Russell Glass

Articles by Russell All articles by Russell

• Conversions, Not Clicks, Key To Display Ads in Marketing Daily on 04/10/2012
  

  Marketers often believe that click-through rates and conversion rates are the most effective metrics for analyzing their return on investment for online advertising. Smart marketers understand that even if a display ad generates few clicks, it is doing valuable work.

• The DNA Of The Digital CMO in Marketing Daily on 03/23/2012
  

  Digital CMOs think about every hour they spend that's not targeted as diluted. Regardless of the channel, it's about understanding the "persona" -- and mapping a relevant message to that persona at the right time in order to achieve the best results.

• How do we fix online display advertising? in Online Media Daily on 11/25/2009
  

  Always a lively topic of conversation, online ad spending is down 5% for the first half of the year and "ad blindness" on the part of anyone who spends time online is rampant.

Comments by Russell All comments by Russell

• Ad Firm Touts Results On Facebook Exchange by Mark Walsh (Online Media Daily on 09/13/2012)
  

  Working for B2B also, clearly a game changer: http://www.digiday.com/platforms/how-facebook-just-became-critical-for-b2b/

• New Apache 'Patch' Nixes Microsoft's Do-Not-Track Setting by Wendy Davis (Online Media Daily on 09/07/2012)
  

  This is no different than what Microsoft did except actually adhering to standards instead of flouting them. My full opinion about DNT and Microsoft's stance is here: http://blog.bizo.com/blog/from-the-digital-c-suite/the-facade-of-safety-why-microsofts-approach-to-dnt-is-harmful-to-online-consumers-and-what-to-do-about-it. Simply, we need a better solution.

• The Ad Network Cleanse by Ari Rosenberg (Publishing Insider on 10/08/2009)
  

  Ari, your points are generally good ones. Many, if not most ad networks out there play a "squeeze" game where they are looking to try to get as much margin out of the middle as possible. However, when you say "they are reselling something they buy rather than create, so the less they pay initially, the more they make", you are actually falling into the same flawed logic that most of these ad networks do. I actually believe that the opposite is true, and I'd like to rephrase it: "they are reselling something they buy rather than create, so the more they can pay, the higher quality and consistency they will get, and the more they will make." Most ad networks are dealing in the dregs of impressions -- below the fold, irrelevant, untargeted ad units that go unsold for a very good reason. This is the problem with many ad networks today -- their models have largely been predicated on getting worthless inventory so they can mark it up to still breakneck prices. However, I believe that the ad network still has a great deal of value to deliver IF it can pay for quality and deliver quality at prices that are appropriate for the value they deliver. At Bizo, our approach is to pay our publishers industry-best rates (they average over $4.00 CPM net from us today) and in turn, we ask for quality inventory for our advertisers. We charge more, but advertisers get to target very specific business audiences on high quality sites -- and thus are more successful so they're more than willing to pay more for this quality. Bizo isn't alone -- interCLICK is a great example of another network following a similar approach. Its a virtuous circle, and one that all ad networks should consider: Pay more, and you'll earn more!

• There Is No Excess of Inventory, There Is A Shortage Of Intent by David Koretz (Publishing Insider on 05/07/2009)
  

  David, couldn't agree more. Targeting the right audience with the right message in the right context shouldn't be so difficult. However, we're trying to solve this problem in the B2B space, and its complicated enough that it takes all of our effort to get right. Each audience and each intent is different, so the solutions, while vertically integrated, will likely be vertically specific as well. Best,Russ http://twitter/follow_bizo

• Ad Networks Are For Idiots -- And Here's The Math To Prove It by David Koretz (Publishing Insider on 04/09/2009)
  

  As mentioned a few times here, all ad networks are not created equal. Bizo's publishers earn an AVERAGE of $2.75 net to them. Using your math, the publisher who asked us to fill 70% of their inventory would be earning around 25% of their revenues from us. With zero cost of sales or marketing to support that revenue, that's probably approaching 50% of their margins. Publishers are actually a lot smarter than you give them credit for, and know above all how to manage margins. Not all of them can make this claim, but the fact is that there are many high quality ad networks out there such as Collective Media, Interclick, Turn and others that pay well for good inventory.

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