Crenk » Advertising

Techcrunch Moves Their 125 x 125 To Below Each Article! Advertising Strategy Shift?

Steven Finch — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:29:02 +0000

I was browsing around Technology related sites as I do nearly every morning and came across some strange changes over at Techcrunch.

You will noticed from the image above Techcrunch has made some big changes to their advertising. Techcrunch was the leader in 125 x 125 advertising in the early days and now this format seems to be used nearly every blog, however Techcrunch has since removed the 125 x 125 ads from the top of their sidebar and placed them below each article.

By placing the 125 x 125 ads below each article this will decrease the visibility of these ads and also decrease the click through rate of the advertisers. Has Techcrunch decided that its difficult to sell 125 x 125 advertising? or have they just simply decided it is much easier and more profitable to add Google Adsense to the top of their sidebar, so they can gain more clicks and a higher margin on their advertising costs?

Cool Google Ad During the Super Bowl

Dean Sherwin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:36:08 +0000

Millions of Americans, and indeed people around the world, tuned in to watch the highlight of the US sporting year, the Super Bowl. As Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, hinted yesterday, Google did indeed run an advertisement during the Super Bowl for the first ever time.

The ad has since become a hit around the Internet, especially on sites such as YouTube on Twitter, all within a few hours of being broadcast in the third quarter ad break of the Super Bowl. I watched it on YouTube, and I have to say it’s pretty well done. It basically summarises Google’s search functionality in a way which I’m sure has millions of US families going ‘Awwwwww’. Check it out below.

WidgetBucks To Be Shut Down by Mpire to Focus on Adxpose

Steven Finch — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:57:29 +0000

Mpire has been one of those companies to change their focus like the wind. In 2006 Mpire rolled out an online comparison shopping service for used products, then in 2008 it moved focus to WidgetBucks an online advertising network, but now its focusing on AsXpose which helps advertisers to identify whether their online ads are showing up in the proper places.

“It is one thing to tell people: ‘hey you showed up on porn. It is another thing to say: ‘hey, we guarantee you that you won’t since we proactively stop that from occurring,’” explains Kirby Winfield, chief revenue officer at the company.

This however unfortunately means the end of WidgetBucks which helps thousands of web site owners monetize their traffic (which includes Torrent Sites because WidgetBucks was one of their leading options).

Google’s AdMob Purchase May be Blocked

Dean Sherwin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 07:31:30 +0000

Last month we reported here on Crenk that Google had secured a deal will AdMob – a leading advertising company in the mobile market. They agreed to pay $750 million for the successful company.

However, the FTC has been asked to review the case as there are grounds for concern in areas such as privacy and market domination. Obviously an acquisition from Google would greatly expand the company and it’s worried that market domination could crush the mobile marketing industry along with several other large companies who currently act as competitors to AdMob.

A decision is likely to be made shortly concerning this deal between AdMob and Google which has gone wrong – however with issues such as customer privacy at steak the consequences (such as restrictions imposed on Google) could be dire.

Bedrock: Create Your Own Ad Slots, Advertisers Bid To Buy Them

dashiel — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:09:47 +0000

As a website owner, one normally has to pick and choose between a range of off the shelf ‘creatives’, display ads, banners or keyword sets from ad networks like Adsense, Tribal Fusion or DoubleClick that are provided by the people who want to sell their products, Dell, Amazon, Chevrolet etc. These ads often clash with a publisher’s website, and can run out of inventory and revert to remnant or filler ads selling tooth whitening products or smileys, depending on how one sets up the account. Bedrock offers a different type of ad exchange, where publishers design their own ad slots on their website – a tech blog like ours might offer a link to a web hosting service, or an ISP, and instead of using the advertisers’ own ad format, we would provide a text link, or own-branded display ad that links through to whichever approved service provider makes the highest bid for the particular click that comes through that link. The ad will stay the same, but the advertisers bid on the inventory listed by the publisher (site owner), meaning that one click on the link saying, “buy a new laptop” might go to Amazon, and the next to eBay, depending on which of them is prepared to pay the most for the traffic, on a click by click basis.

It’s an intriguing idea, but one that depends on having a large number of advertisers on the roster to compete with one another – and Bedrock will have a tough time dragging those people away from the traditional services, abandoning the freedom to use their own ads in the process. On the other hand, it does put more power in the hands of the publishers to control the content of their own website, and push the ad content that earns them money on their own terms – after all, they know their user base best, and can adapt to serve their needs better. Another tool in the advertising arsenal can’t be bad. If you have any experience using Bedrock, please post a comment!

