Advertisers and advertising agencies consistently ask for websites and blogs which have ad units above the fold (or sometimes referred to as above the scroll). This means when you load the website in your browser, the portion of the webpage that can be visible without scrolling down. Ideally we would like to see at least two ads above the fold. If you can’t do this, sometimes it is easy to position a leaderboard above the entire website, like by friend Benjamin has done on his website www.benjaminchristie.com.

Study after study has shown that the told left hand side of any webpage is the position which gains the most attention, even more so if it’s an Island ad unit. We’ll typically see this ad position out perform other positions in terms of click through rate and engagement. If you have the ability to move around content on the page, I would highly recommend positioning an island or skyscraper in this position.

Apart from above the fold requirements and the top left hand side, advertisers and advertising agencies also seek out quality and original content. They know that great content brings quality audiences. So where possible try and position an advertisement within the body of the content. Most online newspapers do this, position an island ad smack bank in the middle of the article. If possible once again try and get it as high as possible, to ensure that it going to engaging with viewers.

We often have websites and blogs apply to AdTorque for consideration in the network and we reject them because of the amount of ads on the page. The key is to keep the pages as neat and clean as possible. Having half a dozen or more ads on a page diminishes ad effectiveness, annoys audiences and thus advertisers aren’t interested. Advertisers have to fight for customers, that don’t want to have to fight to be seen on a page when they are paying to be there. Media planners and buyers not only need to ensure their advertising isn’t running across inappropriate content, but they also need to prevent their advertising from running across websites which are relevant but are cluttered with lots of ad units. Try and stick to a maximum of 4 IAB ad units on a page. That’s it.

So just to recap the key points here in Positioning Your Ad Units are;

• No more than 4 ads units per page
• Try to position them Top / Left
• At least 2 above the fold / above the scroll
• Have at least 1 ad unit within content

If you’d like our advice on where to position your ads, please contact AdTorque and we will take a look at your pages in detail and provide a basic report on how you should position your ads. If you’re not yet a publisher in the AdTorque Network, please apply here.

However for a limited numbers of publishers (we tend to see this on bigger sites only) this isn’t the most ideal solution. We’d recommend using an ad server to give you significant control on how ads are served on your site. It also means that you run multiple ads through the one ad space. We see a lot of the automotive blogs that are part of our network think that they need to run a number of ad units on a page, like running 3 skyscrapers for example. Not only does this look terrible, but the clickability of the page also decreases which means your page isn’t performing and we could optimize you out of the buy. But this isn’t the case anymore, as most ad servers are free these days.

Unlike other ad networks, AdTorque is non exclusive with our publishers which means you can run other networks. However, we do ask that you provide us an equal allocation to any other network running within your adserver. So sites wishing to use an ad server typically will fall into one of these categories;

• Have an internal sales team and using the AdTorque Network as part of the ad serving cycle.
• Wish to use geo-targeting, i.e. running the AdTorque Network in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia and other providers in the other countries.
• The need to run a different ad provider in each category of the site ie AdTorque Network in the Car section and another provider in each category like Food, Travel, Small Business etc.
• Prefer to use multiple sources of advertising such as AdTorque and say Google Adsense.

The ability to run multiple ads from different providers will be very appealing to some publishers. We personally don’t recommend any one ad server to our publishers, but here are a few ad server related links to help you navigate the next step.

• Openx hosted – free, plus great geo targeting features and simplicity of use.
• Google Ad Manager – Very complex to setup, only suitable for very large sites with complex rules.
• Blog about Free WordPress Ad servers
• 7 Great Ad Serving Solutions

Finally, if you’re a publisher and not part of the AdTorque Network, you can apply to join here.

Its midway through 2009 and we’re already seeing a great deal of advertising agencies as well as automotive companies undertaking 2010 media planning. From what we’ve seen already from RFPs and general enquiries is that many companies are increasing their advertising budgets across the board in 2010.

Because of the economic downturn, 2010 Media Planning has already seen a number of companies who are planning on advertising online for the first time, as in 2009. Many of the companies we deal directly with in the car, online parts, fuel & oil, automotive accessory and insurance industries are all looking at online as a cost effective channel to achieve growth in this economic downturn.

It seems that this increased online trend is rather consistent around the globe, especially in both our major markets of the USA, UK, Australia. We believe the increased activity with 2010 media planning is because many companies are cutting their outdoor, print, TV and radio campaigns and are heavily focused online where there is real measurable ROI and performance.

Like in 2009, the key for media planners in 2010 is to buy vertically related inventory which has the highest chance of performing. Also taken into consideration is the metrics and demographics of the audience, another key in 2010 media planning.

So how can we help your 2010 Media Planning? AdToruqe can help you or your advertising agency develop your 12 month plan to target your audience online throughout the year. By booking media in advance (either 6 month or 12 months) allows us to offer significant discounts on CPM rates and bonus impressions increasing your return on investment.

To have AdTorque help with your media planning, please Request for Proposal from us or to learn more about the AdTorque Network, download a copy of our media kit.

SAN BRUNO, CA, March 10, 2009 — Adify, the premier provider of vertical ad network management solutions, today announced the extension of its global leadership through rapid growth in the Australian market. Since Adify’s acquisition by Cox Enterprises in 2008, the company has dramatically expanded its global client base, powering more than 150 vertical ad networks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and much more.

