Brand ads in drag

So what's up with all these performance ads without clicks? Well at least not clickable links that any normal human can find without the aid of a magnifying glass. Some even go so far as to not let users click for 30 seconds or more - after the message has rolled and re-rolled. I'm sure performance advocates would maintain that all of these practices are measures to ensure that only qualified clicks get through. But what if it was more than that? What if these measures were really about exceptionally cheap brand advertising, or Brand ads in Drag?




















There are a number of local brands (you know who you are) mascarading on performance networks and benefiting from loads of brand exposure and only paying on a CPC basis! CPC only ads are hard for many publishers to swallow at the best of times (particularly if they come complete with logos, animation and branding messages), but many brands (mainly in the financial industry) are surely taking the piss? So what does this mean to the average publisher? Giving away impressions at next to nothing is all good and well if you have the scale of a TM, but if you don't, you'll find every impression is precious. Most smaller publishers simply can't sustain their sites without a fair price for each one.

Many brand ads in this market are measured on a clicks basis (to guage success) anyway, which is surely wrong? For the average publisher that means that, while their ads are sold on an impression basis, they're being measured on results that are only marginally under their control. After all - creative comes supplied in what ever form it takes and it's pretty rare that publishers have a say in the look, feel or delivery. So the only element under publisher control is audience. In some cases the audience is perfect and the branding is fantastic! A happy marriage to be sure, but the elements missing from this relationship are brand measures - intent to purchase, share of mind and brand positioning.

If these factors aren't taken in to consideration when making a CPM purchase, there's a lot of hard work - from creatives, media shops and publishers, that goes unaccounted for. Stay tuned for more local brand research from the IAB NZ soon... in the meantime - let's give everyone a fair suck of the sav aye?