6 Comments

Will Advertisers Embrace the Long Tail?

Dec 3, 2007
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We’ve all had a few years to digest and either embrace or reject Chris Anderson’s buzz causing book “The Long Tail.” It is a seminal work for the online advertising industry and if you haven’t read the book yet, you’ve no doubt heard the basic concept explained over and over again in email threads, blog posts, IM chats or by the vapor gurus at industry conferences.

Assuming that you are familiar with the concept of the Long Tail, let’s consider whether or not advertisers will support ad networks focused on the Long Tail, especially given that an economic downturn seems all but a certainty here in the United States.

A new “social” ad network called AdRoll is betting that advertisers will embrace the Long Tail. TechCrunch has an interesting post (and comments) on the alpha launch of AdRoll this morning:

The last thing the Web needs is another ad network, but Adroll is at least trying something new. It lets niche publishers self-organize into communities of interest so as to have a better shot at attracting advertisers. For instance, in the “Surfing Ad Community,” there are currently eight surf sites that collectively attract an audience of half-a-million per month. There is also an “Alt Music Community” of music blogs. Any publisher can create their own community or ask to join an existing one. Kopf explains this to me in an e-mail:

(Communities can be a) Open, b) Members Can Invite, and c) Only Leader Can Invite)

This actually allows publishers to form communities that are exclusive, or semi-exclusive. So you could form the TechCrunch Ad Community that is made up of smaller tech-focused blogs that you rep. Or a community of “Breaking News Sites.” Sites can join by “friending” you…and you approve (or deny) their admission.

The big point of differentiation for us is that we . . . use a “social-networking”-style matching system to enable publishers to create their own networks, and help publishers to sell more, at higher CPMs by working together.

Here are the questions I think will be the basis for AdRoll’s (among the other blog niche ad networks) success or failure:

1. Do advertisers care about the long tail in an advertising network setup? We’ve seen in affiliate marketing that many advertisers are interested in immediate returns on their network investments or either are too passive to do the work necessary to successfully mine the Long Tail. Is that indicative of all internet advertising?

2. Are advertising budgets, which are still very tied to the ancient metric of CPM or impressions, flexible enough to supply a long tail economy in an ad network context?

3. Is advertising ready for a “social” component? We’ve seen the disaster that is Facebook’s ad program and how both large and small advertisers are weary of being involved.

It’s still too early to tell, but I’m not ready to call social advertising networks the next big thing.

About Sam Harrelson

Former ReveNews and CostPerNews Publisher, Former Affiliate Marketer, Current Middle School Science Teacher, Current Publisher of AffiliateHack

Twitter: sbharrelson22
Filed under: Next-Gen Marketing
  • http://www.eaccountableOPM.com Durk Price

    Sam, I remember the time when Commission Junction used to have a significant long tail and that niche marketers, whom I represented at the time, did extremely well.

    Over the years as they pared their long tail for "lack of production" a number of my clients have suffered as a result. Lack of production for one client is a significant number of deals for another.

    So I embrace long tail concepts since I look at all deals as long term. Plus you never know in this business when a long tail ends up wagging the dog.

  • http://www.adroll.com John

    Durk,

    We've received a lot of great responses since we went public with this, and we're convinced that the long tail has a lot more strength than anyone gives it credit for. Advertisers want to reach the long tail, there just isn't any feasible way for them to link up at the moment. Please drop me an email if you have any questions or would like an invitation to our private beta, we'd love to hear your feedback.

  • http://www.revenews.com Sam Harrelson

    John-

    I do have to say that I'm impressed with the interface so far. I'll be hooking up the ReveNews widget soon and testing things out, but this could be a very compelling alternative to more traditional ad networks.

    Thanks for stopping by-
    Sam

  • http://www.eaccountableOPM.com Durk Price

    John, I registered and I am just waiting to be approved to check it out. Thanks

  • http://www.oncardblog.com Jonathan

    I think that this ad network has a unique place within the internet advertising space. There will be a significant number of advertisers who will want to experiment with the long-tail and if it works will devote more marketing dollars to it. It's not a zero-sum game. Advertisers will allocate budgets where they think it will impact both short-term and long-term goals as long as those long-term goals are meaningful.

  • http://www.adroll.com John

    Hi Durk,

    Thanks for registering, I just approved you through our system so you should be good to go. Thanks for your interest and please let me know if you have any questions, my email is john@adroll.com