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I've always thought expecting direct revenue from web ads was looking at the problem upside-down. Nobody purchases directly from mainstream TV ads. The purpose

by s_q_b 12y ago

I've always thought expecting direct revenue from web ads was looking at the problem upside-down. Nobody purchases directly from mainstream TV ads. The purpose is brand awareness, and sidebar ads have always seemed infinitely more useful to build such awareness among the public. Optimizing on CTR or impressions just seems like optimizing vanity metrics, because they're easy to measure.

pbhjpbhj 12y ago
>Nobody purchases directly from mainstream TV ads. // I doubt this is true. A small minority, yes, sure, I can certainly accept that. Any company that does a product based advertising push with a product launch also seems to disagree with you. I don't watch mainstream TV (partly to avoid advertising) but the little I do see still appears to have some direct purchase focussed ads - particularly kids toys at Christmas (it happens to be that I saw kids FTA-TV just before Christmas). CTR seems a pretty good metric for engagement (yes you can't some false clicks; also assuming no one is maliciously generating clicks). Impressions seems prone to many problems that don't make it easy to measure accurately - just because an ad is requested doesn't mean it's rendered to the viewable page area. Still, I run ads on my blog which make it self-financing. I also have donation buttons (Paypal) and modified my widgets to allow ads to be turned off per blog-post - so some posts don't have any ads at all. Never had a donation but have financed itself [ie server costs + domain names + perhaps a tiny bit more] on ads for ~8 years.
- s_q_b 12y ago
  When I said "nobody purchases directly," what I meant was that nobody presses a button to buy Pepsi or Coca-Cola when their ads air. Infomercials would be a good counterpoint, as would direct sale telephone advertisements. But the best and most expensive television advertisements, from primetime to the Superbowl, are bought on the assumption that they increase brand awareness, driving future sales. In the online space, our ad networks seem to be stuck in a permanent parade of crosses between infomercials and billboards, attempting to push product right now. To me, that seems to be leaving a lot of opportunity on the table.

by s_q_b 12y ago

pbhjpbhj 12y ago

>Nobody purchases directly from mainstream TV ads. // I doubt this is true. A small minority, yes, sure, I can certainly accept that. Any company that does a product based advertising push with a product launch also seems to disagree with you. I don't watch mainstream TV (partly to avoid advertising) but the little I do see still appears to have some direct purchase focussed ads - particularly kids toys at Christmas (it happens to be that I saw kids FTA-TV just before Christmas). CTR seems a pretty good metric for engagement (yes you can't some false clicks; also assuming no one is maliciously generating clicks). Impressions seems prone to many problems that don't make it easy to measure accurately - just because an ad is requested doesn't mean it's rendered to the viewable page area. Still, I run ads on my blog which make it self-financing. I also have donation buttons (Paypal) and modified my widgets to allow ads to be turned off per blog-post - so some posts don't have any ads at all. Never had a donation but have financed itself [ie server costs + domain names + perhaps a tiny bit more] on ads for ~8 years.

s_q_b 12y ago
When I said "nobody purchases directly," what I meant was that nobody presses a button to buy Pepsi or Coca-Cola when their ads air. Infomercials would be a good counterpoint, as would direct sale telephone advertisements. But the best and most expensive television advertisements, from primetime to the Superbowl, are bought on the assumption that they increase brand awareness, driving future sales. In the online space, our ad networks seem to be stuck in a permanent parade of crosses between infomercials and billboards, attempting to push product right now. To me, that seems to be leaving a lot of opportunity on the table.