Last week's column opened a series on ad pricing, discussing the traditional standard of CPM pricing. Anyone involved in this industry knows that things aren't simple or clear-cut in the world of online ad prices, where sites and advertisers are experimenting with a wide range of creative pricing options. True, standards exist. But they are by no means the rule. And this includes lots of other variables along a continuum of steps toward the sale.
Advertisers often favor such pricing strategies because they pay only for measurable results.
The problem for publishers is that they carry all the risk - if a poorly designed or badly targeted ad draws low activity levels, the publisher gets no revenue for those impressions served. It's clear why anyone would rather pay only for results. But the rationale to offer such pricing is less clear to any supplier who recognizes that actual results are as dependent upon what the buyer brings to the transaction, as to what the seller supplies. The responsibility question would be easier to answer if there were some absolute and objective measure for creative approach. But of course the very nature of ad creative makes that impossible.