The Cost of Internet Advertising: What are the Big Whigs Charging to Use Their Resources?

Businesses are now paying companies and websites to advertise their products and services online.  We are no longer in a decade where only TVs, radios, and printed methods of advertising are taking place.  How much is this online advertising really costing businesses though? Are these ads actually going to make that big of a difference in the success of the company or just get categorized as another sunk cost.  Online advertising rates are set based on a combination of ad size, ad location, ad performance, and market demand.  The size that an ad is going to be is a large factor when determining the advertisement price.  Just as broadcasts sells time and print sells space, online sells pixels.  It is said that the most cost-effective ways to advertise online are by search engines, social networks, and online videos. 

Rate card prices are one on the most commonly talked about methods for determining the rates these businesses must pay to advertise online.  It is said though that these costs are never really set in stone.  It is said that everything in the world of online media is open to negotiation and things like package deals, upfront commitments, and volume discounts can help drive the price of these digital ads down.  While some websites have prices based on ad space and positioning of the ad other sites like Yahoo and Facebook have set prices for displaying on their main or home pages.  Here are some of the rates these major sites are charging to use their resources for the advertisement of your business:

FACEBOOK
Facebook the ever so popular social networking sites has advertisers pay to have their advertisements take up the whole screen when users log out of the site.  When Facebook first came out with this advertising option it was said that the price was around $700,000, but that price has drastically dropped (or it was never really that high to begin with) as it now costs advertisers around $100,000 to consume to log out page of the social networking site.

YAHOO

According to media buyers yahoo asks for around $600,000 for a one day homepage takeover, but typically sells them for around $400,000.

AOL
Similar to Yahoo, AOL's rates to advertise on their homepage go for about $400,000.

    

TWITTER
Not only has Twitter become one of the biggest social networking sites to be created but it has allowed for the creation of "trending topics".  Promoted trending topics sell for about $120,000 and are usually supported by a promoted tweet purchase of around $80,000. 

YOUTUBE
To have your ad largely displayed with videos on YouTube, advertisers usually pay about $400,000.  It is usually sold as a package deal with other media such as in-stream video ads, display ads, or featured video listings.



http://www.promisemedia.com/online-advertising-strategies/online-rate-card-tips-and-guidelines
http://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/advertisingbudget.html/2
http://digiday.com/publishers/what-online-ads-really-cost/

Ad Blocking! The internet's response to the plethora of advertisements

       Advertisements, somehow simultaneously something that makes the internet both great and annoying. I know many people (including myself) that find them to be both disruptive and also just plain obnoxious sometimes. Of course, some advertisements aren't too annoying at all. Text ads and even some banner ads are perfectly fine. Others however, not so much (I'm looking at you YouTube). Other possibly like-minded people have taken it upon themselves to react to all these ads; with some surprising and even worrying results. 

       Before we talk about said results lets discuss the ways they have created to combat ads. First and foremost is a program called AdBlock, which we briefly discussed in our presentation. Essentially what it does is find where the ad is located on each page and stops it from loading. Over time it has become more and more advanced and can even block video ads on streaming websites as well as more advanced ads.

       There is also a device called Ad Trap which you simply plug into your computer/internet and boom, all ads erased from view. It cost a pretty penny (about 139$) but is easy to set up and works better than any free ad blocking services at the moment. CNN wrote and filmed about it.

       So what about those effects? Some people say they are negligent, while others go so far to tout it as theft and destructive. For the most part big companies such as Google and Facebook have remained rather silent about the whole thing. Luckily, the amount of ad blockers is far smaller than users so these large companies can absorb the losses without so much of a groan. Who this really hurts are those who aren't billion dollar companies, be it people or small businesses. People can be losing anywhere from a couple bucks to thousands of dollars simply from ad blocking. 

       Should you be worried about this? Not too much honestly, but as time goes on and more younger users join the internet, the more people use ad blocking. It is eventually going to create an outlash from the larger companies as they start to lose more and more income from ad blocking. And of course, all the free niceties that advertising allows may begin to shrink away, or worse, cost us money. Hopefully this will never be the case, but consider asking yourself if you would be willing to pay for a website like youtube or facebook at the cost of all those annoying advertisements. Would you be willing to trade?

Sources: http://outfront.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/12/new-device-eliminates-all-internet-ads/

Facebook Changes Their Privacy Policies Again

Facebook has implemented changes in their privacy policy.  These changes allow Facebook the use of customer’s comments and personal data for advertising. This new policy can carry dissatisfaction to their customers since as soon as they make a comment on their Facebook page; the company has legal rights under that comment to utilize it as advertising. We do not know how big the implications can be, but I am sure this new policy will create anger around some customers.

What are your thoughts about this article? Would you be happy if Fb uses your comment to advertise something without your concerning ?

Alberto De Armas

Article Website

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/technology/facebook-amends-privacy-policies.html?ref=onlineadvertising&_r=0