, Los Angeles CA URL: http://Media.net | |
Microsoft Ad Center: Search advertising US URL: http://AdCenter.Microsoft.com | |
Nami Media: Ties into Yahoo Right Media exchange. An ad network which also offers a platform on which other networks can build. CPC, CPA. HTML and XML feeds. Text and image ads. Venice Beach CA US URL: http://NamiMedia.com | |
Newspaper National Network (NNNLP): Owned by a consortium of newspapers to server newspapers and their websites. Hyperlocal, contextual and behavioral targeting. URL: http://www.NNNLP.com | |
OpenX: Open Source ad server, ad network and optimization Los Angles US URL: http://www.OpenX.com | |
Pulse360: Performance based advertising. CPC, CPA, CPL, CPS, & CPM URL: http://www.Pulse360.com | |
Relevad: Semantic web platform and ad exchange company. Relevad provides a wide range of hosted web services for publishers, ad network operators, domain parkers and content aggregators. Semantic Ad Exchange, Ad network and Ad serving URL: http://www.Relevad.com | |
Rocket Fuel: Data driven technology applied to ad serving. Ad network, Ad exchange, demographic and behavioral targeting URL: http://www.rokk3rfuel.com | |
The Trade Desk: Data-driven marketing suite that offers marketers a single place to buy all forms of online media. Ad network, Ad Exchange. XML feeds to exchanges. Ventura CA URL: http://www.TheTradeDesk.com | |
Tribal Fusion: reliable and pay regularly Emeryville CA, US URL: http://www.TribalFusion.com | |
Undertone Networks: Supports Video and rich media as well as traditional web. URL: http://www.Undertone.com | |
Value Click: Westlake Village CA, US URL: http://www.ValueClick.com | |
W4: Publisher chooses CPA ad campaigns/affiliates which best fit their audience. Ad network and affiliate marketing. URL: http://www.w4.com | |
Yahoo Publishers Network: Sunnyvale CA, US URL: http://www.Yahoo.com | |
YUME Networks: Online video ad network. Support for targeted channels. Redwood City CA, London, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Santa Monica CA, Detroit, Chennai India, Paris URL: http://www.YUME.com |
Links:
The relationship can be as simple as a web publisher selling ad space to an advertiser (buyer - seller relationship) but more typically can be as complicated as a 6 or 7 tier hierarchy:
The Ad business layers:
- Advertiser (often hires an ad agency to manage the advertisement campaign and generate the artwork: the "Creative")
- DSP: Demand Side Platform - these are the brokers which have relationships with advertisers and ad agencies. The ad inventory bids for placement in the exchange.
Bidding - Ad Auction: the marketplace of ads and mediator between the DSP and SSP.
- DSP makes inquiry to SSP
- SSP states its availability to negotiate
- Rules set for the negotiation
- bids made/bid accepted
- Ad delivered by the DSP to the SSP for display
- SSP: Supply Side Platform - provides ad placement with a place to put the ad for the agreed price.
Auction - Ad Networks (typically the provider of ad server)
- Consumer: web page is loaded with javascript which requests the ad from the ad network. Consumer is expected to view or act upon the ad.
- Publisher: gets paid by ad network for each ad viewed or acted upon by the consumer
Transactions to feed an ad:
- The web browser makes a HTTP request to the Web publisher's server for a web page.
In return the browser receives an HTML page with javascript provided by the ad network. - The web browser processes the javascript making a request to the ad network's server
In return the browser receives an ad tag or javascript redirect request. - The web browser processes the redirect request to the SSP's server. The SSP negotiates a Real Time Bid (RTB) for an ad space with the DSP.
The DSP will lookup information about the user held by a 3rd party intelligence data mining company so the DSP can qualify the user, their interests and provide a relevant ad.
In return the browser receives a redirect request to the DSP. - The web browser makes a GET request for an ad with the DSP or an alternate ad server.
In return the browser receives an ad, typically in less than a second!
