Dead Trees Form an Ad Forest of Seedlings
March 11, 2009
Nicholas Carlson’s “27 Huge Publishers Join to Replace the Banner” caught my eye. The story explains that well known publishing outfits are cooperating to generate revenue. For me the most interesting comment in the write up was:
27 publishers with a reach of about 109 million unique visitors per month — that’s 66% of the total U.S. Internet audience — have agreed to try one of three new online ad formats…
I think this is a good idea, just a bit late to the party. The flaw in the effort is traffic. Publishers’ Web sites get traffic from other places. I no longer navigate to a specific site like Forbes.com. The site is too annoying. I look at headlines and then decide whether I am willing to put up with the wacky intrusions that that publication thinks will catch my attention.
Mr. Carlson’s article goes into great detail about the way my eyeballs traverse a Web site, which makes the fatal assumption that I go to a publisher’s Web site to see what’s on offer. You may find the diagrams useful. I did.
I think the publishers may want to revisit their traffic assumptions. Some Web search engine vendors might want those ad revenues to be invested in the Web search engines’ ad systems. Ads that stumble over a technical hurdle might cost the site some traffic. The assumptions collapse. Traffic, not the publishers’ brand, is the secret to making ads do more than a trickle of revenue when a flood is needed–and quickly. I wonder if this group will figure out a way to do mobile and Twitter ads next?
Stephen Arnold, March 11, 2009
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