Crenk » Advertising

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!

Google Acquires AdMob and Gizmo5, Plus Playfish Acquired by EA

Steven Finch — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:16:58 +0000

It has been a very big day in acquisitions for both Google and Accel partners. Google has announced that they have acquired Admob and Gizmo5. Admob is a mobile advertising network in which cost Google $750 million.

AdMob founder Omar Hamoui sent the following letter to customers:

Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our advertiser, developer and publisher partners.

AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Our business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.

After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our advertisers, developers and publishers by:

*Increasing our investment in building innovative and engaging ad units across platforms and to further improve targeting and tracking.

*Building even more powerful relevance and optimization capabilities, and more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.

*Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.

*Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our advertisers, developers and publishers.

Im very surprised that Admob sold out to Google on this occassion. I know that $750 million is not an average sum of money, but with Googles track record of advertising products that aren’t Adsense is pretty terrible. Back in February 2007 Google purchased Adscape, which still hasn’t really taken their in-game advertising product to the next level. Additionally, Google killed Feedburner’s very profitable advertising network and replaced it directly with a much worse product for the type of market, Google Adsense. Accel partners won out big on this acquisition as they and Sequoia Capital were the early investors.

Gizmo5 Acquisition:

Gizmo5 was the other company in which Google purchased today, but for only around $30 million in cash. Gizmo5 is a VOIP infrastructure. In previous months Gizmo5 was in talks with Skype about a potential sale, mainly because Skype was having big issues with their current infrastructure. This is a very interested move for Google, I’m not entirely sure why they purchased VOIP infrastructure. The only possible solution is that they are thinking about tying it in with their current Google Voice offering.

EA purchase Playfish:

After lengthy negotiations, Electronic Arts closed it’s anticipated acquisition of social gaming startup Playfish for $275 million in cash. An additional $25 million in stock will be set aside for retaining the top talent at the startup, and another $100 million in earnouts are part of the deal as well if the business hits certain milestones. This has no reaffirmed how lucrative this market current is. I would not be surprised to see a Zynga IPO or Playdom acquistion in the first half of 2010.

Advertising on Crenk Has Never Been So Cheap!

Steven Finch — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:49:39 +0000

Here at Crenk we have recently partnered with Adphilia as our new advertising platform. All fixed price advertising will now go through the Adphilia platform as you can already see in our sidebar.

Current Opportunities:

300 x 100 ad = $100.00 per month – Purchase Here.

We will be offering a monthly round up article in which will include details about all our sponsors and what they offer.

Over the next few months we really hope to bring in more cheap fixed sponsorship opportunities on Crenk, with the aim of really helping startups grab cheap exposure that can really help drive returns.

I also wasnt too sure whether to offer 300×100 ads or 125×125. What do most readers and advertisers prefer?

New Mac Ads That Hate on Windows 7

Steven Finch — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:49:00 +0000

Apple has released 3 new ads that take aim at Windows 7. What do you think of the ads?

How To Remove Advertising from Gmail

Steven Finch — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:16:59 +0000

For a long time now Gmail (like nearly every other Google product) has had Google Adsense ads in the sidebar. Have you ever wanted to get rid of these ads from your Gmail? Well now you can by simply adding in two fail-proof sentences into the signature of your emails.

All you need to add is:

I enjoy the massacre of ads. This sentence will slaughter ads without a messy bloodbath.

Then your Gmail should look like this:

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.

Crenk Recession Watch

Dean — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 11:31:20 +0000

Undoubtedly, the recession wasn’t really hitting the internet as hard as what it was other industries. Sure we has a bit of trouble over at Microsoft but that’s because they are also a trading company in the real world. What I mean to say is that the online world was fighting off the worst of it.

In fact, companies such as eBay and Amazon actually didn’t do so bad. People began to sell their stuff when they needed the cash and others bought them because they didn’t have too much cash to splash. It was all making perfect sense until the internet could take no more as real companies started to turn their back on it.

Advertising is plummeting. A new report states that advertising on a worldwide scale is down by five percent. In America, the figure is even bigger at 7% worth an estimated 0.4 Billion dollars. Companies who usually do quite well from advertising such as Monster reported that they lost 31% compared to last year.

Wouldn’t you know it; internet giant Google is the only ad publisher to report a growth, however even this is in single digits.

