• by Michael Katz , November 5, 2008

With more than 300 online ad networks in existence and only 200 working days, advertisers and agencies could meet with a new network every day for the next year and a half.

With so many networks out there, it's common to speculate about which networks will survive the economic shake-out. Many media planners may not only be wondering which ones will survive, but which ones are capable of providing the most value. So, it's time to ask: "What has my network done for me lately?" If you don't know the answer, it's time to re-evaluate those relationships and focus on the networks that provide value over simple cost efficiencies.

Specifically, networks that understand the importance of transparency and how it leads to more efficient planning and improved response rates will be the partners of choice for advertisers. The value of transparency has gone far beyond a defense mechanism or mitigating content risk. Today, transparency has evolved to helping clients gain better return on investment (ROI) by gaining better insight into what sites performed well and which ones did not.

All Transparency is Not Created Equal

Many ad networks promise pre-buy transparency, which usually consists of a list of publisher websites where the advertiser's ads may appear. However, true transparency does not end when the campaign begins. In order to stay ahead of the curve, ad networks must take advantage of the data they collect and drive additional value for clients in ways that ad networks historically have been reluctant to do so.

For example, sharing delivery and performance data per site throughout the course of a campaign allows advertisers to see how their money is being spent and which sites are the most effective for the campaign. It also provides insight into which sites' traffic is ineffective for their campaign, so they can eliminate those sites up front in all subsequent plans across all of their network partners. Post-campaign data and results are tremendously valuable for determining future budget allocations. Without this sort of understanding about where the best results were delivered, advertisers can quickly get caught in a cycle of inefficiency, and failure.

By providing greater access to information in order for advertisers to make better and more cost efficient buys, the ad network model will evolve and continue to thrive. Networks will no longer be evaluated based on the results that they provide behind the black box. Advertisers will look to networks to provide ROI along with insight into where their clients' ads ran, how they performed, and what the audience composition was, so that they can take that data and make more informed planning decisions in the future. Simply put, networks will become the new agencies.

Target Audiences, Not Content

While transparency will be an integral part of the future of all networks, networks still need to be able to deliver the right audiences and drive cost effective results. Advanced behavioral and demographic targeting are key capabilities that networks need to offer in order to do so. Gone are the days when advertisers would settle for reaching their targeted audience by spending money across much larger audiences and taking the good results with the bad in a "spray and pray" approach. Ad networks must be able to use behaviors exhibited by users throughout their network and apply them to target very granular segments within a much broader scope. This enables the advertiser to reach their desired user with the right message, more efficiently and effectively than ever before.

Overall, innovative ad networks that combine full site-by-site transparency and behavioral targeting will win over advertisers and agencies -- and ultimately consumers. These are the networks that will survive, as they provide advertisers with the ability to identify, target and track their desired audiences, all within a safe and trustworthy environment in a cost effective manner.