Advertising.com Review
Advertising.com
Advertising.com - http://www.advertising.com
The leader in the industry, AOL’s advertising.com, recently folded under the umbrella of Platform A, boasts what ComScore Media Metrics calls the largest advertising network on earth. With an astonishing 91% reach and the scope of the offerings from premium, agency and brand clients, as well as ‘smart’ ads that track the behavior of your visitors and adjust your offering according, make it a network well worth being a part of. The difficulty comes in qualifying, with the click thru rates and unique traffic needed from publishers only sitting at the very highest end of the spectrum.
Ad formats available:
- Skyscraper (120×600)
- Wide skyscraper (160×600)
- Medium Rectangle (300×250)
- Large Rectangle (336×280)
- Standard Banner (468×60)
- Leaderboard (728×90)
- Popunder (720×300)
- Video
Interface: 8/10
Positive:
Great function and ease-of-use
Negative:
Corporate look and feel, slightly dated
For a company that invented many of the features that have now become standard, advertising.com has done a good job of sticking with its fundamentals. Everything works well. While the on-screen stats are presented with a sense of fun on the landing page, advertising.com could stand to better represent the ethos of the online world. Sure they’re the biggest and they belong to an even bigger company, but why not reward the user with a great and memorable experience for visiting the site?
Support services: 8/10
Positive:
Great responsiveness
Negative:
Publisher appreciation
Advertising.com built its business on being responsive to publishers, from ad offering that capture usable data about visitors to top-notch customer service. No wonder they have the biggest network. The company seems to understand that the network and its publishers- not the advertisers- comes first and that to be the best advertisers will flock to a network that can operate on the scale of advertising.com while maintaining good relations with the sites where ads are presented. With some publishers beginning to defect to other networks, advertising.com could possibly do more to ensure communications are a two-way street and publishers stayed engaged with the company.
One word of warning though, because they are owned by AOL, advertising.com is allergic to anything to do with spyware or adware. If you have some download based inventory or are unsure of the origin in your mix, you will be found out and unceremoniously terminated. They have a zero tolerance for adware.
Payment schedule and payment options: 9/10
Positive:
Religiously prompt payments
Negative:
Conversion rate on some campaigns
Click-through rates on some of its offering and resulting payouts have prompted some publishers to switch to other companies. At a NET 30 payout schedule, advertising.com has managed year after year to provide solid returns on time at rates that keep them in the out front and at the top tier of the industry.
eCPM: 9/10
Pretty close to the best rates available, especially on Run of Network inventory, which is advertising.com’s specialty.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10 – Very Good
One of the founders of the network model and still one of the strongest, advertising.com should be on any medium to large scale publisher’s first served list.