There's been a troubling trend I've been noticing for the past few years: the websites for ad networks, in general, suck.
Isn't it a little strange? With the whole "Web 2.0" frenzy going on (whether you buy into the hype or not), there's a boatload of code being written. Sites are getting constructed, redesigned, and built upon at a frenzied pace. Advertising tends to be moving at a similar pace... there's that ever-mounting pressure to optimize, to retool, to squeeze out more performance, to look and be better than the next guy.
But we're still stuck in the boonies. Tribal Fusion is a comedy of errors when it comes to click efficiency. It's very clear that it was designed as a system for advertisers with the publisher aspect thrown on top. I have my site, but then I have a separate run-of-site section within my site that I generate code for, or maybe I generate code for that in the site section and not the ROS section... then there's a complex maze of tabs for each:
And then you get to defaults, where Tribal Fusion shines (or bombs dramatically, depending on how you look at it). I forget what the count was when I counted the clicks, but it's definitely in the double digit range to set up a simple default for an ad size. Selecting ad type, selecting ad source, approving your ad, entering duration and impression amount (seriously? for a default?), etc. etc. etc. It's frustrating. All the while hardly any graphs or charts to give you a more meaningful grasp on your performance.
ValueClick, another big time network for small- to medium- publishers, isn't much better. It does better in terms of feedback on performance, but the amount of clicks is still up there. It's really just inefficient, when you get down to it. Plus I still get that login delay of a small period of time where it's loading my control panel on login. But perhaps the most infuriating? Their non-"standard" (if there is such a thing) implementation that forces you to convert your default code to JavaScript:
It's a lot easier to keep everything in HTML, so that if I want to move my defaults around on a whim, I can do so just by hot-swapping other networks in and out. Converting and reconverting is a real pain.
Why is this such torment? I know the answer- you're playing with money on some intensive backend control panels that you really don't want to mess with too much. You don't want to accidentally take down all new orders. On the other hand, it's the nature of the game- you need to be able to adjust and progress.
Casale Media is a good example (disclaimer: that's a referral link there). By far my favorite ad network, in great explanation due to their control panel. Simple, requires fairly minimal clicks, and has some graphs and reports that actually mean something to me. I mean, I log in, and I see three charts on the screen that I care about: daily, monthly, and yearly performance. Perfect. Then I see a breakdown:
Is it really too hard here? When I log in, show me how I'm doing. If I need to make adjustments, I'll make them and make more money for myself and for your company. And the defaults, oh the defaults. Each default page is on one screen, and it lets you filter and target your default... if you want. If you just want a standard default, just ignore the excess options and they won't be applied.
Most enviable feature: no need to make a separate default.html file for your default- Casale lets you simply paste in your default code, they save it and run it off their servers. Painless. Direct Media Exchange lets you do this, too. Love it, love it, love it.
This makes you wonder if some of these smaller companies can start gaining momentum by leveraging their technology more than the more established players. It also makes you wonder whether the more established players can actually get the ball rolling and improve in that regard. It should be mentioned, of course, that technology isn't everything- a lot of it is industry contacts. That's why I'll stick with Tribal Fusion first-tier for awhile... their ads tend to be, on average, far better than everyone else's. But you can't rely on that forever....