Sugababes Are Even Promoting Windows 7

Steven Finch — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:28:15 +0000

I sometimes wonder if the marketing team at Microsoft actually know what their doing! The latest Windows 7 advert is by the Sugababes who seem to actually have no popularity by themselves here in the UK, thus im not really sure why Microsoft thought their endoresement actually means anything.

Maybe Microsoft should have enlisted Lady Gaga instead!

Highest Paying Verticals for CPM Advertising

Steven Finch — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:38:34 +0000

Here at Crenk we have been keeping a very close eye on online advertising and how it all works and runs. Adify has been keep an even closer eye on the industry and here are their latest findings.

Except Food, Entertainment and Real Estate, the CPM rates for display ads have declined across industries in the last three quarters which is quite good news for online advertisers but not so good news for web publishers and bloggers.

For some unknown reason, this Adify Report excludes the Technology sector which also commands high CPM rates (the CPM rates for tech industry were around $15 in Q2 2009).

CPM = cost per thousand ad impressions.

Here at Crenk we use Adphilia for our advertising solutions.

The Internet Advertising Recession is Over

Dean Sherwin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:30:10 +0000

The other day here on Crenk with did a post about the major Internet giant Google buying AdMob - a mobile advertiser and we predicted that internet advertising was due to come up. Well it seems like it most definitely has – thanks to search.

Google reported the first rise in advertising revenue in over two quarters. The third quarter of 2009 stabilized the sector. However, as I mentioned above it was all due to the advertisements in the search results pages not so much the advertisements on websites.

While this is good news it’ll still be a while until the other advertisers such as AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft recover from the recession – these being the weakest of the search engines.

So it appears that the advertisements on web pages still aren’t doing as good as what they used to simply because there are less ‘big’ companies using them. As such, people don’t want to click on them. Crenk’s advice for bloggers and webmasters? Use Google AdSence to put advertisements on your website’s search page!

New York Times Report That Online Advertising Brings in Nearly a Quarter Of Their Revenues

Steven Finch — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:37:47 +0000

Over at Techcrunch they reported yesterday that the New York Times are now receiving nearly a quarter of their total revenues from online advertising.

The New York Times announced third quarter earnings this morning. Total revenues were down 17 percent to $571 million. Of that advertising revenues decreased 27 percent to $291 million, and the online advertising portion was down 8.2 percent to $68 million.

Last quarter, advertising revenues declined an even steeper 32 percent, and online advertising was down 15.5 percent. So maybe this is the first step on its way back to positive territory. Here are the year-over-year declines in online advertising revenues for each of the past four quarters.

Annual Decline In Internet Advertising Revenues

4Q08: -3.5%
1Q09: -6.1%
2Q09: -15.5%
3Q09: -8.2%

Another interesting data point is that because its print advertising revenues are shrinking at a faster rate than its Internet advertising revenues, the Internet portion is actually a bigger percentage (23.5%) of the New York Times’ total advertising revenues than it was year ago (when it was 18.6%).

I have been a firm believer that print business will slowly leave only the major players in each market and all the smaller business will have to move online or close. However, with these latest figures I now think even the major players could be in big trouble!

Audience Science Raises $20 million for Their Online Advertising Platform

Steven Finch — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:02:32 +0000

Audience Science, an online advertising firm formerly known as Revenue Science, announced on Tuesday that it has closed $20 million in new venture capital funding.

Investors included Mohr, Davidow Ventures; Mayfield Fund; Meritech Capital Partners; and Integral Capital Partners.

Founded in 2003, New York-based Audience Science offers both an audience technology platform and a targeting marketplace.

The company says it has powered over 50,000 campaigns worldwide, and is the eleventh-largest online ad network in the U.S.

Clients include the Financial Times, Gannett, Reuters.com and New York Times Digital.

The company will use the new funds expand its audience targeting marketplace, and bolster its offering to brand advertisers, premium website publishers and online ad networks.

Spottt: Advertising Exchange Heads Towards The Deadpool

Steven Finch — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:14:26 +0000

Previously here at Crenk we announced the Spottt launch as well as the fact that Spottt wasnt really moving. Spottt is an advertising exchange for small sites. Basically the site used a widget on your site and it gave the sites reciprocal traffic on other sites that were also using the widget.

Allen Stern has reported that Spottt has been offline for the past few days and it doesn’t seem like the service is coming back online any time soon. I think this is headed straight to the deadpool!

Spottt was launched and owned by the team over at Adbrite. If you are from Adbrite it would be great to hear the news about Spottt.

