Saltzman's staff also knows that, in many cases, keeping the value of CDNow high means keeping the number of banner ads fairly low. Saltzman argues that too many ads can distract CDNow shoppers from completing their purchases-the site's central source of revenue. You don't want to interrupt a shopping experience,'' agrees Beth-Ann Eason, group publisher at DoubleClick. For example, CDNow shoppers who click off the site to buy tickets to a concert are less likely to return to CDNow. These aren't the only ways that banner ads can impact the shopping experience.
Marketers push for animation and rich media in the banners to make their appeals more eye-catching.
But these gimmicks can bring site performance down to a crawl. When you're an e-commerce site, performance is the crown jewel,'' explains Debbie Pinkston, vice president of ad sales at Onsale. On another front, Saltzman's CDNow team spends the bulk of its time trying to secure long-term joint marketing arrangements. For many commerce sites, these partnerships mean more than just offers in key site areas. They mean creating whole areas of the site to support marketers' sponsorships.