Yesterday, I was the opening presenter for the “Monetizing All Things Digital†portion of the Newspapers Association of America’s mediaXchange conference in Las Vegas. Day one was very interesting because, as anyone reading this blog or the news in general probably knows, newspapers are struggling to survive. For years print advertising revenue has been declining, and with the economy making a tough situation worse, most newspapers are looking to create a long-term strategy to increase revenue from their online components. My presentation today offered a few suggestions to get them on the right path to increase their online ad revenue by creating a smart ad network strategy; and although this was for the NAA conference, my suggestions hold true for most large publishers regardless of category.
I started the presentation by walking through some trends that are happening in online advertising, most notably that this year online advertising is set to surpass print advertising for the first time ever. However, I also pointed out that online advertising is not recession proof by highlighting several examples of industry analysts that have lowered their original 2009 growth forecasts – one by as much as 69%. That is a sobering number to say the least, but if you look beyond the intimidating numbers, you’ll find that some sectors of online advertising are steadily growing. Performance advertising, for example, is increasingly more popular with advertisers as budgets shrink and there is a greater need for more accountable, better performing campaigns. Understanding these trends will allow publishers to select the right ad network partners for the most optimal ad network strategy.
Publishers need to shift from an increasingly outdated strategy that relies only on selling a high volume of high priced inventory through a direct sales force (image 1), and understand that direct sales is a declining percentage of their overall ad revenue (image 2). To make up for the decline in high priced direct sales, they should implement a smart ad network strategy that supports direct sales and can serve as a second, high volume revenue stream (image 3).
The shift demonstrated in the images above is what is already happening in today’s online advertising market. The large publishers that understand this shift and are able to find the right balance between direct sales and ad networks sales will be able to protect the value of their ad inventory, and the value of their brand, even in this challenging time.
The entire presentation can be found on docstoc.
In addition to the presentation, we also distributed an abridged version of our Publisher’s Guide to Ad Revenue Optimization that details 5 strategies large publishers can use to earn more revenue, and we’ve seen thousands of times first hand that they work.
Online Publisher’s Guide to Ad Revenue Optimization (NAA Conference Edition) – Get more Business Plans
