Digital Media News

If you are just beginning to research online advertising and what it can do for your business, one of the essential questions you need answered is: What is online advertising? At  Exact Drive, we realize that not everyone is familiar with the domain of advertising and abbreviations (people in online advertising love abbreviations), so we are headed back to the basics to give you a quick overview of the wonderful world of online advertising.

Almost as soon as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising was invented click fraud became a problem, a nasty thorn in the side of an otherwise constructive way to advertise on the Internet. As smart phone users become more mobile web savvy and the uptick in online advertising continues to trend, businesses will begin to find more lucrative and safe methods of advertising on the Internet. Pay-per-click advertising has long been a very popular (and successful) way to advertise on the Internet. However, one of the main problems with pay-per-click advertising has been and continues to be battling click fraud.

In any Internet advertising campaign, staying on top of the competition is crucial. Each year brings forth new strategies to reach this goal and offers companies more options for choosing the right Internet advertising package. What worked just 2 years ago may now leave sales flat and traffic on the downturn.

Exact Drive defines its available inventory (websites) into main categories and sub-level categories. Any categories (main or sub-level) can be included or excluded together within a campaign. Category targeting places display ads on sites that are categorically relevant to your industry and customers’ interests. Available inventory categories can include include entertainment, e-commerce, technology, health and travel.

Soon we will share a list of prohibited inventory content and why they are prohibited inventory sources (websites), which basically boils down to Exact Drive reasonably believing that the inventory content is likely to be in violation of any applicable law, regulation, or court order.

Banner ad requirements are important to know and understand. There are few technical requirements imposed on banner ads (if they are dynamic ads, static or anything in between) by Exact Drive. As an initial requirement, a single banner ad must render properly multiple times during the audit process, regardless of any parameter or restriction assigned. Therefore, frequency capping or geo-targeting set outside of Exact Drive will interfere with the audit process. Please have geo-targeting and frequency capping parameters from third party ad servers turned off during our audit process. The most popular Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard banner sizes Exact Drive works with are: 728×90, 300×250, 160×600 and 300×600.

Banner Ads Can Be Rejected For The Following Reasons

Banner ad requirements are important to know and understand. There are few technical requirements imposed on banner ads (if they are dynamic ads, static or anything in between) by Exact Drive. As an initial requirement, a single banner ad must render properly multiple times during the audit process, regardless of any parameter or restriction assigned. Therefore, frequency capping or geo-targeting set outside of Exact Drive will interfere with the audit process. Please have geo-targeting and frequency capping parameters from third party ad servers turned off during our audit process. The most popular Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard banner sizes Exact Drive works with are: 728×90, 300×250, 160×600 and 300×600.

Banner Ads Can Be Rejected For The Following Reasons

- The ad does not display at all
- The ad is wrong tag size
- No privacy policy on landing page that requests personal identifiable information (PII)
- The banner ad intermittently does not display
- For expandable banner ads or other banner ads with interaction, the banner ad attempts the interaction but does not function properly.
- The banner has multiple versions with different brands under a single ad tag
- A single banner ad represents and clicks through to multiple different brands’ landing pages
- For video ads, a pre-roll ad for a different brand plays before the actual offer
- banner ads with multiple brands must link to landing page(s) having the same single consistent brand.
- The banner ad is clicked and does not open a landing page
- The banner ad is clicked and a landing page opens but no content loads
- The banner ad does not display a brand
- Clicking on an ad must not initiate a download of any type of file
- The banner ad’s landing page loads in the same page instead of opening a new window or tab
- The banner ad loads the entire landing page into the frame
- The banner ad has no discernible brand or offering
- The banner ad displays a brand but it is not sufficient notification

Behavioral targeting or behavioral advertising can be thought of as the process of selecting prospects based on what they actually do online. Such online activities can include search terms used, sites visited and general browsing habits. The technique of behavioral targeting delivers advertisements to audiences who are actively seeking your offering or have a history of visiting websites of a similar content or topic to your product or service. When you get a moment, check out another article written by Exact Drive about behavioral targeting entitled, “Is Behavioral Targeting the Best for Customers?”

Exact Drive offers a number of behavioral targeting categories to choose from. Below outlines the available behavioral targeting categories and the related behavioral targeting definition for each, followed by a supporting definition after each category. Remember, with behavioral targeting you are trying to accurately select or target prospects based on what they actually do online or have done online. Again, the technique of behavioral targeting delivers display ads to audiences who are actively seeking your offerings.

The online advertising industry is strong and here to stay. However, as 2012 comes to a close, many articles are written that outline the “predictions for 2013,” “top advertising stories of 2012,” “five reasons why the online advertising industry will fail in 2013,” and so on and so on. These articles are fun to read and some are even useful and insightful. Instead of pretending that I have some secret insight into the future of the online advertising industry or a knowledge base significant enough to accurately outline what’s to come in 2013, I would rather share a couple suggestions. Online advertising is a fast-moving, ever-changing industry and sometimes we are moving a little too fast to stop and reflect on why we think what we think and why we do what we do.

Media Buyers Are Media Buyers, Not Creative Directors

Oh, the fun of cash flow in the World of digital media. I recently had a conversation with FastPay’s founder and CEO Jed Simon. FastPay is a tech-enabled finance platform that helps digital businesses with monthly revenue greater than $50,000 overcome the struggle of long, receivable cycles by providing specialized credit lines up to several million dollars. Jed began his career in the investment banking new media group at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York providing IPO, debt finance, and merger and acquisitions advisory services prior to joining DreamWorks SKG in 1996.

Tim Nichols: What are some of the biggest challenges that digital media businesses face?