- Typically the SSP will negotiate bids with multiple DSPs to find the highest bidder.
- Data about the consumer is typically gathered by consumer intelligence agencies based on their web surfing habits across multiple web sites. The web surfer's IP address, cookies, web page content, viewing history, and location all factor into the ad delivered.
- Consumer intelligence data is fed to the ad network or to the DSP to help them determine which ad to feed.
- The final ad content delivery is often by a CDN (eg Akamai) to improve speed.
Ad exchanges, markets and auctions are web based platforms for buying and selling ad inventory and ad impressions. An ad exchange enables marketplace pricing by providing the technology platform (server, software and interfaces) to enable the management, billing and reporting of bid based transactions. They are yet another middleman in the business flow of web advertising for publishers.
List of advertising Exchanges:
Exchange | Description and Link |
---|---|
AdECN: (owned by Microsoft) Multiple audience targeting options: contextual, behavioral, and keyword. Fast. Provides an auction mechanism for per-impression based inventory. URL: http://www.AdEcn.com | |
AdMeta: Private Ad Exchange for direct sales ads. Gothenburg (HQ), New York, Ottawa URL: http://www.AdMeta.com | |
AdMob: (owned by Google) Mobile advertising. Mobile apps. URL: http://www.AdMob.com | |
Advertising.com: (owned by AOL) Display, text and video inventory. Also content production, ad optimization, bidding, etc. URL: http://www.Advertising.com | |
Double Click Adx: (owned by Google) Employs their DART for Advertisers platform. Provides automated ad management. URL: http://www.google.com/doubleclick/ | |
Media Math (Terminal One): Algorithmic bid optimization. Targeted ads: Geographic, demographic, biographic, etc URL: http://www.mediamath.com | |
Nexage: Real Time Bidding (RTB) Mobile Ad Exchange. Advertising for mobile applications. URL: http://www.Nexage.com | |
Opera Media Works: Open Mobile Exchange (Opera): Started by the Opera browser folks for mobile platforms. Mobile content and mobile apps. URL: http://operamediaworks.com/publishers/ad-serving-mediation | |
Right Media (Yahoo): Supports advertisers, publishers, demand side platforms, ad networks and exchanges. URL: http://www.RightMedia.com | |
Turn: Data driven digital advertising. Globally manage ad campaigns. Prominent DSP (Demand Side Platforms). Performs Real Time Bidding (RTB) Redwood City CA, New York City, Charlotte, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. URL: http://www.Turn.com |
DSP: Demand Side Platform
Organization | Description and Link |
---|---|
DataXu: Vendor neutral DSP. Uses and integrates with existing ad exchanges, analytics vendors and ad exchanges. Does not act as an ad network but exclusively as a DSP intermediary between the ad exchange and the ad network. Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, San Francisco, Cologne, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Sao Paulo, Warsaw URL: http://www.DataXu.com |
Typically the Ad Optimizers will aggregate ad feeds from multiple ad networks, determine which ads will pay more and feed ads from the network paying the most at that moment in time and for that demographic and location.
