• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 11:30 AM

It's a question of economics: do-it-yourself ads are cheaper. They're cheaper for advertisers and cheaper for ad sellers, eliminating the need for middlemen to make deals happen. Of course, do-it-yourself does require that marketers plan, buy and track the campaigns on their own, or hire someone else to do so. Even so, The Wall Street Journal proclaims that, "Just as the ability to buy plane tickets online steered business away from travel agents, the self-service options promise to shake up the $20 billion online-advertising market."

Google popularized (and profited massively from) the do-it-yourself model with search; the next front, The Journal said, is display, which is expected to become 40% of the online ad market in coming years. Until recently, high-volume display ads were difficult to create and prohibitively expensive, but now thanks to the self-service model, advertisers are finding it easier and cheaper to buy display ads. "Google did this with search advertising. We think the same thing has to happen with display," said Ajay Agarwal, managing director of Bain Capital Ventures.

Social networking giant Facebook is one company offering do-it-yourself ads. Its system would allow a clothing maker, for example, to market a line of pants specifically to male Chicago Cub fans. Pant maker Bonobos Pants is actually doing this, and CEO Andy Dunn said it took five minutes to create the ads and $63 to run them. His ad was seen more than 250,000 and his line of $120 pants sold out.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »