High-profile publishers calling for the demise of ad networks?
Posted: July 28th, 2009 | Author: vlad | Filed under: Quote |Premium online publishers are spreading a gospel throughout the online advertising space that is both misguided and could be destructive to the future of online advertising. In calling for the elimination of Ad Networks, they are disregarding the well being of both advertisers and mid-size publishers. In defending their position, they make arguments that serve their own short term interests, but harm the long-term interests of the industry as a whole.
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That’s just silly. Publishers serve their own short term interests but harm the long-term interests of the industry as a whole? Really?
Ad networks who can only show volume to justify their value add do — and should — struggle. Ad networks who serve all these punch-the-monkey and free-credit-report crap, and do it on a large scale, deserve to struggle. That is ultimately what harms the industry as a whole.
Since volume can’t be used as competitive advantage, what can?
Here are some ideas:
- Ad networks could help advertisers and agencies to pick the right impressions, which would lead them into ad exchange and optimization territory.
- They can help agencies deal with data by selling technology
- They also have to work with other ad networks towards a scalable cascading infrastructure that would allow advertisers to hyper-target.
And let premium publishers do whatever they want. They have enough problems to deal with, don’t they?
Good point. I find this is a smart move by the big publishers. By scaring quality advertisers away from the smaller publishers (usually accessible through ad networks), they get to keep larger sums of revenues. In the end, the biggest losers are the advertisers themselves, who’s goal is to reach a certain audience.