List of Advertising Optimizers:
Organization | Description and Link |
---|---|
Double Click: (owned by Google) Employs their DART for Advertisers platform. Provides automated ad management. Will feed highest paying ad from Doubleclick/Google inventory or from outside feed. URL: http://www.google.com/doubleclick/ | |
PubMatic: Ads from hundreds of ad networks and all major exchanges. Large pool of ad sources: Real Time Bidding (RTB), ad networks, and demand side platforms (DSPs). Will feed the publisher the most profitable option. A/B split testing, multi-variate optimization on text/background color optimization of text ads, and other ad factors. Payments are from your ad networks. Redwood City CA, Pune India, London, New York URL: http://www.PubMatic.com/ | |
Rubicon Project: manual tuning of ad feeds results in higher returns than a straight ad feed (higher than most networks but on par with Google AdSense). New traffic and income requirements lead to them dropping YoLinux.com. Rubicon now charges a fee of at least $2,000.00 per month so your ad income had better double that before even considering this service. Optimization includes demographic, geographic and content factors. Ad network payouts are consolidated into a single check. Playa Del Ray CA URL: http://www.RubiconProject.com |
Companies in this category are used to align ads with targeted consumers based on intelligence gathered
Organization | Description and Link |
---|---|
Acxiom: Acxiom supplies a variety of business intelligence solutions. The Acxiom Relevance-X product allows advertising platforms to achieve highly targeted engagements. Also provides identity management, database marketing and analytics services. URL: http://www.Acxiom.com | |
Bizo: Business audience marketing. Bizo gathers vast amounts of non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) information through its business publisher partners in the form of subscription information, business registrations, and other online data sources. URL: http://www.bizo.com | |
Bluekai: Data-centric approach to audience targeting. Aggregation of in-market shopping data. URL: http://www.Bluekai.com | |
eBureau: Provides predictive scoring and analytics solutions for marketing, credit risk, fraud prevention and collections applications to multichannel marketers, financial services companies, Internet retailers and agencies. URL: http://www.eBureau.com | |
Exelate: Data Management and Data Marketplace solutions for online advertising. URL: http://www.Exelate.com | |
AlmondNet: Partner with data-owners and media-owners to provide consumers with relevant, privacy-sensitive, Post-Search ads. URL: http://www.AlmondNet.com | |
GrapeShot: Spiders the web to provide search and keyword analytics to support advertisers to target the appropriate publishers. Data driven matching of ad to publisher. URL: http://www.Proximic.com | |
Planit: Search engine to support advertisers to find publishers with a desired audience. Data driven search engine for Programmatic Media. Service provided by Cross Pixel Media. URL: http://planit.crsspxl.com/ | |
Proximic: Provides real time analytics to support advertisers and publishers. Data driven matching of ad to publisher. URL: http://www.Proximic.com |
Demographic Data:
- Keywords and Phrases:
- UberSuggest.org
- WordHippo.com - synonyms or antonyms
- WordStream Keyword Tool
- Google AdWords Keyword Planner
- KeyWordSpy.com - discover a competitors keywords, spending on Adwords, profitable keyword + ad copy combinations
- SpyFu.com - find every keyword your competator has bought on Google Adwords, every organic rank, and every ad variation in the last 6 years. Find the most lucrative keywords.
- SemRush.com - find the keywords used on a competitor's site, CPC ad costs for those keywords and keyword Adwords history
- BidCop.com - Google Adwords PPC reporting. Finds best keywords to maximize traffic and conversions.
- Mergewords.com - avoid repetitive keyword combinations. Use for saving money on Google Adwords
- Ad Tests and Comparisons:
- AdComparator.com - simultaneously test up to 15 aspects of an ad campaign. Find highest performing headline, sub-headline, opening paragraph, price point, color scheme, etc. Uses Taguchi Methods for multivariate optimization.
- Advertising Calculators:
- ROI calculator (CPC) calculate the Return On Investment (ROI) for an ad
- ROI calculator (CPC)
- QWILR Ad Spend Calculator determine lifetime customer value (LTV), customer acquisition costs (CAC)
Methods:
- Embed Javascript directly in web page: Typically the ad network will supply the publisher with javascript which can be embedded in a web page to pull in an ad.
The javascript can have code to specify the ad size and format, ad campaign and even to scan the page for ad relevance to the topic of the web page.
- Embed Javascript in Server Side Include (SSI): In order to seamlessly change or alter an ad across all of the pages of an entire website, one can employ a framework for dynamic content (eg. Wordpress, drupal, etc) or use "server side includes".
-
SSI Ad Example: (web page HTML file snippet)
... ... <!--#include file="panel_160px.incl" --> ... ...
