The dust is finally dispersing from the Internet advertising implosion, and advertisers are noticeably less skeptical about trying new things online. On the technology front especially, Web browsers are getting more sophisticated with every release, and agency creative departments are finally taking advantage of the Web’s interactive features. One of their newly adopted favorites is DHTML — Dynamic HyperText Markup Language. This programming technology has been around since the release of Internet Explorer 4 and Netscape 4 back in 1998, but it was hard to take advantage of back then because each browser treated it differently and developers were …

As long as advertising is being placed, clients will want to know what they’re getting for their money. It’s a fair question, and every medium attempts to summarize an advertiser’s performance in one way or another. Online is no different, but not since the invention of the 1040 tax return has there been a form that affects so many billions of dollars and is harder to understand than an online post-audit click-through report. To make matters worse, with dozens of ad networks, third party servers and online measurement firms, there are literally hundreds of different reports that inform advertisers …

CPA—Cost per Action. This pricing structure is determined by the amount of “actions” that a website delivers to an advertiser by running their ad. “Actions” are defined as sales (online and offline), leads, form fill-outs, downloads of software programs, etc. CPC—Cost per Click. Advertiser only pays if a website visitor clicks on the ad. This model is dependent on content, audience reach and targeted delivery and is generally paid for when all purchased clicks have been delivered. CPL—Cost per Lead. The advertiser pays only for those clicks where users click through on an ad and generate a lead …

I knew immediately that something was amiss the morning I walked into the agency and everyone seemed to look downwards and scurry out of the way. Folks were gathered in small groups whispering furtively and disbanding as I walked by. I’d never seen this before at the San Francisco interactive group I ran some years ago. Our culture had been very friendly, hip, open. Maybe too open, it turned out. We’d been hiring online media specialists as fast as we could. In the space of a year we went from around five to a hundred interactive media specialists. Still, …