Overview

Lecture 16 „ Internet vs. traditional advertising

Internet Advertising „ Benefits of Internet advertising
„ Types of Internet advertising

Boriana Koleva „ Technologies for Internet Advertising

bnk@cs.nott.ac.uk „ Problems with Internet Advertising

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Internet Advertising Why Advertise on the Internet

„ Very immature industry „ The goal of advertisers is to reach their target
„ Rapidly growing but poorly understood audience
Television viewers are migrating to the Internet
Traditional advertising
„
„
„ The Internet is the fastest growing medium in history
„ public dissemination of information in order to effect
commercial transactions „ Attractive demographics
„ one way communication „ Adverts can be updated rapidly and cheaply
„ targeting can be difficult
„ Adverts can be global
„ Internet advertising
„ potential for two-way communication „ Internet advertising is cheap in comparison with most
„ targeting is much easier conventional media

Targeted Advertising Types of Internet Advertising

„ Adverts can be targeted „ WWW Banners
„ if a person sees and advert that they don’t want to see, then
that advert has failed
„ targeting avoids this, but is traditionally expensive
„ Spot Leasing
„ DoubleClick (www.doubleclick.net) „ Pop-ups, rich media ads, interstitial
„ Dynamic Advertising Reporting and Targeting (DART)
„ DART builds a profile of visitors to any of DoubleClick’s „ E-Mail
clients sites
„ datamine server logs „ URL
„ attach a unique ID to people who visit any of their sites
„

„
match user sites against a database of known domains
extract platform information
„ Chat Room Sponsorship
build a personal profile of interests
„
„ Search Engine Marketing

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 Types of Banner Ads
WWW Banners
„ Graphic display on a web page linked to the
advertisers page
„ Types of banners
„ random banner
„ keyword banner
„ Economics
„ Banner purchase
(charge may be based on display or click-through)
„ Banner swapping Interactive Advertising Bureau
„ Banner exchange
(IAB) specifications
„ Design issues
„ Advertisers requirements are rarely compatible with the
design requirements of the host site

Spot Leasing Pop-ups, Rich media, Interstitials

Pop-ups: Appear on screen without user calling for them
„ Some sites provide a space on their site that „

can be leased for a given period of time „ Pop-unders: Open underneath user’s active browser
window and do not appear until user closes active
„ Unlike banners spot adverts = are always window
displayed for the duration of the lease „ Rich media ads: Employ Flash, DHTML, Java, streaming
audio and/or video
„ Not targeted, so only effective on extremely
„ Interstitials: Provide way of placing a full-page message
high traffic sites (e.g. major search engines) between current and destination pages of user
„ Extremely expensive for high traffic sites „ Superstitials: Rich media ad that is pre-loaded into
browser’s cache and does not play until fully loaded and
user clicks to another page

Direct E-Mail Advertising Spam

„ E-mail marketing messages sent directly to interested „ Unsolicited commercial e-mail
consumers who “opt-in” or have not “opted-out”
„ Spam is exploding out of control – March
„ Mailing Lists
„ Very low cost
2003, 45% of all Internet e-mail purportedly
„ Easily amenable to targeting was spam
„ Very effective when solicited and carefully targeted „ Efforts to control spam
„ Utterly ineffective when not carefully targeted „ Filtering software (only partly effective)
„ Unsolicited e-mail (spam) is a serious form of „ Self-regulation by industry (ineffective)
network abuse „ Government regulation

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URL Advertising Chat Room Sponsorship
„ A memorable URL can be a powerful advertising tool „ IRC chat rooms are commonly used by groups
in its own right sharing a specialist interest
„ www.lastminute.com „ hobbyists
„ www.student.com „ political activists
„ www.yahoo.com
„ self-help groups
„ www.hotmail.com
„ Much of the associated advertising is free (e.g. „ Chat servers are often sponsored by advertisers
search engine listings) „ usually the sponsors provide the server as a “service” to the
target community
„ Well chosen URLs are self targeting „ For example Mattel sponsored Barbie chat rooms(!)
„ URLs can be valuable commodities in their own right

