March 30th, 2008
It appears brand ads running on inappropriate content is not limited to the traditional banner ad networks and in-page ad units.
Keeping with my theme of picking on Vidilife.com; here is an example of premium HGTV ads running embedded in Vidilife’s soft core porn video content. From the URL in the screenshot these video ads are being served through YuMeNetworks.com.
HGTV + ASS = NO GOOD FOR ONLINE AD INDUSTRY!
March 30th, 2008
So there are a few different kinds of ad networks out there. This would include: general banner ad networks, advanced targeting ad networks, and exchanges.
The Ad Network world is certainly in a state of flux and these definitions are changing - but the general banner ad networks business model concentrates on performance type CPA (DR) offers. What this means is that they serve a whole lot of ads with a whole lot of offers for “Free Florida Vacations”. These networks are shall we say more liberal with the types of advertisers and publishers they work with.
The advanced targeting networks business model concentrates on highly targeted Brand type offers. This type of network generally offers very high CPM (high for remnant at least) but lower fill since they are only able to monetize qualified traffic. These networks generally are more restrictive in terms of the advertisers and publishers they work with because they need to be to work with premium partners to command premium rates.
The exchange is where all these networks collide; and indeed most all ad networks participate in some way with exchanges be it with MSN, RightMedia, and/or DoubleClick. It is in this marketplace where premium ad networks can be exposed to the more flexible policies of the general banner ad networks if they are buying and selling inventory. This issue is much worse when it is the exchange in questions policy not to provide adequate transparency between the advertiser, network, and publishers partners.
March 29th, 2008
It does not take a whole lot of time to find brand ads running on inappropriate content if you know where to look. I will be documenting this issue right here every week until the exchanges and ad networks address the issue and provide better transparency to advertisers and publishers. As I see it, this dirty secret is preventing brand advertising from coming to the online space and preventing premium publishers from receiving higher CPM’s.
The trick is trying to track down where the ads are actually coming from. This is no easy task with rich media and flash ads not to mention the fact of exchanges and ad networks arbitraging each other make this difficult. But if you have a browser sniffer and some knowledge about the way ads are trafficked you can track down the culprits.
In this case CPX Interactive is running a 160×600 direct response (DR) ad on Vidilife.com. Vidililife.com has (2) sections of their site mature and filtered. Since this is a DR advertiser, they may not actually care that CPX is running their ads here as long as they are getting their conversions. But what is a respectable ad network like CPX doing running on a porn site?
The second example is much more questionable. We see a 728×90 Ask.com (IAC) ad running right next to porn. It is highly likely that the network running this ad Addynamix does not have IAC’s permission to run on porn. Also, viewing the query logs - this creative is actually being served from the Right Media Exchange. So likely the ad network actually serving the ad buys inventory from Addynamix.com which in turn runs their ad on a porn site. It is unclear whether ad.103092804.com (see logs) which by the way resolves to Kitaramedia.com knows that Addynamic is running their IAC Ask.com ads on porn sites.
This is not the only example of brand ads running on Vidilife.com through this indirect relationship - refreshing a few times and we get ads from 247 fitness, Verizon, and Blockbuster. I wonder if these advertisers know where their ads are really running?
Vidilife.com
Log files from browser sniffer
Ask.com IAC ad running on porn site
My Cookie log from Yieldmanager/RightMedia Exchange from ads on Vidilife.com
March 29th, 2008
A colleague asked this the other day in response to an article from Adotas of the same name. Now if you have worked in the online ad space especially the remnant ad space it is easy to dismiss this argument as pie-in-the-sky. Sure every site would love to run direct ads and cut out the networks 30-60% technology fee but every site does not have a full time sales staff to put together these deals.
Even the larger sites that do have the resources for ad sales staff and have the luxury of being in premium verticals cannot always sell all their impression inventory and this is where the ad network and/or ad exchange comes into play. Most all publishers turn to ad networks to fill remnant impressions at some point.
On the advertiser side, ad networks / exchanges offer the advertiser the ability to run ads on premium publishers at prices pennies on the dollar of what they would have to pay running directly. Advertisers are also able to find strong performing sites and channels of aggregated sites that they might now have thought of. In this way ad networks deliver value to both advertisers and publishers.
Now this value proposition between ad networks, publishers, and advertisers works pretty well until an advertiser or an agency finds their brand clients ads running on a porn site. This was not as much of an issue in the past with direct response ads - sure ad networks and (DR) advertisers did not condone this practice; but it wasn’t going to get anyone sued and when these publishers were identified they were terminated from the responsible ad network.
In 2008 the game has changed, we are seeing more and more brand advertising coming online. Now advertisers and agencies are demanding full site disclosure from ad networks in order to protect their brands. What the advertisers may not know is that most all premium publishers have NDA’s in place with the networks they work with to protect their rate card. If an advertiser can buy inventory indirectly on premium sites for $0.50 - $2.50 CPM - why would they spend $5 - $40 CPM on a direct buy? The answer is they won’t. So at the end of the day we have advertisers that need to protect their brands and ad networks that need to protect their premium publishers.
So are networks / exchanges on the brink of extinction?, yes they are. At least the ones that do not provide a safe place for their advertisers and do not provide transparency to their partners. This does not have to be full site disclosure but ad networks need to provide their advertisers the ability to gain insight into where ads are actually running and publishers with transparency into what ads are running on thier site.
