@sumohax0r
The platform is certainly not to blame, and ripping off advertisers would be simply short-sighted. I assure you that is not the case.
As to why your campaign failed, there are too many variables for anyone other than your account rep to give you meaningful advice. Contact Steve (stevem@sitescout.com) or John (johnb@sitescout.com)
Ask them about URL targeting. If your campaign was run in the last week, it will have stored performance logs on the backend. Admins have the ability to run detailed reports about where your conversions occured and target only those URLs - assuming there were any conversions. There must also be a good reason for that poor CTR, which is far below average. There are people getting penny clicks with 1-3% CTRs on some placements.
We are also integrating with a couple of data providers to allow both demographic and contextual targeting across the entire reach of the network, which should help everyones CTR and conversion rate.
@MistorToker
For the most part you are right. The RTB exchanges (Admeld/Rubicon/Pubmatic) operate on a rev-share model with the publishers, so there is no margin there, just a mutual incentive for them to yield the highest CPMs possible.
As for DSPs, the margins are so small compared to the infrastructure/bandwidth costs associated with running a DSP that it's effectively a loss leader without massive volume. You could consider the margin as essentially the cost of ad serving.
3rd party data provider costs are usually just passed on to advertisers, if and when they choose to use them.
But there are pros and cons to both approaches.
Media buying via RTB...
Pros:
- Lower barrier of entry for advertisers in terms of minimum $ commitment
- Maximum reach across all exchanges
- Integration with targeting data (audience, demographic, contextual, etc.)
- Real-time stats and bidding + all the bells and whistles each DSP brings to their platform
Cons:
- Auction process breeds competition
- Non-guaranteed traffic
- Typically higher session depths (remnant in most cases)
- Strict ad review process and central blocklists in place
Media buying via direct buys...
Pros:
- Guaranteed traffic (impressions)
- Typically lower session depths (resulting in higher CTRs)
- Full control over ad units (using an ad server)
- More flexibility with respect to allowed verticals/ads
Cons:
- Higher barrier of entry for advertisers in terms of minimum $ commitment (IO + 3rd party ad server costs)
- Lack of real-time control over the publisher's traffic
- Lack of integration with 3rd party data providers
- Higher fixed CPMs (you pay for 'premium' inventory)
- Traditional process that requires negotiation, Insertion Order, etc.
- Many publishers are reluctant to deal with affiliates or non-branded advertisers
Even though they are not mutually exclusive, which approach people take depends on their experience and the size of their testing budget.
