Death to Display Ads… Not So Fast!

Sorry for the time off; work has been nuts but I’ve still been reading and archiving articles to talk about on the blog. Here goes some of my latest finds…..

In an earlier post I wrote about smaller sites getting better click thru rates (CTR’s) than the mass sites. The article link also talked about some pricing ideas. For the record I have been a big fan of CPM simply because it would finally give the online marketing industry a standard once and for all. However I’ve read some new stuff that is starting to change my mind. At the end of that same article it talks about some interesting ideas for pricing standards. I’ve seen Google keep growing revenue and think CPM might not bring out the competitor in people like bidding does. The author however references a pricing per action (CPC= cost per click/CPA= cost per action) model which is very interesting. If you follow the path it would force better display creative. As referenced in “Are Banner Ads Poised for Creative Renaissance?” good ad creative gets clicked especially when presented in a Takeover style. In order to make money you would have to create cool, engaging, and actionable creative to make money. Publishers would either be forced to grow internal creative teams that get results or be forced out of the display business altogether. This would in turn solve the abundant supply issue display faces today. It would also force content providers who value their skills in attracting the audience to relent website space to facilitate the takeovers. It cannot happen overnight but through conditioning a simple pricing change could create real display ad interactions that marketers seek and value. I would love to hear from others that see this “cause and effect” as different, if I don’t get any good arguments then you can count me as a new huge fan of CPC/CPA models.