Now that advertising is failing the next sector to be hit will be entertainment. Big companies that have real world trading have more of a chance of survival but for online magazines and games where they often depend on advertising alone to keep the ship afloat – there may be trouble ahead indeed.

The IDC, who released the report did have some good news however.

“We think the industry will continue to see losses in the third and fourth quarters, but the growth rates–or the loss rates, if you will–will eventually begin to improve,” Karsten Weide, program director for digital media and entertainment at IDC, said in a statement. “However, we also believe the industry may have to wait until mid-2010 until it sees real growth again.”

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:

CancelAds: Subscribe to Blogs and Sites to Get Them Ad-Free

Steven Finch — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:40:30 +0000

For a long time now a lot of people have been using Adblock firefox extension, however when people use this tool publishers lose their key source of income. Svetlana at Profy thinks that she may have found the key to unlock this issue, CancelAds.com. CancelAds is a very basic idea in which allows publishers to signup and add their sites to the service. Users are then able to signup and choose which sites they want to see without ads, in which they can pay a small subscription fee to view the sites without ads. Publishers have the ability to control the price of subscriptions and this is a very simple way for sites to add a new revenue source.

However, is CancelAds really a new revenue stream or is it just taking revenues away from advertising and just redistributing it. The idea of CancelAds is a good one, however practically im not too sure if it will take off, as users will only be likely to purchase a subscription for a major site in which have high quality content. Thus, this product isnt for the masses, it just for the high end publishers.

How the ZooZoo ads were Created

Steven Finch — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:11:56 +0000

I was wondering how O&M created the popular Zoozoo ads for Vodafone without using computer animation, here are some behind the scenes video clips that will give you some good idea about the whole production process.

You may also want to check these photographs from a studio in South Africa where these videos where actually shot. Pictures are courtesy the official group of Zoozoo on Facebook.

For instance, here’s the original Zoozoo phone backup ad that’s currently getting aired on television during IPL cricket breaks:

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 Apps To Help You Make Money Using Twitter

Steven Finch — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:51:00 +0000

Twitter has been getting so much press for the last six months or so, even though they don’t have a revenue model. Therefore many sites have been trying to think and develop ways to make money from Twitter. Here is a quick list of some of those companies.

Be-A-Magpie – Be-A-Magpie is a simple solution that allows Twitter users to make money based upon sponsored Twitter messages. Twitter users opt in to the service and then define what frequency and ads they run on their Twitter account. Once the ad is run they get paid for that tweet.

Twittad – Twittad is a marketplace in which Twitter users post their accounts and advertisers are allowed to opt in and run a campaign on a specific account. Twittad allows advertisers to purchase on a PPF system, which is pay-per-follower. Therefore, the more Twitter followers you have the more money you can make.

Betweeted – Betweeted is a new advertising solution for Twitter in which users can signup for the service and then pick from a list of CPC and CPA campaigns. This is a new service and I dont really understand why I as a user would choose to use this service when I can just cut out the middleman and do the CPC and CPA myself.

Seekopia: Online Blogging That Helps You Make Money

Steven Finch — Wed, 06 May 2009 12:28:43 +0000

The other day I came across Seekopia which is an online blog magazine you can personalize according to your own tastes and interests. Combining online advertising and blogging, Seekopia has created a completely new way to blog and earn money. Create your free blog today and Seekopia will help you build a list of followers by promoting your posts and keeping track of your readers. By starting a blog, you instantly own a share of advertising on each and every blog post in Seekopia. Seekopia uses both contextual ads as well as custom user adverts throughout the entire network.

The site itself is very simple and the idea is very similar to what Google are trying to do with their Knol project. It seems as though there are a huge amount of these types of sites on the net at the moment and the only way they are going to stay alive in the long run is by providing quality content and giving back good revenues to contributors.

I must admit a lot of work needs to be done on the design of Seekopia. Currently there seems to be a lot of blank space at the bottom of the home page and even in the sidebars of each blog. It is interesting to see that Seekopia is also using Google Adsense as their advertising provider, because this makes me wonder if they are providing the writers with 100% of the revenues or just splitting the percentage with the blogger.

There are many alternatives to blogging on a site like Seekopia, such as writing Paid per post on your own blog, writing for a blog network, writing on Google’s Knol project or simply writing your own blog with Wordpress and using Google Adsense to monetize your site. Overall I don’t really see the point of sites like Seekopia because they provide too much creative freedom to the journalist, but seems to provide little in return. As a user I would much rather read a highly targeted and professional blog compared to something like Seekopia.

