Yelp advertising is a rip-off for small advertisers

Yelp!

That word could be coming out of the mouths of small-business owners when they hear how much the online reviews site is overcharging them for advertising. At a time when much online advertising is being sold for 60 cents per thousand impressions (CPMs), Yelp is charging some local advertisers $600 per 1,000 impressions.

That’s not a typo. Yelp is charging small businesses 1,000-times the standard online CPM rates for local ads that appear on … Continue Reading

What Facebook isn’t telling you about its risky ad business

In its IPO filing Wednesday, Facebook identified mobile’s limited revenue potential, competition from other social networks, and the potential loss of advertisers as factors that could seriously harm its business. But was the social networking company, which relied on advertising for 85 percent of its revenue in 2011, forthcoming enough about the real risks associated with its primary money-maker?

“The issue of click-through rate was not mentioned as a risk in the S-1,” said Peter … Continue Reading

Yahoo revenue down 13 percent in Q4, CEO says better execution needed

Yahoo‘s revenue dropped 13 percent compared to the same period last year, the company reported today. In its quarterly earnings’ announcement Tuesday, Yahoo reported $1,324 million in GAAP revenue for the fourth quarter of 2011, while costs increased by 10 percent. Excluding traffic acquisition costs from Yahoo’s partnership with Microsoft and others, the company brought in $1,169 million — down just three percent compared to last year.

The numbers aren’t very surprising as Yahoo continues … Continue Reading

StyleCaster to challenge Condé Nast with ‘Style as a Service’ ads (exclusive)

Fashion-focused media company StyleCaster will launch a proprietary ad platform in mid-January that will challenge Condé Nast, Glam Media and third-party ad networks, the company revealed today.

The new ad platform, dubbed Style as a Service, is a joint venture between StyleCaster and ad space monitoring and brokering service MediaMath and seeks to help fashion, beauty and consumer brands with ad advice and placement. MediaMath gives access to the inventory of publishers like Rodale and … Continue Reading

Facebook’s entire business model is under fire in the EU

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.”

Facebook (and just about every other free Web service) has built a business on that saying and its implications, and the European Commission is taking the social network to task for it. The EU is considering a ban on Facebook’s practice of selling demographic data to marketers and advertisers without specific permission from users.

First, let’s have a … Continue Reading

Online advertisers prepping new, more interactive ad formats

You’re about to see big changes in the online ads that appearing alongside your favorite websites, because the standards organization overseeing web ads has just approved new guidelines for the first time in three years.

Advertisers are using a variety of tricks to make ads more engaging: Increased interactivity through rich media, “gamification” of ads and extended video spots are all in their bag of tricks. It appears to be working, as people are spending … Continue Reading

Ad innovation takes the stage at Y Combinator event (video)

A few lucky people got a peek at the future of online advertising recently, thanks to a Y Combinator event.

Close to 200 entrepreneurs, marketers, publishers, and venture capitalists packed Y Combinator headquarters in Mountain View on Sept. 14 for the startup incubator’s first ever Ad Innovation Conference. The two-hour event was open to the public and designed to showcase companies developing ad-related technologies.

What with Demo, TechCrunch, Intel Developer Forum and Microsoft Build last … Continue Reading

Ad monitoring service DoubleVerify raises another $33M in quest to be “next DoubleClick”

Online ad verification startup DoubleVerify on Tuesday announced it has raised a cool $33 million in a third found of funding.

Companies like DoubleVerify and competitors like AdSafe and AdXpose serve an important role in the increasingly crowded — and uncertain — online ad marketplace. Publishers, marketers, ad networks and others in the ad supply chain use verification services to ensure that ads are being served correctly and to generally keep better track of individual … Continue Reading

Rich folks are suckers for digital media (and online ads)

Digital media and online advertisements are the best way to reach the wealthiest Americans, according to a study released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

“The traditional view of how the affluent use the Internet has been turned upside down,” says Sherrill Mane, senior vice president of industry services for IAB, in a phone interview with VentureBeat. “Until now we didn’t have data to show they were heavy users. Now we know the wealthiest … Continue Reading

YouTube is working on the best reality show you’ll never see

Rumor has it Google’s YouTube is holding a competition to find video producers who can create original content for the site’s new channels.

