A review by Danny Wirken

How can any advertiser or publisher (website owner) simply ignore the power of online advertising? Its growth is totally phenomenal. Consider these statistics: Research by Zenithoptimedia estimates global online advertising will attract 6.5% of all advertising by 2008, an increase from 4.5% in 2005. Online advertising will even surpass traditional advertising such as television, radio or print advertising. The World Cup 2006 (football) will further boost online ad spending.

Online advertising has been touted as one of the most efficient and effective means of marketing and advertising. With rapid advances in Internet technology and online business (e-commerce) plus a booming growth of Internet users, more and more businesses are capitalizing on the enormous online advertising market.

Online advertising is simply advertising on the Internet. This form of advertising brings revenue to a burgeoning number of websites and business companies. Online advertising enjoys some distinct features over traditional advertising. For one, online advertisements create interactive two-way communication between advertisers and ad viewers. With just a click of a mouse, a viewer is transported to the advertiser’s own website. He also gets to send feedback and queries regarding the product or service back to the advertiser. Web advertisements also provide viewers easy access to product catalogues or service information. Online advertisements are globally accessible and available 24/7. This enhances overall visibility and marketing scope. Online advertisements can be immediately displayed, easily maintained and periodically updated. It is also easy to track the performance of an online advertisement. Added to all these, online advertising is cheaper and since it is targeted, advertisements will specifically reach out to targeted viewers.

Online advertising includes search engine advertising, advertising networks and opt-in e-mail advertising. Search engine advertising is advertising through the use of a software program that searches for sites based on keywords that an Internet user assigns as search terms. Search engines browse through their databases of information to find what the Internet user is searching. Opt-in e-mail advertising is a system of online advertising by electronic mail where the recipient of the advertisement agrees to receive it. A common example is a newsletter. An advertising network, on the other hand, is an advertising company that manages ad sales, billing, serving and collection for websites. An ad network compiles sites into specific categories or demographic sets and then sell ad inventory to advertisers. It serves as a direct link between publishers and advertisers with a large supply of advertisements and a large space inventory. It, more or less plays the role of a broker. Whenever a publisher wants to find customers to sell its available ad spaces, it coordinates with an ad network to get prospective customers to post online ads in his website. An ad network usually collects its share or commission whenever a deal is closed between its customers (the publisher and the advertiser). Ad networks help publishers sell ad spaces in the shortest time possible and at reasonable cost. A typical example of an advertising network is AdBrite.

AdBrite, “The Internet’s Ad Marketplace” based in San Francisco was founded by Philip J. Kaplan. It is an e-commerce site that sells ad spaces on thousands of websites. It reaches over 20 million visitors everyday. AdBrite links web publishers with advertisers. If you are an advertiser looking for the appropriate space to place your ad, or a publisher who wants to sell ad space on your site to make money, AdBrite is the common ground where publishers and advertisers can meet and stuck a business deal. An advertiser can browse through the AdBrite website to find the right website to advertise on. AdBrite will also furnish the advertiser relevant statistics including price and number of clicks an advertiser can expect. AdBrite also helps advertisers penetrate highly targeted demographics among its 5000 best performing websites. On the part of the publisher, AdBrite offers tools to handle a publisher’s ad sales needs. These include billing, scheduling, ad serving, customer support and sales. AdBrite allows publishers total control over the content and look of ads placed on their sites.

For a publisher, getting started is quite easy. You just go to the homepage of AdBrite and sign up. You fill in the necessary personal information and information about your website. The latter is meant to help your website get listed in the proper category and for prospective advertisers to locate it easily. Next, paste a small snippet of HTML code on your ad zone, the area on your site where you want ads to be placed. Then set your own ad rates or if you’re not sure how much to charge advertisers, you can click the autopricing tab in the homepage and select Manage Products. AdBrite will then allow you to set the initial price and increase or decrease price based on daily statistics. The more advertisers are competing for your ad space, the higher the price or rate will be. Once pricing is settled, you are ready to start selling ads to users on your site as well as advertisers that use the AdBrite network. Once an advertiser decides to show his ad on your website, you will be notified through e-mail that an ad has been submitted and requires your approval. You just click the “Approve” or “Reject” tab and AdBrite will do the rest of the work. As a publisher, you can approve or decline ads. Once approved, it may take a few hours for advertising to start appearing on your site.

As a publisher, you keep 75% of all ad revenues generated by your website. AdBrite takes 25% for services rendered. Minimum check payment is $20 but you may opt to change it to any value you wish. AdBrite issues check payments on a net-60 basis and mails checks on the last Thursday of every month. If revenue falls below the $20 default, earnings are rolled over to the following month. You can click the “Order” tab below the “Display Report” button to see when funds are credited to your account. The “Earnings Report” link lists earnings on a day-to-day basis and also the ads sold.

As for the advertiser, he has two options to choose from. He can decide on an ad format by clicking the “Text Ads” or “Intermissions” tab. An intermission is a full page display. An advertiser has also a free hand to decide whether he wants to pick his own sites on which to advertise or if he prefers to just give AdBrite keywords and let the latter do the targeting.

As a whole, AdBrite has a good system. AdBrite is a good choice for publishers who have sites with reasonable traffic. Publishers who do not want to be bothered by selling, maintaining advertising placements and billing will do well to sign up with AdBrite.