I want to love the interactive and engaging banners they created…but the game is just too hard. I spent 5 minutes+ trying to figure this thing out. I didn’t know that the hamster thing was supposed to do…

When does a long in-banner engagement pay off for a brand?

The right hand sky scraper is the offending banner and no I didn’t cut off the bottom “Now through May” thats how the ad appeared on mail.yahoo.com. The left hand large box is expandable that popped out from “Rollover to Save”.

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.”

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?)

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.

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’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.

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

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. 

The ads I see annoyingly often include: acai diets, someone telling me I have a muffin top (I do not thank you very much), dating sites (just b/c my status is single does not mean I am desperately seeking a boyfriend), engagement rings (but you said I still need a boyfriend!), real estate agents, win an ipod/iphone/mac (you mean all I have to do is complete 64 offers and spend $400 on your partner sites?) and the occasional wildcard. 

Below are my scrren grabs of the last 3 page refreshes from my facbook page. Out of the 9 possible ads I could have been shown 8 of them were for diets (I didn’t screen grad the 9th which was for marathon training, something I actually do care about).

Why doesn’t facebook regulate a little bit more on their ad deployment? That would probably help with their CTR and increase their revenues because people actually might find the ads relevant! 

Theses 8 are totally absurd! Why would I ever click on these? 

 (See below)

It’s fucking December. summer is not coming. Showing me two ads at one time will not increase my propensity to click. 

!) I’m not a super model, I don’t need to diet like one

2) I like rice but I don’t want to eat it for 2 months straight

3) I don’t ever want to be like Rachel Ray

1) Tip number one, do not follow Oprah’s diet advice. She’s not exactly great at staying in shape. 

2) Is that supermodel giving me the stink eye? 

3) I don’t want Acai. Please stop with the Acai ads.