24/7 Media

Hi,

How is engage doing for you? They seem to be doing pretty good for me. Anyway I havent dealt with 24/7 ever, so I can't be of any help unfortunately.

Here is the most recent info I found on the company.

http://gethighforums.com/Forum10/HTML/001064.html

Ravi

As with Ravi, I don't have any direct experience with 24/7, although I've heard of them. I recommend BURST! Media: http://www.burstmedia.com

24/7 requires a minimum of 2 million impressions a month, they are similar to doubleclick in that they are very hard to get into. Give them a try but don't be surprised if you do not get in.

And don't even bother wasting your time looking into Burstmedia. They're currently covering less than 10% of members inventory and most of that is with hideously low-paying CPC stuff (like 15 cents a click). I had to sign up with Fastclick to cover some of my inventory just because Burstmedia was in the toilet. I don't think too many ad companies are accepting new members at this point because they can't even get close to filling ad space on existing members sites. It's time to face the unpleasant facts. The era of the banner ad as a source of income is over. If we need ad dollars for our sites to survive, we're not too far away from forced entry pops, exit pops and superstitials.

I hope you come back and tell us anything you found out about the company.

Ravi

24/7 Media has been surrounded by controversy since it's launch (as a result of its founders having roots in the infamous Commonwealth Network).

I've heard reports about publishers earning average Net CPMs of around $0.15-$0.25, which is far less than what is available through Engage, Sonar, Luna Network, FastClick or DoubleClick. If you can get into 24/7, you should be able to receive representation from any of these competing firms.

Also, you might want to check out some financial reports on 24/7 before signing any exclusivity agreements. They indicated that they are clearly in trouble last week when they announced that they would be delaying the release of their earnings report while they attempt to negotiate a deal to improve their cash position. Of all the major agencies (L90, DoubleClick, Phase2Media, Engage), 24/7 seem to be at the greatest risk of going under.

Welcome to TWF Czar,

You words of wisdom are definitely welcome on this board. I hope you come back to inform of us new developments throughout the advertising industry as it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ravi

Quote: Originally posted by Maverick
And don't even bother wasting your time looking into Burstmedia. They're currently covering less than 10% of members inventory and most of that is with hideously low-paying CPC stuff (like 15 cents a click).

I won't deny BURST!, like every other ad company, is struggling, but that example is not entirely true. You can have some success with them. I have a $7.5 CPM ad running and I only run CPM campaigns that are $2 or more. It is possible.

Other than regional or targeted ads which are not available to the membership as a whole, Burstmedia currently has 3 active campaigns with a payout of higher than $2 CPM. The vast majority of the ads now served by Burst are for Investrade and ValPak which are both 15 cents per click. A small number of sites might neatly fit into a specific targeted category and get some higher paying ads, but for most Burst members, forget it. Read the Burst forums. They're filled with disgruntled members showing 20,000 to 40,000 banners daily to make 2 or 3 dollars. I'm one of them.

Maverick what is the url for burst's forums?
Or do you have to be a member of burst to view them.
Their burst newsletter thing is open to everyone even nonmembers so I figure their forums are as well. If so whats the url to them?

Nope, forums are only open to members. You need to log into your account to view them and it automatically adds your member name onto posts made, so there's no way to dusguise identities.

I guess I will sign up for burst just to read their forums then.
I tried them 2 years ago and I thought burst was not very good then. Now I can only imagine how bad things are.

Quote: Originally posted by Maverick
Other than regional or targeted ads which are not available to the membership as a whole, Burstmedia currently has 3 active campaigns with a payout of higher than $2 CPM. The vast majority of the ads now served by Burst are for Investrade and ValPak which are both 15 cents per click. A small number of sites might neatly fit into a specific targeted category and get some higher paying ads, but for most Burst members, forget it. Read the Burst forums. They're filled with disgruntled members showing 20,000 to 40,000 banners daily to make 2 or 3 dollars. I'm one of them.

Your assumption that BURST! "has three active campaigns with a payout higher than $2 CPM" is incorrect. Aside from my targeted campaign, I have 6 campaigns over $2 ($2.25, $2.25, $2.50, $3, $3, $5). Some of those are third-party server, but money is money. The reason for this fluctuation is because there is a new feature on BURST! go Geo Targeting and it gives different people in different locations different types/amounts of ads depending on advertiser's targeting preferences.

I visit the BURST! forums on a weekly basis and many of their customers actually are reporting some positive signs.

Although we've fallen way off topic here, I'll continue the Burst! discussion to clarify one particular issue.

That is, the reason that different members now see different available campaigns is due not to the geotargeting feature, but to Burst's new 'optimization' technique, which restricts certain campaigns to the best-performing sites and/or categories.

Admittedly, there has been a great deal of debate about this lately, since it offers targeted runs to advertisers at run-of-network rates, and because the criteria for selection has not been made public (CTR?, content?, traffic?).

I have five ad spaces registered with Burst!, and all have different campaigns available for selection. Personally, I'm also happy to say that my default rates have dropped and that I'm generating an average Net CPM rate close to $0.30, which is reasonable in this climate.

BTW, just getting back on-topic, 24/7's troubles are continuing. The firm recently announced that it is actively seeking a buyer from the traditional ad world:
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article/0,,12_703971,00.html
This is a sign that the agency does not believe it can survive the shakeout on its own.

Just thank you for the advice regarding 24/7.

I'm currently with Engage and they are only serving 50% of my inventory...
One of the reasons is that my site is in spanish, and for spanish and latin america visitors. Engage has very bad position in those areas when 24/7 media has lots of spanish ads.
I'll try to go with them as provider for unsold inventory.

By the way and for those who can use it, just a tip:
We all know that ad networks allow you to give them a percentage of your impressions, lets say 60% to ONE and 40% to TWO. You put the html tag of ONE and the first 6 impressions will be served by ONE then for the 4 next ONE will redirect to the HTML of TWO you gave them.
Well, this does not ensure you beeing served 100% sold banners of the 60% you gave to ONE...

Then, here's the tip.

I negociated giving 100% to my provider against being able to metarefresh ads each 3 min because my visitors stay an average of 15 to 30 minutes on my site (proven in log stats).
My banners are in a frame in top page.

I detect with javascript the name of the image banner sent by my provider and if it is the default banner (thus unsold), I redirect the banner call to my second banner provider (when I'll find it) and so on.
As I know the average of unsold volume I have I can ensure the volume to my second provider...
This ensure me not showing default banners from my first provider optimizing the performance of the banner sales.
I already have the third provider which will be a CPC network as he will get the real remaining unsold impressions.
This method allows yo also to position your providers depending on the results yo get from them. And even to switch them for the time of a very good campaign.

For those who do not program javascript contact me for the code.

And thanks again.

By the way if anybody knows well positioned CPM ad network for spanish websites... let me know.

Charlysp, most major ad networks allow to to specify whether or not you are willing to accept CPC/CPA/PSA defaults, or whether you'd prefer to send your default inventory to another provider. Personally, I have Engage's rich-media code placed on most of my sites, with defaults sent to Burst!, and Burst's defaults redirected to my AdCycle banner rotation system, that is loaded with high-performing banners of my choice.

I imagine that using the networks' in-house default redirections in this fashion is faster and simpler than the code you use. Nevertheless, I would be very interested in seeing your Javascript. Could you please forward a copy to webmaster@net-ads.com as a .txt attachment?