Online ads need to be about the impression left, not impressions received
Online advertising models are changing. Atomic 212 business director, Ashleigh Hall, explains in this post how to make your brand message worth watching.
We’ve all been in the same situation watching content online and seeing the same pre-roll ad over and over, even across several months.
It’s almost as if publishers have promised to deliver a certain number of impressions, so when it gets to monthly crunch time, they just hammer us with the same repetitive message.
From a publisher point of view, I get it –X impressions have been promised, and it is not their responsibility to issue engaging and bespoke creative. It really comes as no surprise, and it makes sense in the short term – publishers have to deliver on the promises they make.
But it’s a terrible idea in the long term.
Totally agree Ashleigh.
But there are two parts to this equation. The first is that the “impression received” can be approximated prior to the online ad being served, but studying previous traffic. This is the bailiwick of the media agency.
As you rightly point out, not all impressions are created equal. The ad placement must be sympathetic with the publisher content and must be targeted. Again, the media agency’s bailiwick.
However, when programmatic placement is based on a lowest CPM criterion at the advertiser’s behest then the media agency’s ability to deliver on is compromised.
But regarding “impressions left”, that is a conglomerate of the media agency buy, the programmatic effect, the targeting, the environment, the creative … to name a few. Parts of that are the responsibility of the media agency, parts are the responsibility of the publishers, parts are the responsibility of the creative agency, and parts are the responsibility of the advertiser.
So who owns the problem? And how do we measure or gauge the “impressions left”? How do we even define them? That sounds very much like the advertiser’s role.
So, I’d be interested as to how many advertisers have taken that role ‘in-house’ and own it?