ErinIs.com

I saw the above banner and was horrified, so obviously I clicked. Then I arrived at one of the most entertaining sites I’ve been to as a digital marketer in a while. I just wish I knew who did the site or what real company it was promoting…PointRoll is mentioned once but that’s it.

I’m not going to spoil the fun, go check it out here. Make sure you browse the site a bit for some awesome quotes like:

“We have 100% delivery. Sometimes you don’t even need a computer!”

“Our motto, “Keep it in the box,” (you know, the banner!) ensures our staff of talented clickologists never strays from what we know works: The highest standard for the lowest common denominator. It’s what we were founded on. It’s what works.”

“It’s not just a theory, it’s digital fact.”

Ok Pandora. I like you; I think you like me. I don’ t mind your ads, heck as a media buyer I respect the integration and ability to target that you offer. I like you so much in fact I have two accounts and not just because I want 80 free hours of streaming music a month (40 per account) but because I have a work appropriate account and a personal one.

But, Pandora, we need to talk. I don’t know what you’re trying to say about me with your recent ads. Does my love of Dragonettes ‘I get around’ and my thumbs uping of Uh Huh Her’s ‘Explode’  imply that I’m a little bit of a whore? Do you think my recent addition of 50 Cent’s “Have a Baby By Me” is a sign that I desperately need birth control? Is that why 90% of the display ads I saw today were for NuvaRing?

I don’t know if the ads were due to behaviroal targeting (I was actively shopping for high heels and looking up bars in SF) or if Pandora was profiling my song choices (check out the above mentioned here, here and here).

One more thing, and this ones for the NuvaRing people, I really don’t want to check out how easy your product is to use. I was terrified there was going to be some sort of how to video. One of the easiest ways to  reduced CTR and decrease engagement – using the word vaginal in your copy and vaguely imply that by clicking the user will see a how to insert video.

(Aren’t you so glad I brought this blog out of retirement?)

There is a great article on TechCrunch “Let’s Kill The CPM” that is a great argument to end the use of CPM (cost per thousand) as a metric to buy, sell and evaluate display ads. Shelby Bonnie makes some excellent points as to why the CPM is stunting the growth of online advertising and ultimately annoying the hell out of users. Using CPM instead of engagement, CPA (cost per acquisition) or CTR is driving  publishers to fill as much of their sites with ads which only increase users to tune out the ads.

Unfortunately CPM is going to be a hard stat to shake from a media buyers mind and impossible to remove from the publishers sales lingo. To me CPM is the same thing as traditional media’s ratings. It is a value placed on the popularity of the site/show, without considering the target audience or their ultimate actions; but target audience is everything.

Are people clicking? Does anyone notice the ad? Of those 1000 people per $30, how many are ins the market to even buy our product? And of those who is actually going to take action?

Few sites (and absolutely no traditional) take it beyond the number of eyeballs an ad reaches and determine cost based on engagement, acquisition or another viable statistic. Some might argue it is unfair that a publisher have to rely on how the capabilities of the advertiser, however I think it would push publishers to select the right advertisers and deliver them to a viable target audience. Right now, publishers are willing to let just about anyone advertise, take a look at CNN or Facebook if you don’t believe me. Spammy, bad ads which just drive down a users willingness to click on ads. Clean up the ad space and users will actually find display ads a source of information on products.

We have the technology, we have the data, we just need to push to make the ad system better, more effective and a hell of a lot less annoying.

Long long ago, the internet was an ad barren land. No dancing people telling you how you could save on your auto insurance, no before and after belly pictures and no ads letting me know Obama wants me to go back to school…and then the first banner ad appeared!

