IndustryBrains offers contextually relevant advertising to business verticals in the financial, government, and technology categories. While heavyweights Google and Yahoo!'s Overture grab most of the headlines, IndustryBrains is filling an important niche by delivering industry-specific links to premium Web publishers that command higher prices per click. They include sites such as IDG's Infoworld and ComputerWorld, VNU Business' PC Magazine Online, and McGraw-Hill Cos.' BusinessWeek Online.
IndustryBrains' system enables advertisers to bid for placement on site-specific categories that are related to their business. Listings are delivered whenever a customer performs a search on the specified terms across its site network. "Not all clicks are equal," explains Erik Matlick, CEO-IndustryBrains. Information technology Web publishers average from $6 to $8 per click, while some government sites command $12 per click. The average price per click on a search engine hovers between 40 and 50 cents.
"Industry Brains has allowed us to offer sponsored links while still leveraging our strong brand name," says Ed Kelleher, director-Internet Business for The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Kiplinger.com began partnering with IndustryBrains in late January. "We decided to allow IndustryBrains to handle all of the sales, so after the setup (which took a total of 10 hours of development time), we have not had to expend any additional resources," Kelleher says, adding: "We saw a fair amount of revenue in the first six weeks." He also notes that in the last two weeks, Kiplinger.com has seen a "significant jump in revenue, certainly beyond my expectations."
Existing client Infoworld.com said that by having IndustryBrains serve the sponsored links that appear at the bottom of its home page, Infoworld salespeople are free to focus on bigger, more sophisticated advertising opportunities. "Smaller advertisers can still come to Infoworld.com and start to get a feel for what it's like to hit our audience," says Matt McAlister, VP-general manager-Infoworld. IndustryBrains serves the sponsored links on Infoworld.com, selling the advertisers on the inventory, and then advertisers bid for placement on the site.
McAlister and Alec Dann, senior-VP of Internet Publishing, PostNewsweek Tech Media's GCN.com (Government Computer News), and WashingtonTechnology.com, say that IndustryBrains offers them more value for their media spend. "We are getting a much higher average click value (the average is above $4) than we would from Google or Overture. That's partly because our sites can be singled out by advertisers, and those advertisers are looking for a pure tech play," Dann says. "The revenue stream we get from the IndustryBrains ads is significant, and most of it falls to the bottom line," he adds.
McAlister concurs: "If you're an IT (information technology) vendor and you go on Google, you're going to reach some people, but it's such a vast universe you don't know what you're catching." He says that IndustryBrains' work represents a strong revenue source: "Frankly, IndustryBrains has kind of the best offer for a publisher because we're able to get higher rates-- we're getting pretty high cost-per-clicks, like $5. We wouldn't be able to get that with Google the way they run their rates now," McAlister adds.
IndustryBrains is helping Infoworld.com lure smaller advertisers such as HelpSTAR, Interspect, and Systinet: "We wouldn't have the manpower to go out there and find all those advertisers. ... It's significantly helping our business model," McAlister explains.
PostNewsweek Tech Media's Dann says one of his advertisers liked the results he was getting from IndustryBrains ads so much that he increased his spending. "IndustryBrains also gives us an answer for advertisers with small budgets. We had one who, after a 10-minute conversation, admitted he only had $100 to spend. Our sales rep replied: 'Then I've got just the thing for you,'" Dann says.