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