Most media planners and buyers intuitively know that the ad placements they plan and purchase for their advertisers have a ripple effect. A user who may click on an ad ends up passing along the link to the destination page to other users who've never viewed the ad. This sharing of links generates an X factor of pass-along value to the advertiser that -- to this point -- really hasn't been easy to quantify. Now a new company, Meteor Solutions, has developed a technology platform that allows media teams to connect the performance of paid media with the "organic lift" that occurs by word-of-mouth.
How Meteor Works
Meteor Solution's Tracker technology initially works like many ad-tracking solutions: some lines of JavaScript must be inserted on the campaign's destination page and other script must be inserted on the conversion confirmation page. When a user clicks on an ad and arrives at the destination page, via a cookie, she's assigned a unique ID. That ID is also appended to the destination URL. If that user bookmarks that URL or shares it with friends by e-mailing it, copying and pasting it, blogging about it, tagging it, or posting it in a social community, visits to the appended URL will be tracked by Meteor. URL shorteners, commonly now used by Twitterers, and other tracking scripts like Web analytics or ad tracking solutions, do not impose upon Meteor's tracking.
Because of the cookie, Meteor can identify that a visitor to the appended URL is not the original visitor. This second visitor is cookied and assigned another new unique ID and appended URL -- and so on and so on for each new visitor to the site.
Conversion actions generated by these shared URLs are also tracked. Meteor then generates "sharing graphs" from these visits and conversions in a dashboard.
Meteor Tracker can help shed light on some of the unaccountable "no referrer" source in Web analytics that typically dominates all sources. Meteor has found that approximately 20 percent of inbound no referrer traffic actually comes from shared links.
Implications for Media Planners
Agencies can utilize Meteor Tracker in a number of ways:
* Placement justification. Meteor Tracker traces back to the original ad unit and publisher source. Although Publisher B's ad might be more expensive than Publisher A's, if an ad on Publisher B's site proves to generate more direct and shared traffic altogether, the media planner can better justify the more expensive buy.
* Fine-tune planning for campaign objectives. Having a way to track the campaign's pass-along value helps the media planner better estimate how many impressions she really needs to buy in order to generate the target quantity of visitors. It might also mean that the planner can accomplish the objectives while spending less for the advertiser, which in these times advertisers welcome.
* Value for brand and direct response advertisers alike. Meteor's solution can provide value for any kind of advertiser. The more likely the audience is to share information -- which goes for B2B (define) and CPGs (define)alike -- the more valuable tracking this information becomes.
* Improved conversion measurement. Not only does Meteor Tracking now provide a way to track the lift in conversions originated from ad campaigns via shared links, but there is also information to suggest that shared links convert four times more than unshared ones. So, now sharing can be freely encouraged and attribution can be given to the ad campaign.
* Creative testing. If Ad A generates slightly higher click-thru rates but Ad B ends up generating significantly more shared URLs, this shakes up the way to judge the ads' performance. The planner might suggest a creative test such as this before a full-blown campaign launch to help optimize the campaign from the get-go.
* Greater emphasis on the landing page. Meteor has found a vast disparity in the amount of traffic driven to a site by shared links. Some sites generate as much as half their traffic from shared links while shared traffic on other sites represents only a few percentage points. Users tend to share URLs based on the value of the page's content. If sharing represents a campaign objective, the creative team needs to really ratchet up the quality and content of the landing page.
In a time when advertisers want to see their ad dollars being put to the most effective use, Meteor's solution can help give media planners an edge.
Most Visited Web Site and Most Searched Term in 2009?
Facebook was the most searched term during 2009, according to Hitwise. Citing data collected between January and November 2009, the online measurement firm reckons the social networking site accounted for 0.67 percent of all searches during that period.
Rival social networking site MySpace was second overall for the year, but the continued growth of Facebook saw it rise from 10th position in 2008 to overtake its rival in 2009.
