Guilherme Bersani

A quick look at

WEB ADVERTISING

For this presentation…

AdSense: Google’s juggernaut advertising network

Alternatives: For when Google is not available or when there are better options.

Affiliate Marketing: Performance based marketing.

Social Network Advertising: Not covered due to their in-site limitations.

The Basics

CPC - Cost per Click: Paid for every click of the ad.

CPV - Cost per View: Cost for every time a video ad is displayed.

CPA/PPP – Cost per Action/Pay Per Acquisition: It’s known as affiliate marketing. It involves getting paid for your users purchasing a product or filling a form/survey.

Fixed Cost: Commonly used by sites that do not use a third-party advertisement company.

CPM - Cost per Mille: You’re compensated for every thousand views of the advertisements.

The Companies

The Big Guys, 6 months ago: Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft

Now: Google vs. Yahoo! + Microsoft + Aol.

The Companies

Market Share - Revenue: How much are they making?

The Companies

Google AdSense, and its siblings:

AdSense: Delivers ads to websites that sign up for their network (yours).

AdWords: Place ads on Google’s search engine.

AdWords: Made for mobile apps.

Alternatives

There are hundreds of them…

The Companies

Market Share - Quantity: How many websites are using each network:

So why choose anything over AdSense?

Yes Google AdSense can net you significant amount of money, but at the same time you must consider:

Better rates: Depending on your site’s niche, some networks may net a bigger income.

Content: What you want to display is not allowed by their network.

Every click is a potential lost customer: Every click on an ad displayed on your page sends them away to a service related to your own.

Some people dislike sharing all their information with Google: Your personal info is closely tied with all your other Google accounts, make a bad mistake and that can lead you to getting:

Banned: And you may no longer receive checks and payments from Google under your name.

Requirements

Some alternatives also have very heavy requirements:

- A minimum of 500,000 unique users per month

- Highly targeted, relevant and regularly updated content for which the publisher is directly responsible

- A professional and attractive site design

- An active user base

- Its own top-level domain URL

- An active, publicly stated user privacy policy

- To be eligible to receive campaigns from advertisers, Publishers in Tribal Fusion Network must agree to and adhere to NAI’s Self-Regulatory Principles, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 , the COPPA Act of 2000 and IASH Terms and Conditions.

Requirements (cont.)

They do not accept sites that contain:

- Sex, pornography or otherwise adult-oriented content

- Promotion of the excessive use of alcohol, tobacco or illegal substances

- Violence, profanity, expletives or inappropriate language

- Promotion of illegal activity such as copyright infringement, racism, hate, mail fraud, spam, pyramid schemes, etc.

- Support an excessive amount of advertising .

The Other Alternative: Affiliate Marketing

What it is: Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts.

The Other Alternative: Affiliate Marketing

What it means: Affiliate marketing is a type of advertising in which an affiliate sells a product or service in behalf of a brand to receive a commission reward in return.

Comparing Advantages: AdSense vs. Affiliate Marketing

Google AdSenseAdvantages:

- Automated: Ads are generated based around the content you are providing.

- Free Ads: AdSense and most of its competitors will give you around $100 to start your website out when you sign up with them.

- Honest: Ads are random, so the content of your site will not be aimed at selling a product.

Comparing Advantages: AdSense vs. Affiliate Marketing

Google AdSenseDisadvantages:

- Automated: You have no control over your ads. Your competitors will be advertising on YOUR website.

- Heavy Limitations: There is a large list of “stuff” that will get you removed from those networks.

- CPC vs CPM: The decision for what option to take is on a very random case-by-case scenario, you will have to experiment.

Comparing Advantages: AdSense vs. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate MarketingAdvantages:

- Lucrative: When done right it has the potential of having by far the most income of any kind of web advertising.

- Targeted Advertising: You manage the ads that appear on your site, so you can target it towards your audience.

- More Options: Most networks give you an incentive for having a mailing list in which you can spam advertise their content.

Comparing Advantages: AdSense vs. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate MarketingDisadvantages:

- Extra Work: The ads you put on your web site are the ones you choose yourself. It will take extra maintenance.

- Active Advertising: Not only you pick your ads, you have to persuade your viewers to perform certain actions. (Free Neopoints anyone?)

- Fishy?: There are a lot of persuasive websites out there built for no other reason other than selling affiliate products.

And I do mean a lot….

So choose wisely!

Some Questions for your Exam:

1) CPC and CPM. What do they stand for? What’s their difference?

2) What is Affiliate Marketing? And when would you choose it over a standard advertisement network such as AdSense?

3) Google is the largest, and one of the most profitable advertisement networks out there. Why would you ever want to choose from one of their competitors?

4) When researching for an appropriate network to serve ads on your site, all blogs in your search results point out how Affiliate Marketing is a lot better than all other options. Why is that?