Ad views, defined as for the research as 75% of the pixels of the ad being visible in the browser, achieved an overall correlation to conversions ratio of 0.35. If users hovered their cursor over the ad the correlation between views and conversions rose even higher to 0.49. However the correlation between clicks and conversions was almost non-existent at 0.01 – cursor hovering or real views appear to be a more useful metric for measuring the value of ads than click through.

The report also cited a 2011 report from Casale Media, which indicated that ultimate conversion rates rise 6.7 times over when display ads appear “above the fold” on web pages – and are therefore immediately more viewable to users. Kirby Winfield, SVP of Corporate Development at comScore added:

It’s time to start measuring the impact of campaigns using metrics that really matter, not just the ones that are most easily measured.

[via ComScore]

Ad Visibility More Important Than CTR? was originally published on AdBalance

Other highlights from the report included:

• Mobile experienced the fastest growth of all categories – triple-digit growth year-over-year – up 149 percent to $1.6 billion in full-year 2011 from $0.6 billion in 2010.
• Digital video, a component of display-related advertising, saw a significant uptick of 29 percent year-over-year, bringing in $1.8 billion in revenue in 2011 compared to $1.4 billion in 2010.
• Search revenues in 2011 totaled $14.8 billion, up almost 27 percent from $11.7 billion in 2010.
• Display-related advertising revenues in 2011 totaled $11.1 billion or 35 percent of 2011 revenues, up 15 percent from $9.6 billion in 2010.
• Retail advertisers continue to represent the largest category of internet ad spending, accounting for 22 percent in 2011, or $7.1 billion, up from 21 percent ($5.5 billion) reported in 2010.

Here are the results from the full year in comparison with last year’s numbers:
Revenue (Ad Formats)

* Revised from prior year to include mobile as a discreet category

Revenue (Pricing Models)

[via IAB]

US Digital Advertising Grew 22% In 2011 To $31 Billion was originally published on AdBalance

Casale Media have taken the idea of ad exchanges one step further by allowing larger web brands and properties to set up private ad exchanges. These private exchanges allow premium publishers that already have strong brands to sell their inventory with real-time bidding to ad networks, media planners, and ad agencies. Whereas a public ad exchange does not differentiate between impressions from a certain location for each site included in the market, a private ad exchange allows premium publishers to sell their premium inventory at the premium it deserves. The inventory that is unsold in such a private exchange could then be filtered down into the public exchange to be sold at prices determined by the market.

Several premium publishers have already moved to a private ad exchange solution for selling their digital ad inventory such as Technorati, CBS, IDG TechNetwork and NBCUniversal. The backbone of each of these exchanges is the unique data that these premium publishers have on their users and are willing to sell to advertisers to push up premiums – data which smaller publishers simply cannot provide. This extra data, as well as the security of a brand name digital publication for the advertisements – publishers can push up prices, something which is needed for television and newspaper corporations need if they are to move their entire businesses online and embrace the future.

If you’d like to know more about ad exchanges vs ad networks then check out our guide

What Is A Private Ad Exchange? was originally published on AdBalance

Below we’re got a graphic outlining the different shapes and sizes of the various official advert types around at the moment, and the table beneath sets out the aspect ratio of each one, as well as linking to lists of ad networks offering that size.

Rectangles and Pop-Ups

Banners and Buttons

Skyscrapers

Sizes in bold are part of the IAB’s Universal Ad Package.

Ad Sizes And Formats For 2012 was originally published on AdBalance

1. Look Beyond CPM and CPC

CPC and CPM advertising networks such as Casale Media and ValueClick offer web publishers a great way to monetise their sites with little effort – you just add the tags to your site and you are ready to earn. However there are other options to investigate using in combination with these networks including CPA/affiliate networks such as LinkShare (UK), CJ, Trade Doubler or even selling text links through Text-Link-Ads. It is always worth diversifying your revenue streams no matter what your focus, so that you are always ready when things change – something that happens rapidly in the field of digital advertising.

2. Be Flexible

Advertisers are always looking for new ways to gain customers, and they may be interested to look beyond traditional banners in advertising on your site. Some will be looking for text links, and others may be looking for site or article sponsorships. Advertorials may not be for you, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t offer an advertiser sponsorship of a series of articles you will write on a relevant topic, or even have a section of your site dedicated to their products. Offering advertisers co-branding of your content could allow you to spend more time on generating the content, and allow them better exposure – all without compromising the independence and integrity of the site if it is done well. You do not have to sell them positive coverage, but you can offer them genuine exposure – something which can be very lucrative.

3. Focus On User Experience And Quality Content/Services

Users will not return to your site if all they see is advertorials and advertising in general. Do not oversaturate your site with ads and do not compromise the integrity of your content – they will decrease your site’s value over time. A happy medium can be reached between quality content and generating revenue – keep the content unique and of a high quality, and then sell the value of that content to advertisers. Keep a barrier between content production and sponsorship deals – this will increase your site’s value to potential advertisers in the future as people learn to respect and trust your site.

