• by Amy Auerbach , Jason Krebs , November 20, 2009

Amy says: I've worked on many direct-response campaigns over the years and have encountered the same frustration.  It would seem to be much easier to just focus on buying a few placements that drive your response rather than a comprehensive plan with a site.  But there may be some hidden factors that could sabotage your performance if you left those other placements out. 

Usually the most targeted placements drive the best ROI.  Based on the navigation of the site, it may be that users are exposed to your ads on their way to the targeted placements.  So if you lose those impressions outside the most targeted placement, that last impression may not be as effective to drive that conversion. Users often travel through sites like going down a funnel -- from general content to more targeted content -- so you want to have them exposed to your ads the entire time.

Atlas Institute has done some research that supports this kind of attribution for a conversion: that it's not just the last impression that counts. The research focuses on different sites affecting conversion, but I think it can apply to placements too, especially with larger sites.

So, before you go cherry-picking, look more closely about what is going on with your campaign.  You don't want to mess up a good thing.  But that's just the agency perspective.  I'm sure there are more practical business reasons why sites don't sell just placements.  Jason, give us the real story!

Jason says: Bummed you can't cherry-pick? Pity. Life may be just a bowl of cherries, but advertising is much more nuanced than that. In addition to the fact that it may not be a good customer acquisition strategy, as Amy points out, allowing cherry-picking in the sales world is generally not a responsible form of asset management.

When a media property knows that a certain product or placement is a unique and highly valued asset, the thought is this: If someone wants it so badly, why not make him or her buy other things, of decidedly lesser value, in order to get it? Seems like a fairly democratic principle of supply and demand. (It is not unlike the hot girl you ask out who makes you bring along your roommate for her girlfriend with the great personality.) By the way, this is not just an Internet thing. You cannot just call up a salesperson at ABC and buy one thirty-second spot during an episode of "Grey's Anatomy."  Similarly, try asking Vogue if it would be okay for you to buy just one ad all year -- and could it please be on the back cover of the September issue? You may want to duck as the Jimmy Choo comes flying at you.

Not allowing someone to singularly pick off your best (or most wanted) asset is simply good media management. Life IS a bowl of cherries. You just have to deal with a few pits along the way (and angry roommates).