<!-- Campaign ABC Ad XYZ --> <script language="javascript"> ... ... body portion of javascript goes here ... ... </script> <noscript> ... (if appropriate) ... </noscript>
For more on Server Side Includes (SSI) see the Apache SSI documentation.
(BTW, this also is available for most other web servers including Microsoft IIS)
-
SSI Ad Example: (web page HTML file snippet)
- Embed Javascript in iframe: The javascript from the ad network may halt or slow down the page loading and hurt the online experience of the publisher's website.
To avoid this, HTML iframes can be used isolate the loading of the advertisement from the loading and display of the web page.
... ... <div id="banner-ad"> <iframe class="adframe" scrolling="no" allowTransparency="true" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" width="728" frameborder="0" height="90" scrolling="no" style='border:none;width:728;height:90;padding:0;' src="http://ads.megacorp.com/rotation_a/adx42.html"> </iframe> </div> ... ...
(HTML file to be displayed in iframe)<html> <head> <script language="JavaScript"> ... ... head portion of javascript goes here (if appropriate) ... ... </script> </head> <body marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 leftmargin=0 topmargin=0 style="background-color:transparent"> <script language="javascript"> ... ... body portion of javascript goes here ... ... </script> <noscript> ... (if appropriate) ... </noscript> </body> </html>
This may not be a good solution for Javascript which scans a page for contextual relevance as the Javascript access to the DOM (Document Object Model) may be limited to that in the iframe unless you expose the parent document with this Javascript:<html> <head> ... ... </head> <body marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 leftmargin=0 topmargin=0 style="background-color:transparent"> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- document=parent.document; //--></script> <script language="javascript"><-- google_ad_client = "pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"; ... ... ... //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> ... ... </body> </html>
Note the reference to document=parent.document; will make the parent document available to the advertiser's (Google) ad script. It will allow the ad's Javascript to access the entire web page content to be able to serve relevant ads.
- Web CMS Frameworks: Use of a web content Management System framework such as Wordpress or Drupal will allow for the management of advertising on your web site.
The support is built in so that you can control ads across the entire web site.
Note for Wordpress users: The iframe technique described above can be used only if you first install the iframe plugin. The raw html shown above is not used but an equivalent wiki markup syntax is used instead.
The "Ad Creative" is the ad displayed, the design, colors and wording used to seduce its target. There are standards which apply so that they will fit in the allocated space on the publishers display page, report statistics in a regular and consistent fashion and support various platforms. The Internet Advertising Board has set IAB Guidelines, Specifications and Best Practices for ad size, measurement and analytics, pop-ups, video, etc.
A migration of dynamic content from Flash to HTML5 has led to some new standards and templates:
Service | Description and Link |
---|---|
AdKeeper: Ads marked with a "K", when clicked, are kept for viewing later. URL: AdKeeper.com | |
AggregateKnowledge: Audience data management, Real-time processing and optimization, Analytics. Identifies the best audiences to reach, then syncs the audiences with your media. Dynamically assembles and serves the most relevant creative for each user. URL: AggregateKnowledge.com | |
Ad-juster: Software to automatically identify and report discrepancies. Aggregates data from 3rd party platforms (ad servers) for billing reconciliation and discrepancy management. URL: Ad-juster.com | |
DoubleVerify: Real time verification for DSP, exchanges, ad networks, publishers to monitor fraud and non-compliant publishers. Can tie in the ad networks server with DoubleVerify to rate a pass/fail on the publisher. Can block ads from appearing on domains and pages and in specific geographic locations in real time so that ads do not run next to inappropriate content or appear to the wrong audience. New York, Israel URL: DoubleVerify.com | |
Maxifier: Optimization of ad campaign performance using statistics. Improved delivery, yield, click through rates, revenue, margins, conversions, brand engagement, ... URL: Maxifier.com | |
Operative: End to end ad business operations outsourcing. Can provide sales, finance, billing, CRM, Inventory systems,... Providing solutions for Publishers (campaign management, ad serving, ad trafficking, technical consulting,..), ad networks and ad agencies. New York, London, Sao Paulo, Bangalore URL: Operative.com | |
Proformative Insights: Specialized marketing and lead generation to Corporate Finance, Accounting and Treasury executives across multiple platforms. Multi-media advertising and integrated marketing programs to a desirable, narrowly-targeted audience of decision makers. B2B URL: ProformativeInsights.com | |
RSG Media: Revenue optimization: delivery and yield optimization, deal management, ad sales pricing and rate forecasts, reserve. URL: RSGmedia.com |
- Ad Exchange: The technology platform which facilitates the bidding (on behalf of advertisers) and purchase of online publisher inventory from multiple ad networks.
