The Two Types of Web Display Ads: Premium vs Remnant
This is part 1 of a 4 post series about direct sales and web display ads. Many website owners are benefiting from or considering selling ads on their sites directly. But direct sales can be confusing and it isn’t right for everyone. The posts:
- The Two Types of Web Display Ads: Premium vs Remnant
- Why Direct Sales Is A Great Way To Sell Ads
- How isocket Powers Premium Ad Sales
- Should I Try Direct Ad Sales On My Website?
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There are two types of inventory when it comes to website display (i.e. banner) ads – premium and remnant. Understanding the difference and how it applies to you is crucial to making the most out of your advertising revenue and strategy.
From a technical view, there is no difference between a premium ad and a remnant ad. They are the same shape and size, the advertisement (called the “creative”) could look identical, they both count as an impression every time they are seen, and they both link to the advertiser’s website. Mike Nolet, formerly of Right Media, has an excellent series of posts with his opinion on this subject.
The basic difference between premium and remnant is how the ad was bought and sold. Premium ads are sold by a seller/publisher directly to a buyer/advertiser. Or in other words, an advertiser bought the exact ad they wanted from the exact website they wanted.
Pretend you own a brick and mortar store… you do some local marketing about your products, a customer walks in, you chat about what they are looking for, they pick the product they want, they pay you, and they leave. It’s a 1 to 1, face to face relationship. That’s direct sales and premium ad inventory.
Remnant ads are sold by someone else, where your ad inventory was pooled together with thousands or millions of other websites and sold to a buyer you’ve never met. Remnant ads are “leftovers”. Almost all ad networks put remnant ads on your website. The biggest network AdSense (created by our own Gokul Rajaram) is a perfect example.
Let’s say only 30% of a website’s available ad inventory has been purchased directly by an advertiser. The other 70% of inventory could a) show no ads at all or b) show ads from an ad network. The thinking is you may as well show remnant ads, because some money is better than no money, right?
The problem (as you’ll see in the next posts) is that even though remnant ads are easy to use and usually make up the numerical majority of a website’s ad impressions, they are usually not your only/best option.
ad:tech San Francisco Lifts Up During Down Days
Last summer we attended ad:tech Chicago, and it sucked (old post: adtech Chicago Underwhelms). This week was San Francisco’s turn. Ad:tech SF is usually a bigger show than Chicago, but we weren’t sure what to expect given everything that’s happening in the ad and tech industries.
I was pleasantly surprised as I spent two days meeting people, customers, partners and anyone with a booth. I wanted to highlight some of the things I saw:
- Given all that’s happened in the last 6 months in the macro economy and the ad industry, I expected the conference to feel gloomy and the conversations to focus on “what’s wrong.” Not the case. People were energetic and still talking about innovation.
- Unlike previous years, many of the bigger booths were manned by the company’s CEO. That’s the right thing to do in this climate. They are best suited to listen and feel the customers on the ground and adjust accordingly.
- One of the good things about this downturn is that a lot of the me-too companies will go away. They were still out in full force this year, but you can tell they are struggling to justify their existence. Their departure will clear the way for the next wave of companies and solutions to rise.
- The industry doesn’t need more lead gen companies or vertical networks targeted at tween female saxophone players. Booth after booth had the same message “we deliver the best ROI on your ad dollar!” – sorry but no, no you don’t.
- At the recent IAB conference, one of the opinions you heard again and again from both buyers and sellers was “we don’t feel like we’re any better off than we were in 2001.” Everyone was talking about what the next big thing could be and what problems they want solved. There is still lots of room to innovate in advertising!
Zak will be attending the TRAFFIC domain conference next week, let us know if you’ll be there!
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really expensivecommission-free ad platform. We're aMidwestSilicon Valley startup working passionately to improve the advertising options available to you. -
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