Ad Network Island: A Survival Guide

Kirby Winfield, WidgetBucks' Chief Revenue Officer, is today's featured contributor on Adotas, a premier news publication focused on the Internet advertising and media industry.

In his exclusive post -- "Survivor: Ad Network Island" -- Kirby looks at key legs of the proverbial stool that can make or break an ad network in these uncertain times:

- Proprietary Technology
- Scale and Unique Reach
- Sales Team

Kirby's bottom line advise: As an ad network, take stock in what you ultimately control: your ad network. While that may sound over simplified, this is the time to focus on key initiatives, control spending.

If you want to learn more about ad networks, author and consultant Robert Moskowitz recently provided a nice piece that summaries the types of ad nets out there and a variety of tips on selecting the right ad network for your campaign.

- Dean

Who’s Been Clicking On My Ads??

Maybe it’s a case of too many nights reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but as advertisers, publishers, and ad networks, we always want to know who likes and clicks on different types of ads. Some might be too high on the page, some too low, and others, just right.

I recently came across an eMarketer study called "Online Ad Clicker Demographics," that sheds some light on which demographics of web site visitors go for particular ad types. The demographics cover age, income, and visit frequency, as well as their interaction with Text, Right and Top banners, and Video ads -- combined, these four pretty much sum up the majority of online advertising.

It’s definitely interesting to see which market you are going after or that your site caters to should help drive the type of advertising targeted to them. If you have a site that’s predominately younger, it's wise to focus on Video Ads (31% engagement) and the top banner (23% engagement). If you have a more mature crowd (35-55) then Text and Banners would likely be a better performer. Of course, the hardest group to engage are the wealthy and the 65 and older crowd -- numbers drop off considerably for them.

With so many options for advertising available to publishers, data such as this can be a considerable help in laying out your site's advertising strategy in order to optimize revenue. Of course every site is unique, as is the audience, but the same mantra applies: test, test, and test again. We’re in a world with ever increasing options and diverse ways to monetize, so the more data, the better to increase your ROI.

- Gary Kamikawa
VP, Interactive Advertising
WidgetBucks

WidgetBucks Welcomes Bergstrom as CFO

WidgetBucks today welcomes Jeff Bergstrom as its Chief Financial Officer. Jeff is a long-time veteran of Internet and technology start-ups, where he's managed multi-billion-dollar acquisitions and mergers, facilitated private equity transactions, and navigated business finances during tough macro-economic times. In all, Bergstrom has built and sold three tech and Internet companies resulting in over $2.2B in shareholder value.

As WidgetBucks’ CFO, Jeff is responsible for all things financial, including managing the company’s financial strategy and operations, as well as overseeing and implementing all financial reporting, forecasting and tax functions.

Jeff spent five years at Internet company Go2Net from 1997-2001, and during that time, he helped the company grow to over $110M in annual revenue. He was deeply involved with the purchase and integration of nine companies in two years, and also led the financial team ultimately responsible for the acquisition by InfoSpace for approximately $2.0B. Most recently, he was CFO of The PowerTech Group, a security software products firm that recently sold to a portfolio company of the Audax Group.

Matt Hulett, WidgetBucks CEO and Chairman: "Jeff brings an incredible breadth of financial experience perfectly suited to WidgetBucks. He joins us at just the right time as WidgetBucks embarks on its second year well positioned to reinvigorate online advertising, even during these challenging economic times. Jeff has shown that he knows what it takes to win."

Jeff's appointment is WidgetBucks' second chief officer addition in the last two months: In August, Chief Revenue Officer Kirby Winfield joined the team

Welcome to the team, Jeff.

- Dean

eMarketer Holiday Report: First, the Good News...

Internet analyst firm eMarketer has just released its annual online holiday sales forecast.

First, the good news. Senior Analyst Jeffrey Grau projects this year's holiday sales (excluding travel) will total $32.1 billion, up 10.1% from 2007.

Now the bad news. While an increase, the 10% is still a far cry from the low-to-mid 20% range online retailers have seen in recent years. Certainly the economy has a big hand in that, which may mean a few pink slips at the North Pole this year.

There's actually more good news in the report for publishers running WidgetBucks shopping widgets on their site and blogs: Shoppers are shifting a larger share of their purchases online rather than heading to mall in an effort to save gas and take advantage of free shipping offers.

This year is significant in another way. Nearly 50% of holiday gift spending among US Internet users will occur online compared to 44% in stores, marking the first time the Web has surpassed the brick-and-mortar as the preferred channel for Internet users to make holiday purchases, according to the eMarketer report. Last year, 70% of US Internet users preferred the store over the Web (22%). Go figure.

So while there's lots of bah-humbug right now around the economy, Santa's still coming and soon it will be ChrismaHanuKwanza Day.

- Dean