Once you have decided to invest in an Internet ad
management solution, the question arises: how can I choose
the best solution for my needs without jeopardizing the
privacy of my site's visitors? Even more importantly, how
can you find a solution that your organization and equipment
can support and maintain as your site traffic and customer
size continues to grow?
In order to answer these questions you will need to look
at a number of factors, the first of which is scalability.
Scalability refers to the ability of the software to grow
and handle increased ad impressions and campaign inventory
without requiring additional hardware. This is one of the
most important factors in the successful long-term use of
any ad serving solution.
If you expect that your business will grow, (and you
must, otherwise you would not be in business) you have to
assume that your site traffic and ad campaign inventory will
increase as well. As a result, your ad serving solution
should be scalable enough to handle 1 million impressions
today and 1 billion tomorrow, should that need arise.
Along the same lines, the ad serving solution should be
able to manage spikes in your site traffic due to unforeseen
factors such as major news events or new product releases.
Some ad serving solutions and third-party serving solutions
are limited in the number of impressions each software
license can handle. As a result, problems such as delays in
ad delivery and reporting can occur. Also, some solutions
require additional hardware to support them and any
additional licenses. Due to their design structure, these
additional machines and licenses cannot communicate quickly,
or at all, which causes further delays in ad delivery and
reporting.
Another related concern is the platform compatibility of
the software. Some solutions can only work on specific
platforms and configurations. As a result of the platform's
limitations, further problems can occur in terms of system
performance. And if you are not currently running your site
on the same platform, you would have to invest in a new
server platform and possibly additional hardware to support
it.
Thus, the total cost of ownership for your ad
serving/management solution not only involves the cost of
the solution itself, but also the cost of any additional
hardware and software, such as servers and platform software
to support the solution. In addition, due to the
architecture of some software solutions, staffing,
trafficking, and technical people can become a burden as
well. The key is to find a system that is simple enough to
be supported by your staff and within your current network
while still offering the scalability to grow with the robust
targeting and reporting capabilities that your customers
demand. It must do all of this within the constraints of
your budget.
Once you have found a solution or solutions that you can
afford to support, you must make sure it delivers the
functionality and features your business demands. What kind
of profiling and targeting capabilities does it offer? What
kind of reporting capabilities does it provide? And most
importantly, will it allow you to leverage data about your
audience without sacrificing the privacy of your site's
visitors? Considering the current climate within the
industry, this point is more important than ever.
This is one area in which most third-party serving
solutions and networks take advantage of their customers.
Beware! Many third-party servers actually charge a premium
for their services if you want to keep them from accessing
your customer data. In other words, they want to profile
your visitors, deliver your ads and then maintain their own
files of demographic data they gather from your Web site.
Thus, you are sacrificing your control over your customer
data and jeopardizing your visitors' privacy.
The final point is that while searching for the best ad
serving/management solution for your business, you should
look at what other sites in your segment are utilizing. What
is the standard? If there is one solution that most sites
are using, talk to one of your peers and see what they are
using, how are they supporting it, and how does it compare
with what you are looking for. By doing this, you will be
able to get direct feedback on most of the points that we
have covered, and at the same time answer any other
questions you might have.
