Workshop output: What influences how many advertising impressions an online publisher has available to sell tomorrow?
Unlike newspapers, outdoor or magazines, the volume of potential advertising impressions is directly proportional to the number of pages viewed and the number of people interacting with the media. This means internet companies need to be able to forecast their online advertising volumes very accurately to avoid over-selling or missing possible revenues. Here are ten examples of why web advertising inventory is less predictable than classic media…
- News agenda
A big story means big traffic. - User generated discussion
If there’s a topic our audiences want to talk about it, the volumes of impressions increases. - Search engine optimisation
If it is working well, our audiences rise. - Volume of advertisers
The more advertising slots that are sold, the less inventory is available. - Existing advertising
CPC / CPA deal performance is hard to predict and couple demand more online inventory than planned - House ads
Internal traffic and promotions can quickly boost traffic, but if some of that space is needed for commercial clients, or for the sales of other company-owned products, then the space available for sales teams will be less - Marketing
If we promote the site effectively we gain more viewers – this could be an online or offline campaign. - Linkages
If bloggers suddenly link to us we gain more traffic. - Google news
If we suddenly gain high rankings then we’ll gain much more traffic. - Weather
It’s true: if it’s raining our traffic goes up.
…plus the usual issues about seasonal and daily patterns.
These are only a few of the issues. If you join us on a Digital Publishing Strategy workshop then we’ll explore them in more detail.