• iMeda Connection, Thursday, January 4, 2007 12:15 PM

This year will be another record-breaker for Web advertising. We're getting used to hearing that, and we're also getting used to hearing Google outperform Wall Street's estimates with more phenomenal search growth. However, there can't be many more years of outrageous search growth, since there are only so many total Web users and searches they can conduct per day.

Ad system overhauls notwithstanding, search will inevitably hit a wall one day. And then what? Likewise, Web sites' audiences can only grow so much. There are ways to improve monetizing that traffic and selling remnant inventory. But in general, audience Web growth isn't keeping pace with advertiser demand for specific inventory-so maybe display is hitting a wall, too.

Enter the ad network. The amount of inventory out there is growing and will continue to grow in a long-tail sort of way. Ad networks have access to an enormous amount of inventory, and can connect advertisers to Web sites they wouldn't otherwise find. Plus, they're cheaper.

Advertisers would rather be seen on the highly trafficked tier-one sites, but savvy ones will change that limited thinking. Audience is the thing that matters most-more than where you find it.

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