AIM Ad Hack 5.57: Removing Ads from AIM 6.8 and Above

Steven Finch — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:36:36 +0000

AOL’s AIM service has long been one of the most popular instant messenger clients on the Internet. AIM is pretty much the perfect instant messenger client but as most web based products they don’t support themselves by charging for premium accounts, instead they advertising on the site that subsidises the service. Introducing AIM Ad Hack 5.57 in which lets you block or remove advertisements from AOL Instant Messenger 6.8 and above.

Aim Ad Hack 5.57 is small utility which removes almost all types of ads from AIM.

Features of AIM Ad Hack 5.57 Beta

- Removes advertisements from buddy list

- Blocks Viewpoint Media Player Install

- Blocks AOL Toolbar Install, AOL Loader Install, AOL Media Playback Install

- Blocks – Blocks Quality Feedback Agent Install

- Blocks – Blocks homepage change

- Removes AOL On Desktop (AOL Installer)

- Removes Triton’s crash reporting tool, System Information Utility, System Information Utility, Plaxo, Wild Tanget

- Removes WeatherBug, MySearch toolbar, AIM Toolbar, AIM Logger

- Adds support for Windows 2003 & Vista

- Optionally disable HostManager from starting up with windows

- Optionally install AIM Gadgets plugin

- Optionally install Location Plugin Beta

- Optionally install Facebook Plugin

- Optionally install AIM while running AIM Ad Hack

Download AIM Ad Hack 5.57 Beta here and Remove Advertisements from AOL Instant Messenger.

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

Adap.tv: Online Video Ad Management Platform

Steven Finch — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:07:15 +0000

Are you looking for new ways to make money from your online videos, then maybe Adap.tv might be the way forward. Adap.tv empowers online publishers to efficiently monetize and grow their online video business. The Adap.tv OneSource video ad management platform provides a simple, transparent way to manage and serve ads from multiple sources, in many formats, to capture the full revenue potential of online video content. Fine-grained control and detailed reporting help publishers maximize their online video performance. All through a single, highly efficient platform.

Adap.tv works with a lot of advertising option including post roll, pre roll, overlay banners, expanding overlay and post roll banners. Although all of this technology isn’t really new for monetizing videos, Adap.tv seems to have some good options that could potentially really help in your quest for a quality video advertising solution.

BuySellAds Stats Dont Seem To Show Correct Amounts

Steven Finch — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:45:37 +0000

I have been looking at our advertising page over at BuySellAds and have been wondering why stats over their estimates only 18,000 impressions when my Google Analytics says 51,000? I know with BuySellAds it take sometime to build up the stats, but our ads have been on the site for over a month and they still havent increased up to its real level.

SaySoMobile: Make Money Receiving Text Ads On Your Mobile Phone

Steven Finch — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:43:01 +0000

Are you sick and tired of receiving crappy spam messages in your inbox every single day? Well why only receive spam in your inbox when now you can also receive it on your mobile phone! This all comes from a new startup called SaySoMobile.

SaySoMobile is a new startup in which users can sign up and receive advertisements straight onto their mobile phone and in return the user makes a little money. Its that simple!

The idea is simple. Advertisers want access to people which gets their message across as much as possible for as little as possible. This new startup allows advertisers to target certain people in certain countries with advertisements direct onto their mobile phones via messages. Advertisers know that with this method the high majority of ads will be opened before they can be deleted, thus having a higher possibility of providing them a return on their investment.

Im very interested to hear from people using this service to make a little extra money, mainly to see if the money they are making is worth the intrusiveness of the advertisements.

Tatango: Free Ad-supported Group SMS Service

Steven Finch — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:11:32 +0000

Tatango is a new ad-supported group SMS service which has been making huge steps forward since gaining funding and a new design six months or so ago.

Sign up, invite some friends (they have to opt-in, else this thing would be a spam machine), and you (or anybody you dub as a group admin) are able to SMS the entire group at once, either from the browser or right off your mobile handset.

The basic service is free, supported by 30 character advertisements strapped to the bottom of each message. Ad-free messaging is available along with a few other pay-per-option premium features but, at just under $35 bucks a month.

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.