- CDN: Content Delivery Network (eg Akamai) Ad media delivery with high speed servers located near the consumer.
- CTR: Click Through rate (number of ad clicks divided by the number of page views).
- DSP: Demand Side Platform - Typically the ad network placing the requests for ad from the ad exchange. The DSP manages multiple ad exchanges to provide the best ad to the publisher based on various performance indicators.
- OBA: Online Behavioral Advertising - deliver behaviorally targeted ads.
- Publisher Inventory: The web publisher's available unsold ad space for an advertisement. Often called simply "inventory".
- QPS: Queries Per Second - volume of display ads being offered via RTB
- RPM: Revenue for 1000 page impressions (page views).
- RTB: Real Time Bidding - Allows web publishers to access the ads of the highest bidder. Real time auction for ad placement. Publisher's ad space is bid on in real time and the highest bid is selected.
- SEM: Search Engine Marketing - ads placed on search engine results.
- SSP: Supply Side Platform - ad providers - the technology platform which represents the suppliers of online advertisements and tries to guarantee ad inventory.
Ad Servers:
- AdSapient - later became AdServerBeans then dissapeared.
- AdZerk - Ad servers for publishers and ad networks
- Revive - Was OpenX, Open Source
- Oasis - PHP/Apache/MySQL - Basic simple
- Max Media Manager - based on phpAdsNew
- VA Bennerator - PHP/Apache/MySQL and load balanced across numerous servers - No project page
- Apache mod_adbanners - for static web pages - No project page
- Appnexus - supports Real TimeBidding (RTB), open API
- Orbitsoft
- NginAd - php based ad server, Open Source
Real Time Bidding:
- Google Open Bidder: RTB framework
- RTBkit: RTB framework
Header Bidding:
- Prebid: Open Source javascript for publishers
- DMA: Direct Marketing Association - global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations. DMA advocates industry standards for responsible marketing – both online and offline.
- NetworkAdvertising.org: NAI - Network Advertising Initiative - association of advertising networks, data exchanges, and marketing analytics services providers to help safeguard online privacy.
- ANA: Association of National Advertisers - the advertising industry’s oldest trade association, founded on June 24, 1910 in Detroit, Michigan by 45 companies to safeguard and advance the interests of advertisers and consumers. Currently, the ANA leads the marketing community by providing its members insights, collaboration, and advocacy.
- Ad-ID: Advertising Identification and Management - Web-based system accessible 24/7 worldwide that generates a unique identifying code for each advertising asset, creating a capability to identify them across all media.
- AAAA: American Association of Advertising Agencies - 4A's
- IAB: Internet Advertising Board - corporate listings
- NAI: Network Advertising Initiative - online privacy
- Advertising Age
- AdAge Datacenter: Advertising database (subscribers only)
- AdWeek
- POP: Professional Online Publisher - newsletter
- Advertising Trade shows and conferences - YoLinux list
- AdExchanger.com - Online industry website journal
- Adotas - online newsletter
- Clickz - internet marketing
- ExchangeWire - Tracking Ad Trading and the Exchange Marketplace
- BuiltWith.com - lists the ad technology profile for any given site. Gives insight to ad networks, analytics, tracking, CDNs and technology infrastructure used by any website!