Adphilia: Site Representation Firm Launching New Sponsorship Based Platform Very Soon

Steven Finch — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:27:40 +0000

Previously here on Crenk we have discussed the Top CPM advertising networks, but in the current economic climate we have seen a lot of changes of late. I wanted to introduce our sister site called Adphilia. Adphilia is a site representation firm that is focused on providing premium CPM based advertising. At the moment there are also a lot of changes at Adphilia, we are always looking for Technology and Gaming related sites to add to our network, but we are also about to launch an entirely new platform which we hope will help many sites automate the buying and selling process.

The new Adphilia platform that is scheduled to launch in the next few weeks will be focused around fixed placements with the following features:

Publishers will be able to choose their own ad sizes and prices and dates they would like to run campaigns
Advertisers will have access to over 100 million people per month
The entire process will be automated and publishers can withdraw their earnings in the same way a bank works
The process is completely transparent so Advertisers can see their stats and ROIs, while Publishers can see and control all ads on their site
Also launching a VIP program which will be focused around CPM based advertising

Look for the new platform to be launch on the 1st of October.

In the meantime we are always looking for technology and gaming based sites interested in premium CPM advertising. Just leave a comment or drop us an email for more information.

YouTube to Pay One-Hit-Wonders

Dean Sherwin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:50:53 +0000

We’ve all been sitting in the office, relaxing at home or on the bus and decided to check the old e-mails. Low and behold there’s one from your old buddy Jeff with a link to a YouTube video. What the hell, it’s not like your busy or anything. So you decide to give it a try. It turns out to be one of these one hit wonders that have their fifteen minutes of fame before being forgotten about and dissolved into the abyss.

Well now YouTube is going to form advertising partnerships with the makers of the videos. For example, David Devore filmed his son all loopy after been given sedative by the dentist. The video got over 28 Million views with the creator getting over $10,000 in ad revenue – that’s not exactly chump change for what you thought would be a funny video for friends and family to enjoy.

I think that this is actually a cool idea. It will keep people posting on YouTube and it may inspire creativity. But for the most part it’s an internet giant giving some of its haul back. YouTube didn’t really have to do this – they were perfectly comfortable where they were being the internets largest video provider. Maybe they’re softening the blow for a huge bombshell?!

Ebay All the Way for Students

Dean Sherwin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:29:43 +0000

So school and college are starting back soon. Just a few short weeks, in fact. That means thousands, no millions, of young people will be met by costs that would normally have been put on daddy’s credit card. What makes this year worse is that there are few part time jobs around that would have normally paid for the laptops, textbooks, stationary and gadgets that are to be found in the typical student’s backpack. The situation is especially bad in Europe where students and those leaving school have led protests – even violent ones such as those in France and Ireland.

This is good news for Ebay, Amazon and the likes.

The sale of low-end student laptops online is rising. Why pay 600 big ones in store for the latest machine when you could have last year’s model that will satisfy all your needs for a quarter of the price? After all, when at college a decent word processer and internet access is all you need.

Other items which are making big sales in the ‘back to school rush’ are backpacks, art supplies, cameras, suitcases and technical equipment specific to certain courses such as design and engineering.

Here I stand tapping out this article on my phone beside Trinity College in Dublin as I’m away from my desk this week. Students walk by me with iPhones and Macbooks preparing their dorms for their third or fourth year in college. For this year’s freshmen it’s going to be Ebay all the way – in the opinion of this Crenk reporter at least.

Top Social Networks for Advertising

Steven Finch — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:39:41 +0000

I came across this excellent list of social networks with their user bases and projected ad spending for 09. The list was put together by Borreall Associates and is a great resource. On the list are 118 networks that accept advertising and media buying.

Of course, Facebook and Myspace count for the majority of social media advertising, but there is still enough good traffic on other sites to be worth testing.

The download system is kind of a pain But since the report is free and this kind of data is valuable, its worth it. Download PDF or Excel version here.

Here are the top 30:

VidPay: Video Ad Network for Major Video Portals

Dean — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:41:02 +0000

VidPay is an online service that allows users to advertise their websites or services on the internet through videos. Here’s a quick rundown of how it works. Basically, you sign up and upload an advertisement video to the site. You select your target audience (i.e. age, gender, nationality, interests, hobbies) and select a daily budget for your advertising campaign. Then you’re up and running.

Your video will appear as a featured video on websites and the more people that watch it the more you pay VidPay for promoting your site until your daily budget is reached at which your point your video is removed until the following day.

I don’t think that this is anything special or useful. There are better and more effective ways of promoting a website such as through networking, social media and SEO. Paying a company to put your video on the internet no matter who they’re showing it to, seems silly. Could you not simply do the same thing on YouTube leaving a link at the end of the video whilst having the added bonus of a channel page and user comments etc.. ?