According to TheLongListofTheLongestStuffatTheLongestDomainNameAtLast.com

“AT&T was the first to dish over some money to HotWired to display the beast they created, a 468 x 60 banner that came to life on October 25 1994″

I wonder what it’s click through rate was….

via @cstoller

I had massive open heart surgery when I was a baby. I nearly died prior to surgery; my heart stopped beating in surgery and the surgeon resuscitated me by pumping my heart with his index finger and thumb; and post surgery my scars got so infected I nearly died again. Twenty-six years later, you’d never know. I’m incredibly appreciative of being alive and I’m incredibly thankful to my pediatric nurse mom (who diagnosed me and was persistent in getting me seen by a cardiac specialist ) and the doctors who treated me.

I’m not sure if it is because of my heart trauma or not, but I love this banner ad from Cleveland Clinic. The action version is even better!

The website is pretty fantastic too. Its clean, streamlined, sociable and succinct.

So raise your hand if in the last few weeks you’ve noticed these ads EVERYWHERE online. 

While these ads annoy me to no end, I would kill to work on this account. This is one of the few accounts that has increased their spend recently and they are just blanketing the web. 

Not sure if their on a behavioral buy (although I don’t look up diet information), could be demographic (because all 25 year old women are obsessed with their weight) or maybe they’re just buying remanent ad space by zip or DMA.

The website (yes I clicked, I was curious) is positioned as a San Diego woman’s blog. Anyone else click through on these and have a website targeting their DMA?

I’m pretty sure the type of people who fall for email scams are the same people who click on banner ads like this 

I would love to meet the designers behind these ads. How do you sleep at night knowing you’ve put something like this out there?

The recent IDC report released in November investiageted the differences between social network users and ‘regular’ internet users. The study discovered that social network users were less receptive to online advertising with only 57% of SN users clicking on at least one ad in the last year compared to 79% of all web users. 

I don’t think anyone who is on a social network is really surprised. Facebook ads have become absolutely ridiculous. I really only see about 10 products that constantly rotate and no advertiser is really targeting me other than my gender, location or relationship status. Few advertisers take advantage of Facebook’s ability to get super targeted, especially the spam folks. You can display ads based on words included on my profile, come on make them relevant! 

Sometimes I click on the spam ads just to make them pay them pay for my clicks. I know, I’m totally getting coal in my stocking this year. 

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Apparently as the market tanks and layoffs run rampant and the sky crumbles around us, several bits of the internet have been pronounced dead. 

First up, Google’s SearchWiki has killed off SEO.

Google has made the SearchWiki function a permananet fixture on Google Search. So now you can organize and make comments on your search results. Your organized results will populate and influence future searches while your comments are made visible to other users who search on the same terms. Read more about how it works from The Telegraph.

SEO is thus ended as consumers have the power to rank and comment on results. No longer can back end tweaks, text edits and SEO the heck out of webpage. Or so some people think. I really don’t think it will have a negative effect on SEO, just force folks to stay relevant, informative and honest. Web 2.0 is all about being social and interactive, so embrace the change and SEO will live on. 

Banner ads have also been pronounced dead (yes, again)

Silicon Valley Insider thinks Banner ads are on their way out of digital media buys and I agree (sort of). As the billboards of online, its hard to measure their effectiveness (even with click throughs and impressions), they tend to only be effective for brand awareness and direct response. There are a bazillion articles and studies that discuss the types of people who click on banners. Lower income, serial clickers, people who know those lips belong to.

So few brands really can utilize banners for much good. I don’t think they’re going away, but there will be a lot more inventory available.  

The End of the Ad World 

I’ve seen a post or two about that. But I’m hoping to keep my job so I will not be promoting that one

Another example of just because you can doesn’t mean you should. 

It looks like they took their full page penny saver ad and tried to make it into banners. 

Does Corky’s really get rid of ants in your pants? And for only $69?? Glad they put that in a starburts or I would never be able to find the price within all the copy in the leaderboard. I’m surpirsed the guy isn’t actually dancing with the spiders in his pants. 

I can’t even write about the big box ad accompanying it….tragically bad. 

I just want to help you Corky’s! Write a comment on this blog and I will help you with your online ads. 

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