Mike Seiman's Blog

Over the last twelve months the focus of our industry has moved from a strong emphasis on 'the site' to an emphasis on 'the audience.' But why? And what about focusing on something at least as important... 'the placement'? 

When you think about it, the 'why' seems simple enough.

From an advertiser's perspective, any given site certainly has a high percentage of a specific audience that can be described and targeted. Still, though, on average the targeted audience is not anywhere near 100%, but rather more like 60%.  If that holds true, then one would assume 40% of a budget targeted to a site is, at least, semi-wasteful. Hedging against this wasted marketing budget has been one reason that 'audience' targeting has gained in popularity.   In addition, there are lots of sites where the core audience may be an undesirable demographic, but a handful of the visitors are of the desired demographic and therefore valuable to the campaign.  This is yet another  reason why we are seeing the current shift from site buying to audience buying.

 At CPX we have focused on audience buying since we started in the direct response realm, and, as anyone in direct response knows, to achieve the highest CPMs on the traffic you purchase, you need to find the exact right product to advertise to the exact right person every second. 

Brands have seen the clear success in direct response and it seems they’re following that model. Still, one other thing CPX has always focused on that brands have yet to catch on to, is the importance of 'placement'.  Regardless of having the exact right message to the exact right user, it will never be of use if the ad isn’t seen.  The ability to make sure that the user actually SEES the ad being served is one factor which has lead to the great success that CPX has achieved. 

Our campaigns generally have some of the highest CTR and Conversion Rates in the industry, and it’s no secret as to why.  We’ve made sure the placements we buy are immersed in the content the user is viewing. This is why our response rates are so terrific.  Whether we are serving a pop up on a parked domain page or a cube sized advertisement right in between the content of one of our publishers, we can be sure that if it’s the right user, they will click, and they will convert.

At CPX, we have spent the past two years bringing that same quality to brand advertisers who want their messages to be seen as we have been doing for seven years in the direct response world, with significantly positive results.  So if you’re wondering why your campaigns aren’t performing as well as they should, or why, even though you have the perfect audience on a mix of the highest quality of sites, from an ad network/site you feel comfortable with, then ask yourself this: Is that ad being served in the most desirable position?  If it isn’t, then I’m sure you know what to do...and while I don't necessarily mean 'call CPX'... it couldn't hurt.