Another drawback that limits the effectiveness is that the videos you pay to have plastered on the net are restricted to only being featured on Metacafe sites. All in all, if your advertising budget is big and you can’t be bothered to do an hour a week on Youtube, Twitter etc… or indeed on any of their affiliate programs such as this one, then by all means visit VidPay.

Google Chrome TV Ad In Japan

Steven Finch — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:12:20 +0000

For the last few days I have been seeing a lot of new reports about Google’s new Chrome ad in Japan. Im not really sure why this is now big news, because this ad has been running since January! If you want to read more about the ad then head to Techcrunch, Mashable and Startupmeme.

Top Mobile Ad Networks

Steven Finch — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:12:59 +0000

Admob – AdMob is the world’s largest mobile advertising marketplace, offering solutions for discovery, branding and monetization on the mobile web. Mobile devices are a critical media platform and we are building the tools to let every business on earth leverage mobile.

Jumptap – Jumptap leverages its mobile search technology and operator relationships to deliver advanced targeting intelligence for advertisers seeking the highest return on their ad spend. Our network of premium mobile sites combines high quality content with targeted advertising to create an experience that appeals to the mobile consumer.

Google Adsense – Google Adsense has to be the world most well known and popular advertising networks for publishers. Google offers their Adsense solution now for mobile devices. The ads are majority CPC but have also some limited CPM campaigns.

Third Screen Media – Third Screen Media is Platform-A’s mobile ad-serving platform and network that enables advertising on mobile devices. Its mobile solutions link advertisers, publishers and carriers on a common platform to buy and sell mobile advertising. Offering one of the world’s most-respected mobile advertising networks, Third Screen Media offers best-in-class content, including AOL’s popular consumer brands and mobile applications; the largest availability of carrier on-deck mobile inventory; and a mobile network of more than 70 premium publishers representing 100+ sites.

The Rubicon Project and Collective Media Both Secure Funding

Steven Finch — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:41:56 +0000

It has been announced that online ad optimization firm, The Rubicon Project has raised another $13 million in venture capital. The amount is made up of an additional $5 million in venture funding from Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund and IDG Ventures Asia and Silicon Valley Bank added $8 million in venture debt. The company notes that the funds will be used to, “fuel business growth initiatives including strategic acquisitions, research and development, infrastructure and international expansion.”

The company has raised $33 million to-date and is based in Los Angeles. The company opened a NYC office last November. Check out our interview with founder and CEO Frank Addante.

While at the same time Techcrunch has reported that Collective Media has secured another $20 million in Series B funding. The series was led by Accel Partners and iNovia Capital. Collective Media offers publishers an ad network management platform to create their own branded, vertical ad networks. The company raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding, led by Greycroft Partners and iNovia Capital, in October 2007.

This has made me think a lot about both companies and how IDG Ventures Asia was an investor in The Rubicon Project and the IDG Tech Network is currently using the Collective Media platform to run their advertising network. I find it funny at times how certain section of major still don’t have an overall growth strategy, because investing in one company but at the same time they are wasting money on using another ad platform when it might be in their best interests to think about building their own ad platform and then integrating The Rubicon Project.

Trafficspaces: Self-service Ad Management Platform

Guest — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:26:44 +0000

“Oil is to the global economy what advertising is to the web ecosystem. Cut it off and the whole thing shuts down”

That quote came from a renowned scholar at my former university in England.

My name is Niyi and I’m the Founder of Trafficspaces (I’ll get to what Trafficspaces does in a second).

Focus on that quote. It is quite seems particularly poignant in the current economic environment. It seems like no matter what we do, our dependence on oil just seems unassailable, even to our own detriment. It seems to me like we have a love-hate relationship with the “black gold”. Without it, we can’t seem to power anything. In fact, without it, we’ll all probably lose our jobs!

Advertising is pretty similar. Many people dislike ads on websites (especially the annoying banner ads) but unfortunately, the truth is that without ads, most websites, blogs, will go out of business and mass-appeal tools like the Google search engine, Gmail, Facebook, and possibly even Twitter will be unsustainable. I shudder at every “Catch the Monkey” ad like everyone else so I’ve been particularly intrigued to discover if there is a middle ground somewhere – something that gives publishers more control over what appears on their site and doesn’t leave them short-changed by some dodgy, fly-by-night ad network.

My team and I have just created a new ad management platform called Trafficspaces. We’ve solved three common problems:

1. Losing potential advertisers

“If you build it, they’ll come”. So true, but if they come and they are ready to pay, and you are not ready, they’ll leave (and may not come back). Way too many potential advertisers are lost because publishers expect them to fill a form in order to advertise. Where is the automation?

