GRP Gains Momentum From Aol; Facebook Display Rates Rise; Showrooming Meet Geofencing

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Online GRP Momentum

Aol is looking to satisfy brand marketers who want their GRP offline – and online, too. In a press release, Aol announced that it “will leverage Nielsen Online Campaign RatingsTM reach, frequency and gross rating point (GRP) measurement to determine how well it delivered ads to the desired target audience. As the digital content NewFronts approach, AOL is the first major publisher to use a TV-based guarantee model for its online video inventory.” Whatever it takes – online ad networks and publishers want to be at the receiving end of brand budgets. Read more.

Facebook Display Rates

New data from TBG Digital says that Facebook display trends in the U.S. are looking like a hockey stick in Q1 of this year when comparing to a year ago. Marketing Land’s Pamela Parker reports, “Facebook’s average CPM rates globally have increased by 41% since the first quarter of 2011, and 15% since the fourth quarter of last year. Meanwhile, CPCs have risen 23% in the top 5 markets versus Q4.” UK CPCs were flatter year-over-year -but already high. Read more. And, see the actual report.

Mobile Ads Mayhem

In a Wall Street Journal article yesterday, the recent surge in investor interest for mobile advertising-related is the topic of discussion. The WSJ’s Spencer Ante writes, “Venture capitalists are making huge bets that mobile phones will be the next big tech money-maker. ‘It is not a toy anymore,’ said Chris Sacca, a prominent early-stage financier who invested in Instagram. But a major obstacle is stunting growth. Advertising, the revenue source of choice for many Internet upstarts, isn’t keeping pace with the explosive growth in the smartphone platform.” Oh no! Oh yes. Read more (subscription).

Machine Learning Love

Semantic, contextual, optimize and profitize.. you love machine learning (ML – the acronym). Then, perhaps you’ll like this piece by Aria Haghighi, co-founder of Prismatic, as he challenges ML lovers to build better ML products. He begins, “Arguably, not since Google’s tremendous innovations in the late ’90s/early 2000s has algorithmic technology led to a product that has permeated the popular culture. That’s not to say there haven’t been great ML wins since, but none have as been as impactful or had computational algorithms at their core.” It’s time to change that trend says Haghighi. Read more.

Licking Game Ads

ClickZ’s Christopher Heine hits a raw nerve when discussing online casual games with Tribal DDB Worldwide CEO Paul Gunning as he rips the ad opportunity in games as well as companies like Zynga. Heine quotes Gunning: “[The] creative canvass is still rudimentary for big brands that expect ‘lick the screen’ creative opportunities. Opportunities that exist in gaming are [B.S.]. They are background images. Until they create an environment that makes for an optimal advertising experience – and prove that it works – it’s never going to pay off when I think it could easily pay off.” Somebody needs better engagement metrics. Read more.

Social Game CPCs

New data from AdKnowledge’s Facebook ad buying platform AdParlor shows that CPCs are on the decline in social games while clickthrough rate (CTR) is on the way up. Insider Facebook reports on the data by game type, “Hardcore games — those designed for longer session times that include more strategy or combat– have higher CPCs than virtual world games, including simulation games, pets and city games. Both of these categories have higher CPCs than casual social games, like puzzles and trivia. This could be related to there being more competition in the hardcore social gaming space, but [AdParlor Chief Executive Officer Hussein] Fazal also believes that hardcore games are getting better at monetizing and so they are able to pay more to acquire each new user.” Read more.

Showrooming Meet Geofencing

Retailers that are ticked off about losing customers who are merely using their store to look at – but not buy – products may have a new buzzword come to their rescue. Mobile Commerce Daily covers “geofencing” as MMC’s Chantal Tode explains, “Geofencing enables retailers to recognize customers when they are within a predetermined radius around a specific location and send them messages and special offers designed to encourage them to walk into the store and make a purchase. A couple of the programs already in place are opt-in, so merchants know they are delivering offers to consumers who have expressed an interest in receiving them.” It’s a better phrase than “mobile razor wire.” Read more.

Ad Exchange Case

A newly-released, 2012, Google DoubleClick Ad Exchange case study has been released and sings the praises of the company’s Exchange. It’s a case study, after all. Within the study on a Publisher’s Clearing House (PCH) campaign, an interesting tidbit which may point to wider “challenges” with U.S. domestic display ad inventory versus international in the ad exchange space. Denise Leggio, PCH’s director of ad operations, explains the success of her company’s international efforts, “Since we have less channel conflict for international traffic, targeting those markets allowed us to maximize fill on inventory that tends to go unfilled by traditional networks and yield optimizers. It also increased the quality for our US advertisers.” Download the study (PDF).

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