With all the changes the internet has been through in just the last 5 years, trying to find a strategy to maximize your advertising dollar can be a desperately confusing prospect. Used to be, banner ads were the height of advertising, paying off in click-throughs and views, but with the new technologies and the prevalence of broadband, that strategy has shifted off the grid. Static ads are almost a thing of the past with Flash and video bringing real time advertising to the forefront.
Getting the right ad in front of the right person is as important now as it ever has been. With real time bidding, the ability to put local video advertising in front of a viewer in the area becomes possible. With targeting data to support the bid, placing an ad that is suited for the viewer becomes a matter of strategy instead of a matter of luck. With banner ads and static adspace, local ads reaching the right audience is a matter of statistics, and not very good ones at that with the ability to pull cookie data and IP addresses from a user’s browser that enables targeting.
This means an advertiser can expect the ad the user sees will be targeted to a specific group, whether it be regional or interest-based. With the data accumulation processes in place, the ability to define these parameters is a matter of facts, based on IP data and usage. Local advertising thus becomes possible since the advertiser can place ads to match those parameters. This saves time and money since ads are generically placed and impression charges only get tallied when the ad is used. This becomes very valuable by targeting viewers with bidded ads.
Taking advantage of this kind of targeting also provides content sites with a better model as well. No longer do you have advertisers frustrated with the statistical ad model, paying for impression after impression without accompanying results. Advertisers are much more likely to work with a site that can deliver their ads to the audience they need to reach instead of a generic audience that won’t click through to the offer. This means advertisers are more willing to pay on the impression instead of the click through, as the impressions are reaching an appropriate audience. Click-throughs were the only way to know you were getting interest, but sites don’t like the click-through model because of the low throughput. Impressions work much better for both advertiser and site owner as the audience gets exposed to an appropriate ad, and site owners don’t have to wait on a click through that may not come until much later or off of another site.
By having the targeted audience, you get the results you anticipate by bidding your ad. This gives you a better return on investment in video advertising and boosts your bottom line. Take a look at bidding your ads and see what kind of improvements you’ll be able to see in your marketing strategy.