Imagine if you had to call an airline over the phone in order to book a flight, and there was no Expedia, Orbitz, Ebookers etc. It will be a pain and the airlines will make less money.

The solution – provide your own self-service system to process payments, and help them get started at their convenience. Facebook and Myspace have spent millions doing exactly this. Most publishers can’t afford to do and that’s were Trafficspaces steps in. You can get your own white-labelled self-service ad platform from $4.99 a month.

2. Earning way below potential

I once spoke to a very large newspaper firm who relied mostly on Google for ads on their website. They received a $5,000 check every month from Google and they weren’t impressed. It turns out that their site generates about 10 million impressions per month and understandably they felt short-changed. “I wonder how much Google got paid by the advertiser” ranted their Online Editor.

Recently, Michael Arrington of Techcrunch mused about dumping his long term partner Federated Media because his advertisers (who had to go to Federated Media’s site to place ads with Techcrunch) were spending a disproportionate proportion of their budget with other sites on FM’s network. Basically, if Techcrunch had its own self-service system, they’ll keep more of the advertiser’s budget.

The point there is that publishers need more control. The traffic that cannot be filled by your direct sales, or through your self-service system can be sent to Google or any other ad network. This is particularly important for those who get a lot of site-targeted ads. That is the best way to maximize your revenue.

3. Managing ad operations easily

This part is actually quite important because a lot of publishers I know don’t want to get bogged down with the intricacies of monitoring ad campaigns, optimizing the ads, and preparing reports. They don’t want the complexity that comes with OpenX. They just want to approve the ads with one-click and forget about it. “Keep it Short and Simple” as a close friend said to me. If you are one of those publishers, then Trafficspaces is for you.

Conclusion

Our goal was to give publishers more control. More control over what appears on their sites, and more control of their revenue. But most importantly, it had to be done through a system that was easy to use. The response so far has been great.

If you want to try Trafficspaces out, visit www.trafficspaces.com

Low CPM Rates Coincides With Use of Right Media Yield Manager Platform

Steven Finch — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:33:51 +0000

Over the last few months we have been doing a lot of work with advertising networks. I have noticed that with most CPM networks currently in the marketplace they provide quite low rates, apart from a few. With regards to these low rate networks I have noticed a key characteristic that most use Yield Manager from Right Media. Is this just a coincidence or does Right Media only provide their platform to remnant and low paying CPM ad networks?

UK AdSmart Ad Network Goes Bust

Steven Finch — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:47:35 +0000

UK based advertising network AdSmart, which also had its presence in India through its Delhi-based venture AdRevenue, has gone bust.

A source at AdRevenue informs Crenk that the closure of AdSmart won’t affect the business of AdRevenue, but the company will now operate under a new name, E-Spot Media Pvt Ltd.

There are obviously several sites that will now be out of pocket from this closure, such as Games2win who has already published an article about their loss.

If you have more information on the closure or have been using Adsmart please drop us a comment.

MyBuxNetworks: Is This The Worst Ad Network You Have Ever Seen?

Steven Finch — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:46:26 +0000

I received a very interesting email this morning from a new advertising network called MyBuxNetworks.com. They are offering a CPM and a CPC solution with also a referral option. The network seemed interesting in the email, however it was a totally different story when I took a look at their website.

The site itself looks terrible and so amateuristic. However, that was the worst thing I saw on the site. Check out the video I have attached below, which is from a “member”. Would you go on this guys word?

Disclosure: Im CEO of Adphilia which is a site representation company.

AOL’s Platform-A Forms Strategic Partnership with FreeCreditReport.com

Steven Finch — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:43:09 +0000

AOL’s Platform-A has entered into a multi-faceted strategic relationship with FreeCreditReport.com, the provider for online consumer credit reports, scores and monitoring.

The partnership will fully leverage Platform-A’s diverse slate of advertising solutions, including deep customized content integration within AOL’s properties and a variety of broad-based campaigns across Platform-A’s networks, ensuring the ability to harness the full power of digital media advertising.

Jango Launches Music Vertical Advertising Network

Steven Finch — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:42:10 +0000

US music site Jango announced the launch of Jango Music Network (JMN), dubbing it as the world’s largest and most targeted cost-effective ad network for the music vertical.

The current JMN inventory of music sites reach a collective total of 30 million unique monthly visitors in the US alone. JMN also features a unique methodology that maps brand preference to musical taste and uses it to help advertisers target audiences that will be particularly receptive to their brand.