| ... if it was ever really alive. | | | | enjoying". So it's more of a soft-sell. |
| You know the main problem of advertising online? | | | | Take that message online and it doesn't really |
| People hate ads. | | | | work. How can you make an interstitial page into |
| Way back in Internet history there were banners... | | | | a "soft sell"? Apart from closely targetting it to |
| especially run-of site banners, which advertisers | | | | the page the visitor last saw, and the page they'll |
| bought per thousand impressions. I think | | | | see next, there isn't much you can do. It's still an |
| advertisers were paying up to $30 CPM for | | | | ad. |
| run-of-site banners. I remember selling some to | | | | So are Adwords/Adsense ads being "tuned out" |
| Entrepreneur Magazine... although I don't | | | | like banners were? |
| remember how much I charged them. | | | | Are website visitors rebelling against advertising in |
| After a while, banners were "tuned out" by site | | | | general? |
| visitors, clickthrough rates nose-dived and the | | | | According to the Telegraph, the huge "Web 2.03 |
| cost per thousand impressions fell through the | | | | properties are struggling to turn huge numbers of |
| floor. | | | | site users into cash. Apparently, "Mark Zuckerberg |
| What did advertisers do? | | | | apologised to Facebook users for the "bad job" |
| They started to pay (now part of Yahoo) per | | | | his company made of implementing Beacon, a |
| click... and the Pay Per Click industry was born. | | | | controversial new advertising system that exploits |
| Google took this form of advertising to new | | | | the power of 'word of mouth' marketing." |
| heights with their Adwords/Adsense system... and | | | | Oh dear. |
| very clever it is too. | | | | The problem, for Facebook, is that they have |
| But the fact remains that people don't like | | | | huge numbers of competitors... and those |
| advertising. Take a simple example... what do you | | | | competitors will be quite happy to undercut |
| do when you're watching a movie and the ads | | | | whatever revenues Facebook generates... and |
| are shown? You head to the kitchen for a snack | | | | Web 2.0 users will be quite happy to go to |
| or drink, right? | | | | whatever Web 2.0 website that offers the least |
| Advertisers got wise to that trick, so they | | | | advertising. |
| decided to "sponsor" a movie and have a little | | | | So we're left with a dilemma which has existed |
| mini-ad before and after the movie segments. I | | | | since the Internet was born... if people are free to |
| guess you're more likely to see it because you | | | | decided which websites they want to visit, and |
| haven't yet left for the kitchen, or have just got | | | | there's intense competition for website visitors, |
| back from it to see the next movie segment. | | | | can website owners afford to put advertising on |
| Also, the message isn't, "buy our stuff", it's more, | | | | their websites? On the other hand, can they |
| "we're good guys sponsoring the movie you're | | | | afford NOT to? |