Trafficspaces: Self-service Ad Management Platform
“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
For the last few months or so I have been using Google Ad Manager to control the advertising on Crenk. Currently the service is in private beta and you have to be invited to join. Up until a few days ago I was using the service, but since have dropped it and I just thought I would write a short article and let every know why.
