Internet advertisers sharpen their aim
March 9, 2001 - The East Bay Business Times
The online advertising industry’s latest moves to better target the ubiquitous banners and pop-ups will give ad buyers, ad sellers and even the consumer something they have longed for  accountability.
Online advertising began as a free-for-all with the focus of “getting something up there” as quickly as possible. Within the past year, however, questions about the medium’s utility and bang for the buck have popped up daily. And the focus of ads is slowly shifting from clicking through to a sale toward becoming a brand-building tool or product-knowledge builder.
“As many sites consolidate or drop off, and ad rates decline, advertisers are asking for more from the people who create and host their ads,” said Marc Ryan, director of media research for AdRelevance, a Seattle-based firm specializing in tracking online advertising.
To help ad buyers and sellers profit from these changes, Allan Karl, vice president of Wirestone, an Emeryville creative and interactive services company, counsels his new clients to mind their target.
“In the post dot-bomb economy, online advertising must be carefully planned and integrated with offline efforts,” Karl said. “The ability of online advertising to hone in and really target market segments is the true power of Internet advertising.
“A strong strategic advertising placement plan that leverages the targeting capabilities of top ... sites will reinforce branding, deliver the appropriate message and elicit a positive response from Web visitors.”
Internet portal Ask Jeeves, also of Emeryville, has responded to these needs by selling targeted advertising space on its site.
The portal serves up traditional ad sizes as well as text links to sponsors. In addition, they take a step away from many other portals by offering advertisers the ability to place searched-for sites within an Ask Jeeves browser frame, essentially placing ads on top of the independent sites it links to, creating many more ad views for the Internet butler.
“As traditional advertisers enter the online ad market, they are requiring performance-based pricing (CPC or CPA models), as well as proven accountability and success metrics,” said Peter Hershberg, vice president of targeting and acquisition for Ask Jeeves. “However, when their ultimate objective is branding, CPM (cost per thousand ad impressions) models are also effective.”
Ask Jeeves’ advertising creativity is still a bit of an anomaly. The online ad industry has been mysteriously slow in the adoption of new ad sizes, ideas and technologies like Flash animation to overcome a perceived market sluggishness.
But this is starting to change, and it is becoming clearer that these gradual changes toward accountability work to make online advertising a more effective medium.
San Francisco’s CNET is taking strides to integrate and diversify the ads they display, providing a variety of formats, particularly large Flash-animated ads surrounded by the site’s articles. This variety allows potential advertisers greater diversity in their portfolios and the ability to attain a desired response from a viewer.
Ray is a contributor to the Business Times.