Paid Search Engine Inclusion and

Placement Jargon
„ Impressions (ad view)
„ Search engine marketing one of fastest growing and „ Number of users exposed to an advert
most effective forms of online marketing „ CPM
communications „ Cost per thousand impressions
„ Paid inclusion – firms pay for inclusion in search „ Effective Frequency
engine index „ The number of times a user is exposed to an advert

„ Paid placement – firms pay for a guarantee that it „ Hit

A recorded HTTP request for delivery of a file
will appear prominently in results of relevant „

This is not the same thing as impressions

searches „

„ Visit
„ Overture.com and Google leaders in this technology „ a series of requests made by a user to a site in one session
„ Appropriate disclosure of paid inclusion and „ Click Through
placement practices an issue „ When a user follows a link to the advertisers page
„ Click Ratio
„ The proportion of impressions that result in click through

“Commandments” of Internet
Important Technologies Advertising
„ Cookies „ Adverts must be visually appealing
„ A cookie is a file stored locally by the user agent ( i.e. „ Adverts must be targeted
browser) „ Content must be valuable to consumers
The cookie can be accessed to by most programming
Adverts must be a part of an overall marketing strategy
„
„
systems designed for the web (e.g. JavaScript, CGI, Java
Applets etc) „ Adverts must be seamlessly linked with the ordering
„ Many advertising sites store personal IDs used for targeting process
in the cookie „ Advert design must make very good use of HCI
„ Meta Tags „ For example, a research study found:
„ adverts in the lower right-hand corner of the screen have been
„ HTML tag for metadata found to generate a 228% higher click-through rate than ads at
the top of the page
„ Keywords in the META tag can be important to advertisers „ http://www.webreference.com/dev/banners/

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Attracting Visitors Attracting Visitors (2)
„ Search Engines „ Promotions and attractions
„ Sites must be listed „ discounts etc
„ Sites must be ranked highly „ competitions
„ Keywords are crucial, and require careful thought „ free goods (usually electronic)
„ Some search engines honour keywords in <META> tags,
others do not „ E.g. software or media (screensavers & wallpapers etc are very
„ Keywords in the text are important popular)
„ Keywords in the title and <H1> tags are often critical „ the word “Free” is a powerful attractant
„ Attractive, professional (and well targeted) design „ Value Added sites providing a free service
and artwork „ search engines
„ Content is vital „ portals (sometimes specialist)
„ There must be information that is valuable to potential „ news services
consumers „ online games

Does Web Advertising Work?

„ This question is difficult to answer
„ Remember – the industry is young
„ Click ratios are usually extremely low (1% or less is
typical)
„ Using published click through ratios and known traffic
it is possible to estimate revenue
„ According to this analysis, only the top 0.01% of web sites
can generate sufficient revenue for long term financial
viability.
„ This is because sites differ drastically in popularity
„ However the web is unsurpassed in its ability to build
relationships with customers

Does Web Advertising Work? (2) Network Abuse

„ Unsolicited e-mail (spam)
„ True that clickthrough rates may be low, but „ not effective (not targeted and very unpopular)
these are just one measure of effectiveness „ antisocial (automated mailing systems can generate very
large amounts of traffic and storage)
„ Research indicates that most powerful „ invariably against the code of practice of network managers

marketing campaigns include both online and „ Intercepted links

link is replaced by an instruction that forwards the browser to
offline advertising
„
another site
„ antisocial and pointless
„ Hijacking the browser
„ using a script to attempt to prevent the user from leaving the
site. It is possible to prevent the back button operating. It is
even possible to attach code to the window closing event that
opens a new window - thus trapping the browser!
„ antisocial and pointless

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Other Invasive Marketing Techniques

„ Ad bomb (Ad-ware): Any computer program that is

surreptitiously downloaded on a client computer for
the purpose of calling for unwanted advertising
without the user’s consent or intervention
„ Ambush advertising: Gator.com’s mini-billboard
„ Customer hijacking: self-executing programs
downloaded onto client computers that permit a
company to “hijack” customers of affiliate marketing
sites, and redirect affiliate commission to hijacker