“Cynical” digital sites accused of ripping off advertisers with dodgy ad placements
Online publishers are taking part in “cynical” ad placement to grab payments they don’t deserve, a media sales boss has warned.
Laim Walsh, who heads up Microsoft’s Drive PM, says the tactic is used by publishers who want to make the most of cost per acquisition payment models. This is where advertisers who acquire a new customer make a payment to whichever site was the last one to serve them an ad.
So some sites are serving additional ads at the bottom of pages where he says they are unlikely to be seen, in order to improve their chances.
Writing on his Talking Digital blog, Walsh, who has previously run digital agency eMitch and Fairfax Digital’s sales operation, says:
This is a strange hybrid of “view-through” and CPA. Alot like cookie-stuffing spyware. As an advertisier there’s no way I would do a deal like this with a publisher.
I just have to mention that the “south leaderboard” on my personal bigpond email is ALWAYS above the fold. In fact it shits me to tears because I am paying for cable internet and being advertised to in my personal webmail inbox. And bigpond ensure I see it, as they will only display 10 email messages at a time even if I have above that number.
And no I don’t rep them.
Can’t help but notice this blog artical has disappeared. Maybe the authors changed their minds.