Winners of the competition will obtain one of 20 “channels” the video site plans to feature in a new design coming this winter. If this competition were a reality show, it would be like the The Bachelor picking 20 women to marry and giving each of them fame and millions of dollars … Continue Reading

Reply.com acquires MerchantCircle for $60 million

Reply.com on Thursday announced it had acquired fellow Bay Area firm MerchantCircle for $60 million cash and stock. The deal is expected to go through in Q3 of this year.

The deal makes good sense, as MerchantCircle acts as a business directory for more than a million small businesses and Reply.com is an ad firm that targets advertising for local businesses. MercantCircle’s incredible network will give Reply a huge roster of businesses to which they … Continue Reading

Brilig raises $1.8M to grow advertising data marketplace

Brilig, an advertising data marketplace, has raised $1.8 million in funding.

The company provides a platform for individuals and companies to buy and sell data. This allows sellers to profit from their data and gives buyers access to a library of sources to better target their online advertising.

Brilig says it’s the first open marketplace for this information, because other exchanges such as BlueKai and eXelate, parties operate anonymously. Currently Brilig is crowdsourced by thousands … Continue Reading

RadiumOne: Get ready to "like" ads

Ad network RadiumOne is following Facebook’s example as it tries to figure out whether viewers liked an ad.

The San Francisco startup is launching a new feature called the “R1 Like Button,” which brings the “like” button that Facebook popularized into the world of advertising. If advertisers choose to include it, viewers will be able to both like and share an ad. When viewers like an ad, they’re giving RadiumOne data about what ads are … Continue Reading

Adobe beefs up its ad targeting by acquiring Demdex

Adobe may be best known for its media creation software Photoshop and Flash Builder, but it’s now showing more interest in the advertising market and just announced that it has acquired a data startup called Demdex.

Adobe acquired analytics company Omniture for $1.8 billion in September 2009, explaining the move as a way to give Adobe customers the tools they need to make money from their content. By July of last year Adobe said Omniture … Continue Reading

Turn raises another $20M for its automated ad tools

Turn, one of the “demand-side platforms” (DSPs) that are becoming increasingly important to online advertising, just raised $20 million in new funding.

Advertising agencies use DSPs to centralize all their ad-buying across multiple ad exchanges and networks, usually with some degree of automated bidding and audience targeting. Not only are DSPs managing a big portion of online ad spending, but they’re reportedly a major factor behind the display advertising growth Google has seen.

When Turn … Continue Reading

Investors bet $35M on AdKeeper’s “keepable” ads

AdKeeper, a company promising a way for users to save online ads in a place where they can browse them later, just raised $35 million in a second round of funding.

The round brings New York-based AdKeeper’s total funding to $43 million. That’s an impressive sum for a Web startup that hasn’t even launched its first product yet. (It’s currently in private testing, with plans for a full launch early this year.) But the company … Continue Reading

Forecast: Online ad spending to nearly double by 2014

Spending on online advertising will grow by double-digit percentages over the next four years, ending at close to double its current value by 2014, according to a new forecast by marketing research firm eMarketer.

The research firm estimated online ad spending in the U.S., projected at $25.8 billion for 2010, will grow to $28.5 billion by next year, $32.6 billion by 2012, $36 billion by 2013, and $40.5 billion by 2014. The projections were calculated … Continue Reading

Facebook's big move to Madison Avenue

The world’s largest social network could soon be opening up shop on Madison Avenue, the iconic address long linked to New York City’s advertising industry.

Facebook has leased two floors at 335 Madison Avenue, according to a source in the real-estate industry familiar with the company’s plans. It could expand to as much as 150,000 square feet in the building, our source estimates.

That amount of space suggests Facebook may be planning to employ as … Continue Reading

Why an online-ad guru thinks TV ads are too cheap

Those bullish on online advertising eye the television-advertising market, which is worth $70 billion just in the U.S., and bet that Web ads can steal a big chunk of that, as they’ve done with print advertising. That’s why Google is pushing YouTube, Google TV, and video advertising, for starters.

But Internet-advertising pioneer Dave Morgan, who cofounded 24/7 RealMedia and Tacoda, argued Friday morning that television viewing is growing, as is television advertising — and that … Continue Reading