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VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

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Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#171
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But a lot of niche forums - games, hobbies and so forth are unlikely to monetise any other way. Should they die too? Or have to rely on a rich benefactor deciding to host a motorcycling (or whatever) site? Few are going to pay a subscription to chat on a Civilization or fishing forum a few hours a week. Advertising should be the appropriate model for this. Trouble is it's being poisoned by the greed of Buzzfeed and W…

> Trouble is it's being poisoned by the greed of Buzzfeed and Wired etc. No, that's exactly wrong. You tell people that you can get paid for having a URL called, someone will cheat- they will find the most power-and-cost "efficient" way of having that URL called. Now there are people trying to be "efficient" and there are people trying to monetise content, and the advertiser can't tell the difference, so the mean pri…

OK fair point. Google has long had a split personality on this - spending more effort telling people how to maximise adsense displays than improving SERPs. At a time when SERPs were ruined with those little 5 page adsense sites and ebay scrapers.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the only standing ones would be site owners who care enough to make sure they don't allow malware on their visitor from their site. What's the problem?

Because that's not how the world works. You'd jail 99.999% of publishers and the only ones not jailed would be ones who don't have any advertising.

And the ones who vet and "print" (locally serve) the ads. You know, the way print and broadcast media have been doing it pretty much since their inception. The "targeting" only ever has to amount to content-linked (a photography site would be pretty safe serving camera and editing software ads) and general brand consciousness stuff (they're probably not going to buy a car this week either, but we want them thinking Chevy when the time comes).

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#173
post #3

At some point the cost of advertising to the medium in terms of user disengagement will exceed the income. I can't wait for it to happen, then at least we will reach some kind of steady-state. I really pity the newspapers, especially the ones that also have an online presence, they are caught between a rock and a hard place and no matter what they do they end up hurting themselves, their employers, users or sharehold…

I wonder too if there are some good data on user disengagement. Lately there seems to be a spike of autoplay videos in the sites I visit frequently. I just immediately hit the Back button as my silent "protest", but I can't help feeling stupid, like I'm the only human being that doesn't seem to enjoy loud videos running in the background.

Where do these media companies get their data from? Data that says autoplay videos create more engagement or revenue or something that can make up for people, like me, just running away? The other day Fortune magazine surprised me with that same thing, and the video wasn't even related to what the article was about. Does it come from Facebook's success with _silent_ autoplay? These are not rhetoric questions, I'm really curious to understand the logic behind this.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quickly changing the ad is a problem yes, but you can still track the views / clicks from with in the creative with HTML5 ads.

Aren't you then still forced to load JavaScript from a server that doesn't belong to you? I think that's sort of missing the point on what people want, which is "server everything from the publishers server".

If I'm correct (and this might be different in other countries), in the Netherlands TV ratings aren't measured by the TV channels themselves, but they use a trusted third party (Stichting KijkOnderzoek) that has nothing to do with selling ads.

You could setup a non-profit for tracking views and maybe even clicks, that only uses this information for statistical analysis. Revenue can be shared based on these statistics. The fraud issue would also have to be tackled by this entity.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#175
post #150

What I would like in a new kind of Ad network: - all ads are responsive HTML5 ads - all resources are loaded over HTTPS - ads are based on your content, not on a profile of the user - ads can be requested server side by sending the URL where the ad will be displayed through an API. The response contains the ad code, as well as the expiration date - if you want, you can even download a package with all resources so ad…

what about fraud?

Also commented elsewhere: If I'm correct (and this might be different in other countries), in the Netherlands TV ratings aren't measured by the TV channels themselves, but they use a trusted third party (Stichting KijkOnderzoek) that has nothing to do with selling ads.

You could setup a non-profit for tracking views and maybe even clicks, that only uses this information for statistical analysis. Revenue can be shared based on these statistics. The fraud issue would also have to be tackled by this entity.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#176

What I would like in a new kind of Ad network: - all ads are responsive HTML5 ads - all resources are loaded over HTTPS - ads are based on your content, not on a profile of the user - ads can be requested server side by sending the URL where the ad will be displayed through an API. The response contains the ad code, as well as the expiration date - if you want, you can even download a package with all resources so ad…

If you throw in "No Flash, Java, or JavaScript" that sounds like a killer idea for a YC submission.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#177
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks :) We're still talking internally about what we're going to do with the social stuff -- we're leaning towards kicking it out -- as well as the user insight we're granting to Google in return for using its (excellent) DFP to serve our own ads. Is that what you mean, or have we missed something?

Have you considered self-serving your ads? I do it in addition to selling directly and so far, no advertisers have questioned it.

I use a site that self-serves and charges by cpm, and I'm loving it. ppc doesn't work for me at all.

Edit: By "use" I mean I buy ads there.

Edit 2: Damn, that's some nice looking stuff on that site.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#178
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have you considered that it's blatantly sexist and right? I buy an average of a hundred items on Amazon a year, among them all my – male – clothes. Your algorithms are just plain shit when a single purchase five years ago is somehow weighed more than the whole rest.

The algorithm guesses that your wife is doing the ordering, and is targeting her.

So the algorithm isn't even able to differentiate between the buying behaviour of a married couple and a single male living alone, with roughly 10 years worth of buying history to judge from?

I'd fire the department responsible for that waste of money.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#179
post #147
post #73

From the comments: > Peter Dahlberg > we, the publishers, get the full blame from our readers. That's because you are to blame. As far as I know nobdoy forces you to use those shitty ad networks. Look for a honest way to finance your business and don't whine. That actually makes a lot of sense. As long as Google et al. are making money from this, they have no incentive to change. Google, the automated rainbow monolit…

"The problem for me as a user, is how would I know the difference that such a site has, and then know that I can whitelist it?" Simple. Write that in big, bold letters at the top of your site. You know, the same place where that autoplay video ad usually goes.

A site I sometimes frequent has a big, bold banner at the top asking people to disable adblock and claiming it doesn't use audio ads and other annoying ads. It's also the site whose video ads that autoplayed with sound finally prompted me to install an adblocker after that last upgrade. The problem with claims like these is that they're not trustworthy anymore.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>hire a few interns to put eyes on any and all ads before they go out. They do, all creatives are audited on submission. You can't provide literally ANY creative at bid time, it has to be one that's been audited. It's people that then switch the creative once the audit has been completed that are screwing everyone. It should result in you being banned from the network, but it's hard (apparently) to ban people that ar…

Why is it even possible to make changes after the audit?

Because the user is forwarded to a website that can be changed.
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