How Improved Workflow Helps Advertisers And Publishers

Improved Workflow Brings Real Results (Photo credit: bpedro)

Stephanie Clifford's article in the New York Times tells the tale of Mercedes-Benz America shifting their digital buy from newspaper sites to ad networks, yet it's about more than that.

Newspapers bleeding advertising revenue are trying to capture more online, and ad networks are undercutting premium publishers.  Since I got into this business to bring advertisers a better way to work,  a couple of things jumped out at me in her piece, one speaking to advertisers and the other to publishers.

"By far the most important thing for driving success is the quality of the ad," followed by aiming at an audience, said Ken Mallon, senior vice president for custom solutions for the research firm Dynamic Logic, part of the Millward Brown division of WPP. "Generally speaking, we don't see a large range of difference in terms of the Web site."

A great ad is key.  When an ad is great, it matters far less where it is run.  But how do you get to great ad?  The answer is refinement.  It's not enough to look at digital advertising performance reporting features as a scorecard.  That data has to be incorporated into a workflow and inform real-time changes to the ad itself.  Optimizing the creative and message needs an easy-to-use ad management tool set that supports real-time changes to collateral and campaigns.  I bet you know the one I prefer.

From the publishers perspective....

"Christian A. Hendricks, vice president of interactive media at McClatchy, attributed the rise to the company's focus on online-only ads and its selling of local ads, rather than national brand campaigns."

Selling local ads to local companies is a different model. Local advertisers have different creative capabilities than national advertisers - and also different metrics of what defines a successful campaign. Local advertisers are not going to have the patience to test and learn the display advertising channel before they bail on it because they did not get any "clicks". Publishers are going to have to introduce more self-service tools that make this channel more accessible for local advertisers. That is also going to require some channel education as well. AdBean's self-service platform can be that bridge between the publishers (who are used to working with national advertisers) and local businesses who are going to need a more AdWords-like experience.