- Ad Age Ad Network and Exchange Guide
- Wikipedia list of ad networks
- Ad Exchanges
- LUMAscape: Terry Kawaja's charts
- Online ad App Marketplace
Affiliate programs are ecommerce systems which integrate sales or actions into a publisher's website. The publisher can offer products for sale and even have a complete shopping site without performing any of the fulfillment. The introduction of the web viewer to the product is handled by the web publisher but the sales transactions and fulfillment is handled by the vendor. Typically the website publisher get a slice of the transaction (typically 1-15%). An affiliate service is the neutral intermediate party which makes sure the website is credited with any transaction which originates with the publisher and reaches fulfillment. The affiliate services most often represent many vendors and publishers and can perform the monitoring and tracking of the transactions.
Affiliate Services:- Avant Link
- Share-A-Sale
- Commission Junction
- ClickBank
- Link Share
- Amazon
- WebGains
- Peerfly - CPA advertising
- PepperJam
- Panthera Network
- MaxBounty - CPA advertising
- Pay dot com
- ClixGalore - Affiliate marketing
- PointClickTrack - CPA
- Affiliate Window - lead generation (UK)
- AffiliateScout
OfferVault.com: Affiliate lists and comparisons
Affiliate Tools:
- ShareResults - complete affiliate marketing software & solutions - run your own affiliate program
- Affiliate Summit - affiliate marketing conference
The advertising and affiliate industry was once rampant with fraud and abuse. Fraud detection is much better than it was which is good for legitimate publishers who are now coveted for ad placement and good for advertisers who are not scammed for advertising dollars. There are publishers which "buy traffic" from nefarious sources who have bots to produce fake traffic and ad clicks. I'm happy to say that this behavior can now be detected with sophisticated algorithms and cookie analysis. Ad verification to make sure the advertisement is placed on an appropriate web page for the targeted user, has become a sophisticated business not to just avoid fraud but to verify that the the advertiser has optimized their advertising dollar.
Affiliate programs were once subject to fake purchases only to be hassled by charge-back claims or product returns. Deceptive websites and vendors are also now quickly recognized due to a more rigorous screening process.
Techniques such as IP velocity measurement (how much activity is coming from a single IP address), IP geolocation (legitimate location for a purchase) and blacklists have done wonders to reduce fraud.
Fraud prevention:- Adobe - fraud prevention offerings focus on minimizing non-human traffic through bot detections and blocking.
- eBureau
- DoubleVerify - determine ad impression quality, compliance and fraud
- FraudLogix - mobile fraud prevention, affiliate lead fraud prevention and supply side RTB programatic fraud prevention.
- Integral Ad Science - uses big data and session based signal analysis to measure and block fraud at the impression level and in real-time.
- mDotLabs - ad assurance for both advertisers and publishers
- Pixalate - real time fraud detection. IP blacklists, impression suppression, pre-bid prevention tools and tools for buyers in the programatic inventory space.
- Spider.io - data analytics services to determine bot vs human traffic and ad viewability
- TrustMetrics.com - analyzes web publishers
- WhiteOPS.com - detects fraud across devices and campaign formats.prevents ad fraud in programatic buysdetects fraud across devices and campaign formats. Prevents ad fraud in programatic buys.
Publishers will often need to disclose their traffic stats to advertisers to prove that their site is worthy. Third party statistics are usually required rather than a publishers web logs. The metrics measured are also of value to the publisher.
The publisher provides this information to the analytics service by including Javascript in the web page so the analytics service can track the users visiting the web site. Statistics include information about the visitors (country, state, city of origin), wealth assumptions, sex (male/female), time on page, repeat/new visitor, bounce rate, etc.
- Quantcast - demographic and lifestyle insights for any audience
- Nielsen - the grand daddy of television metrics but also a player on the Internet
- Google Analytics
- iPerceptions
- Optimizely (fee)
- CrazyEgg (fee)
- Click Tale (free and fee)