Facebook was also the third most visited Web site of the year, Hitwise says, behind Google and Yahoo's mail product, which came first and second, respectively, for the second year running.
| Top 10 Most Searched Terms | |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 2008 |
| facebook | myspace |
| myspace | craigslist |
| craigslist | ebay |
| youtube | google |
| yahoo mail | myspace.com |
| google | yahoo |
| yahoo | youtube |
| ebay | yahoo mail |
| facebook login | yahoo.com |
| myspace.com | facebook |
| Source: Experian Hitwise | |
| Top 10 Most Visited Web Sites Among U.S. Users | |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 2008 |
| www.google.com | www.google.com |
| mail.yahoo.com | mail.yahoo.com |
| www.facebook.com | www.myspace.com |
| www.yahoo.com | www.yahoo.com |
| www.myspace.com | mail.live.com |
| mail.live.com | www.ebay.com |
| www.youtube.com | search.yahoo.com |
| search.yahoo.com | www.msn.com |
| www.msn.com | www.facebook.com |
| www.ebay.com | www.youtube.com |
| Source: Experian Hitwise | |
Overall, Google accounted for 6.7 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2009. Yahoo Mail accounted for 4.44 percent of visits, followed by Facebook with 4.26 percent, Yahoo with 3.36 percent, and MySpace at 3 percent.
HEARST MAGAZINES DIGITAL MEDIA SELECTS YUME AS VIDEO ADVERTISING PARTNER
YuMe to Provide In–Stream Advertising Technology and Sales for Hearst’s Portfolio of Websites
Redwood City, CA—December 7, 2009—YuMe, the video advertising technology company, announced today that it has been selected by Hearst Magazines Digital Media to help drive a new source of revenue using Hearst’s highly engaging video content. YuMe will provide in–stream advertising across Hearst’s extensive portfolio of web sites, including Cosmopolitan.com, GoodHousekeeping.com, RealBeauty.com and HarpersBazaar.com.
Hearst Magazines Digital Media will use YuMe’s video advertising technology to ensure that video ad impressions from big name advertisers are paired against the most profitable and relevant premium content. With YuMe’s ability to deliver high–impact ad units and advanced targeting capabilities, Hearst will maximize revenue generated by its video content. Through the partnership, YuMe will also expand the premium video content available in its women–focused audience channel.
“As the popularity and consumption of streaming video content continues to thrive, the digital team at Hearst is focused on helping its loyal advertisers take advantage of this engaging and dynamic communications medium,” said Chuck Cordray, SVP and general manager of Hearst Magazines Digital Media. “With the help of YuMe’s video ad technology, we’re able to ensure that our visitors are presented with the most relevant advertising messages and that we realize maximum revenue opportunities across all of our online media properties.”
“Hearst is one of the world’s most established media companies with an extensive portfolio of some of the web’s most respected sites,” said Michael Mathieu, CEO of YuMe. “Advertisers want an effective way to take advantage of that audience and content, and YuMe is uniquely positioned to connect the two parties in a beneficial way.”
YuMe recently announced partnerships with Ooyala, Autotrader.com and MSNBC.com, demonstrating the company’s leadership position in the online video advertising space and continued success in helping the world’s most reputable publishers monetize their streaming video advertising initiatives.
About Hearst Magazines Digital Media
Launched in March 2006, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, a unit of Hearst Magazines, is dedicated to creating and implementing the digital strategy for Hearst’s magazine brands and other sites, which serve the company’s consumers and audience. The unit has launched, re-launched or acquired 25 Web sites and nine mobile sites for brands such as Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire and Seventeen, as well as original digital properties such as Delish.com, a food site in partnership with MSN; TheDailyGreen.com; RealBeauty.com and MisQuinceMag.com. To round out its growing portfolio of interests for teens and women, Hearst Digital has acquired Q&A platform Answerology.com; the eCrush Network (eCRUSH.com, eSPIN.com), a teen social community; social shopping site Kaboodle.com, and RealAge.com, a consumer health site.
About YuMe
YuMe is a video advertising technology company that is making professional video profitable for publishers and impactful for advertisers. With 500+ publishers, more than 1 billion video streams and 65 million unique viewers per month, YuMe gives publishers and advertisers unprecedented reach, brand safety, contextual relevance, controlled syndication, and consistent delivery across all digital media platforms—Web, downloads, mobile, and IPTV. YuMe is a privately held company headquartered in Redwood City, CA and backed by Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, BV Capital and DAG Ventures.