According to a recent IAB Australia report, online advertising in the country surpassed $1.7 billion in 2008, a 27 percent year-on-year growth. With geo targeting capabilities, and customizable international pricing, Adify’s platform is ideal for global Network Builders capitalizing in the emerging market, offering efficient means to execute successful advertising campaigns within the country and in various geographic regions around the world. Examples of Australian Network Builders powered by Adify include:

• Gourmet Ads: Founded by renowned Australian Celebrity Chef, Benjamin Christie, Gourmet Ads is the first Australian vertical advertising network focused on delivering major brand advertising to food, wine and beer enthusiasts.
• The AdTorque Network: The AdTorque Network is the leading Australian automotive advertising network serving both the local and international market.
• VerticalMedia | TRAVEL: With exclusive partnerships with some of Australia’s largest travel sites, VerticalMedia | TRAVEL is Australia’s only travel focused vertical ad network and is one of the fastest growing travel and holiday ad networks in the world.

“Online advertising is a global business, blind to the actual physical location of our Network Builders,” said Russ Fradin, president of Adify. “Long-tail culinary, automotive and travel sites are being sought out by luxury brand advertisers who want to ensure that their ads are running on premium sites populated not only by their target demographic, but by active and engaged audiences.  Our Australian Network Builders have built an impressive collection of the type of top tier sites marketers want to target.”

“The sites in Gourmet Ads’ network are read around the world by people passionate about food, wine and beer around the world. Working with Adify helps assure our advertisers that the ads reaching our readers are not only relevant contextually, but geographically as well,” said Benjamin Christie, founder of Gourmet Ads.

Bolstering its Australian team, Adify added Trent Lloyd, a 12-year media and sales management veteran, as Head of Business Development. Lloyd was most recently at Fairfax Digital, where he successfully launched ad sales for some of the top digital properties in Australia. He has a proven track record of achieving revenue growth, developing and retaining key staff and maintaining strong client and agency relationships in the Australian marketplace.

Adify’s network management services and ad technology are used by publishers to execute successful, distributed advertising campaigns. Adify’s ad server, content syndication, tracking, reporting, billing, payment and technical support functions are relied upon by over 150 networks and more than 10,000 independent publishers. This open infrastructure delivers content sponsorships, video, image and rich media advertising to the unique specifications of each Network Builder.

About Adify
Adify Corporation is the premier vertical ad network management company and an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Cox TMI Inc., part of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, one of the nation’s leading media companies and providers of automotive services.

Of all the performance metrics they’re likely to compare, eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) is perhaps the most important. But which eCPM measure are they using? The industry standard practice, shared among virtually all ad networks and ad industry associations, is to use Ad eCPM. For example, if a publisher has an Ad eCPM of $1.00, they’re making an average of $1.00 for every 1,000 times an ad is displayed on their site.

Here’s the challenge: the popular remnant ad network AdSense uses a different metric that they have named Page eCPM. This metric calculates a publisher’s revenue based on the sum value generated by all the ads they have on a given page.

If a publisher’s site has more than one ad per page (as most sites do), their Page eCPM will always be higher than their Ad eCPM. In fact, the non-standard Page eCPM metric typically runs 100% to 200% higher than the widely-accepted Ad eCPM metric. Thus, if the publisher is using AdSense to monetize their leftover inventory, they should be careful when they compare. They may get an inflated perception of how AdSense has been performing for them.

How can a publisher get an accurate understanding of their true AdSense eCPM? There is a way to find Ad eCPM in the AdSense interface, but it requires a little digging in the data. Here’s a hint: it can’t be found in the Account Overview.

The publisher should log into AdSense and click on Advanced Reports, under the Reports tab. Down the left side of the screen, they will see “Show Data By”. Below it, they should open the drop-down menu and select “Individual Ad”. From there, they can adjust the date range and other preferences, and then click “Display Report”. The resulting report will show Ad eCPM in the second-to-right column.

It can indeed be disappointing to view the true remnant eCPM, compared with the eCPM a publisher thought they were earning with AdSense. But there’s no reason to despair. AdSense is a very efficient seller of last resort. There’s no reason not to continue using AdSense, or another remnant network, to monetize leftover inventory. But publishers deserve the opportunity to participate in high-eCPM buys from brand advertisers too. An Adify-powered premium verical network like the AdTorque Network in the Automotive Vertical can bring that opportunity.

The blog was has been reproduced with permission from Adify.com

In CPC (Cost-per-click) advertising, advertisers pay for each click the ad receives. But in CPM-based advertising, the advertiser pays rate based on how many times an ad is viewed (impressions) whether the reader clicks on it – or not.
With CPM, the goal is to build those page views. This can be done by drawing more people to the site, and by improving the website so that viewers click to multiple pages during their visit. Besides being more profitable, both indicators also point to readers that are enjoying the site and its content.

How do you improve impressions? Here are 3 great ways to get started.

1. Highlight Related Posts.
   Probably the best way to build impressions is to link to “Related Posts” in your website on each page, by matching tag, title and/or topic. Cross-linking introduces information related to the page that the visitor was interested in – which builds the impression count AND the visitor’s interest in your site.
2. Highlight What’s Popular.
   Call out the posts and categories that are most popular on your site in a ‘hotspot’ area.  Make sure that you are taking advantage of the website’s program to keep your hotspots dynamic. A good tip is to make sure that your category names are explicit; like “Cooking Utensil Reviews” or “Blog Promotion Tricks”.
3. Offer Many Ways to be Interactive.
   Readers are loyal and spread the word about websites that engage them. You can create that interactive experience in many ways:  make sure you have an RSS Feed for the site, actively react in your own Comments section to the responses people leave and offer an RSS Subscription Feed to the Comments, link IN your new posts to your old posts for examples and related commentary, and provide a Twitter or other Social Networking feed that can alert readers to a taste of new post .