4. Look For Long term Relationships

When you are running advertising or sponsorship for a advertiser or agency directly, then always look to strengthen that relationship by over-achieving and out-performing expectations. If you have sold ten million impressions or just a text-link – look to maintain and nurture that relationship. Make sure you meet the deadlines ahead of schedule, and always keep in touch with your contact throughout the campaign – making sure it is converting for them. This way the advertiser will come back to you with further campaigns when they have the budget, and meaning you can spend less time actively selling to new advertisers and more time focusing on content.

You also need to focus on building relationships with your users – always reply quickly and accurately to comments, emails, tweets and other social interaction from users. Repeat visitors are the lifeblood of websites, as they both generate revenue for you directly but also can work as great organic traffic generators as they tell their friends and colleagues about the service you have provided.

Do you have any tips to offer on how web publishers can generate additional revenue in 2012? Let us know in the comments.

Generate More Website Revenue In 2012 Checklist was originally published on AdBalance

AdSense has been the go-to option for many bloggers and small independent publishers which make up much of the long tail of the internet and Google’s profits – but WordAds lead Jon Burke has been less than impressed with Google’s offering, saying:

Over the years one of the most frequent requests on WordPress.com has been to allow bloggers to earn money from their blog through ads. We’ve resisted advertising so far because most of it we had seen wasn’t terribly tasteful, and it seemed like Google’s AdSense was the state-of-the-art, which was sad. You pour a lot of time and effort into your blog and you deserve better than AdSense

Google has had this long tail market to itself for far to long as Yahoo Publisher Network made little dent in the market, and Microsoft/Bing not offering a solution – and as such there has been little progress in the last couple of years. For new and smaller sites that do not meet the traffic criteria for ad networks such as Casale Media, ValueClick Media, Tribal Fusion, or even Federated Media itself – Google has been the only real option until now. If that site is hosted on WordPress.com (and millions are) – then WordAds could be a very real solution built right into the service with ads from big brand advertisers.

There is little information available as yet as to how WordAds will work – it may contextually match ads to keywords like AdSense, or simply target by content category like a traditional ad network. We don’t even know whether the ads will be display ads (banners, leaderboards, skyscrapers, etc), or in-text ads – but more information will leak out as the project progresses and here at AdBalance we will be on hand to try them out.

For the time being – if you run a blog on WordPress.com with a custom domain – you can express your interest in WordAds here.

WordPress Launches WordAds To Compete With AdSense was originally published on AdBalance

Both companies are currently seeing rapid growth, but with the two companies combining their strengths they can make an industry changing play, with Todd Vernon, Lijit’s founder and CEO saying “it wasn’t an acquisition – it was more of a merger to create a media company that was a top tier media company (that could) do things we could never do“

The combined Federated Media and Lijit Networks will now reach more than 77,000 online publishers and nearly 15,000 expert communities – making it one of the largest companies representing the ever important independent web. The increased inventory should allow Federated Media to entice more advertisers by offering them improved scale and reach, whilst publishers benefit from a bigger ad sales team to represent their interests.

Federated Media To Acquire Advertising And Analytics Service Provider Lijit was originally published on AdBalance

Online advertising in the UK rose by 13.5% for the first half of this year to £2.26 billioncaccording to the bi-annual report by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and marketing group WARC. This gave it a market share of 27%, beating TV’s 26% into second place.

This growth was powered by 100% growth in online video ads – something that will only increase as the UK broadcasters move towards the launch of YouView, and social media advertising – another sector that should grow massively over the next period as Twitter rolls out its advertising plans. Search advertising also grew 12.6% and display advertising grew 18.5% – strong growth across the board.

Online Overtakes TV For First Time As Most Popular UK Ad Medium was originally published on AdBalance

It may sound strange that three of the biggest web property owners are taking such an initiative, but they currently send their remnant inventory to display ad networks such as ValueClick Media, Casale Media, and Tribal Fusion. With this pact they could start bundling the inventory from the various sites together to be more attractive to advertisers, and excluding the ad networks and their percentage of the revenues from the ads sold.

Similar initiatives trying to combine the ad inventory of some of the web’s top publishers have been tried before, such as that attempted by News Corp. a couple of years ago – but none have succeeded so far. We’ll be keeping an eye on this initiative to see how it works out once they start implementing it early next year.

[via AllThingsD]

AOL, Microsoft, & Yahoo! Forming Advertising Pact To Compete With Google was originally published on AdBalance

According to comScore’s July 2011 report, Adconion offers the largest digital distribution platforms in Australia reaching 14% more users than Google’s Content Network and 19% more than ValueClick over the summer months. This is good news for the group that often uses the Australian market to test new products and initiatives before rolling them out in the larger US, UK, and German markets – most recently through its Adconion Direct, Joost and Magnify Platform Services platforms.

Tyler Moebius, CEO and co-founder of Adconion Media Group said in a statement:
It is apparent that our new product launches and sharpened focus to deliver the best brand and performance solutions to our clients and partners is paying off. We are excited to continue to deploy our solutions in the rest of our markets and hope to see the same positive results across the globe

Adconion Offers Widest Total Reach In Australia Beating Google By 14% was originally published on AdBalance