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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

#261

Post by WiseWeasel »

nailer wrote: post #226
_ao789 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is literally what HaloAds (HaloAds.com) aims to fix. We have been irritated with the state of online advertising for long enough now. We are looking for people to try it out once it launches. Show your interest at https://HaloAds.com

Since you seem to specialise in this, FYI: > Mixed Content: The page at ' https://haloads.com/' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure stylesheet ' http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:400,300,700,900' . This request has been blocked; the content must be served over HTTPS. https://haloads.com/assets/img/favicon.png Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 ()

For Google Fonts, it's best practice to leave out the protocol and link to '//fonts.googleapis.com/...'. It's unhelpful that their link generator still suggests 'http://fonts...'.

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

#262

Post by grb423 »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #133

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…

> ads are based on your content, not on a profile of the user

Have we given up on relevance? I was always hopeful that one day in the future the sites I love could be supported by showing _only_ ads that interested their users. With our post-modern privacy fetish, though, I guess I'm becoming resigned to hygiene ads just so long as they're served over HTTPS.

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

#263

Post by mercer »

volatilitish wrote: post #210
a3n wrote: 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…

One of the problems there, is Google has locked this down. Chrome and Firefox warn users if they visit "deceptive websites", and disallow it. It's touted as part of their "safe browsing feature". What it means in practice though, is that if you use another ad network, and that ad network has an advert that Google dislike, they will block your website on Chrome,Firefox and Safari also uses it now I believe. They won't…

> What it means in practice though, is that if you use another ad network, and that ad network has an advert that Google dislike, they will block your website on Chrome,Firefox and Safari also uses it now I believe. They won't just block the advert, they will block your whole website. Getting unblocked takes ages, and is a complete pain, because google will not tell you which advert it objects to.

Does this actually happen? And if so, what about the advert does Google dislike? And if there is no good reason for this, how does Google get away with it?

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

#264

Post by spiderfarmer »

grb423 wrote: post #262
spiderfarmer wrote: post #133

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…

> ads are based on your content, not on a profile of the user Have we given up on relevance? I was always hopeful that one day in the future the sites I love could be supported by showing _only_ ads that interested their users. With our post-modern privacy fetish, though, I guess I'm becoming resigned to hygiene ads just so long as they're served over HTTPS.

Serving personalised ads in the EU means you will have to show a cookie warning. That for me is reason enough to focus on contextual ads. Not that I am showing cookie warnings right now, I'm counting the days till they revoke that stupid law.

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

#265

Post by untog »

thirdsun wrote: post #208
cantlin wrote: post #184

At the Guardian we needed our own video player, because we couldn't rely on a third party platform not to take down something that we published. Editorial independence was important. We implemented our player on top of video.js, and most of the developers who were there at the time still have nightmares about it. We finally got the thing working, looking good, embeddable, reasonably cross-browser. We shipped it. A fe…

Thanks for your insight. Maybe I'm naive but how are these ads of any value to the advertiser? - nobody wants them, everybody ignores them. How can ads that surely almost exclusively receive accidental clicks be so worthwhile for publishers like you?

> nobody wants them, everybody ignores them

While the former is true, the latter is not. And clicks aren't the only measure, especially where video is concerned. There's a lot of voodoo in advertising, but advertisers do look at their statistics, and see an uptick in sales/brand awareness/etc when they run video ads like that.

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

#266

Post by phamilton »

lpgauth wrote: post #168

This as nothing to do with VPAID[1], it's the player that decides how many ads to play. VPAID is just an IAB standard for video ads... [1] http://www.iab.com/guidelines/digital-video-player-ad-interf...

That's mostly true. The player decides how long to allow the ads to play. It's very possible to put multiple ads in a single VPAID unit.

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

#267

Post by artushin »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #133

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…

Another thing that would be nice is getting rid of the layers of reselling that many of these ad networks do. Ever follow the links in a VAST Wrapper? Each one is the previous ad network not finding an ad, then requesting from another parter (while taking a cut of the CPI), then another partner, etc. Request times go through the roof and the final CPI is lousy.

About as realistic as any of the other things on the wishlist but what can you do.

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

#268

Post by untog »

bnastic wrote: post #250
cantlin wrote: post #184

At the Guardian we needed our own video player, because we couldn't rely on a third party platform not to take down something that we published. Editorial independence was important. We implemented our player on top of video.js, and most of the developers who were there at the time still have nightmares about it. We finally got the thing working, looking good, embeddable, reasonably cross-browser. We shipped it. A fe…

Seriously, how did you (and everyone else) end up in this mess? Imagine your printed edition where your editors have no idea what sort of ads are printed in your paper, because it's all added at the printing firm by some shady characters.

The short answer is that online advertising pays very little compared to print advertising. Obtrusive video advertising pays slightly more.

You might say that such advertising is losing in the long run because it's alienating users, and you'd be right. But when you balance sheet shows a precipitous decline month on month as your print readers convert to online ones, you don't have many other options to keep investors happy.

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

#269

Post by ams6110 »

thirdsun wrote: post #208
cantlin wrote: post #184

At the Guardian we needed our own video player, because we couldn't rely on a third party platform not to take down something that we published. Editorial independence was important. We implemented our player on top of video.js, and most of the developers who were there at the time still have nightmares about it. We finally got the thing working, looking good, embeddable, reasonably cross-browser. We shipped it. A fe…

Thanks for your insight. Maybe I'm naive but how are these ads of any value to the advertiser? - nobody wants them, everybody ignores them. How can ads that surely almost exclusively receive accidental clicks be so worthwhile for publishers like you?

I think most people here probably have your point of view. I certainly do. I don't think I've ever intentionally clicked on an ad. These days I am aggressive with ad blockers backed up by a local /etc/hosts file to neutralize the most common ad network domains.

But the general public? I don't know. I don't think a lot of people really distinguish between the ads at the top of a google search and the actual search results below (sometimes well below) them.

I think if the current model was not thought to have an overall positive ROI for the advertisers, it would have failed by now, or evolved into something else.

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

#270

Post by spiderfarmer »

artushin wrote: post #267
spiderfarmer wrote: post #133

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…

Another thing that would be nice is getting rid of the layers of reselling that many of these ad networks do. Ever follow the links in a VAST Wrapper? Each one is the previous ad network not finding an ad, then requesting from another parter (while taking a cut of the CPI), then another partner, etc. Request times go through the roof and the final CPI is lousy. About as realistic as any of the other things on the wis…

I am convinced you don't need stuff like that. Only if you want to run a business that makes so much money that you'll start thinking about flying cars, balloons, satellites, robots, contact lenses, glasses and hundreds of other things, not related to your core mission.

A competitor can make do with much lower margins.

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