Real-Time Bidding: Profits At Mach Speed
Advertising At Mach Speed
The online advertising world is moving at mach speed. It seems that just a short time ago the Internet was a secondary channel for supporting traditional print and media campaigns. Now it appears the rolls may soon be reversed. As other more established ad mediums scale back in budget and scope, the Web continues to grow and develop as THE place to advertise.
The Emergence Of Brave New Technologies
Not surprisingly, new online technologies are constantly emerging that enable advertisers to further hone how they target their consumers. Some of those technologies are very exciting for affiliate marketers, giving them more advanced ways to reach their prospects with relevant information and precise messaging.
For example, it’s now possible for an advertiser to know precisely when a consumer is conducting a search query on their product category or on one of their competitors in the space, and to then show that prospect an ad that speaks directly to the needs revealed in their search patterns. This new technology is called “real-time bidding” and it could prove to be a significant development in online advertising.
Sounds pretty cool, huh? In many ways it’s every advertiser’s dream. The more granular you can get in your targeting, the more likely your prospect will convert to a sale. With the capability to analyze and target consumers in real-time, this new type of bidding might just be the beginning of the golden age of hyper-precision online advertising.
Who Currently Offers Real-Time Bidding?
If you’re interested in exploring this as an option in your marketing mix, you can start by checking out the services offered by media megaliths like Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange, Microsoft’s AdECN exchange, and Yahoo’s Right Media Exchange are now empowering advertisers to post ads instantly through a new technology called “real-time bidding.”
Essentially what this new technology does is allow advertisers to analyze site visitors one at a time, and bid against other advertisers on showing them real-time search queries with instantaneous, context-sensitive advertisements.
So how does this new technology work?
Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange is one of the new technologies that can generate a global advertising inventory, then aggregate buyers and sellers of online advertising into a single interface. Buyers are then able to use the information gathered to create customized ad campaigns with razor-precise targeting, defined bids and budgets, and frequency caps on their purchases.
With the addition of real-time bidding, an advertiser can make real-time decisions about what ads to show based on what people are doing online and what they’re searching for.
AppNexus also recently introduced a similar type of service. AppNexus allows advertisers to use advanced analytics to go through thousands of ad transactions per second. According to Barry Silverstein of Reve News, this has led to triple-digit increases in ROI for eBay, who uses the AppNexus service.
Breaking Through The Max Revenue Barrier
Affiliates eager to try new and better strategies for generating revenue should consider trying real-time bidding. There are both pros (i.e., exceptional targeting capability) and cons. One drawback is that the price might be prohibitive to affiliates who are just starting out, since so far advertisers seem to be willing to pay a lot more for these targeted ads.
And why not? If they convert at a much higher rate then it stands to reason competition for that space will be fierce. In the end you may find the benefits outweigh the costs when the big money starts rolling in.
Until next article, keep looking out for the latest and greatest trends!
Secondary Sources:
Are Real Time Ads A Game-Changer?
By Barry Silverstein, Reve News
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