Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Online Ads Can be Found Anywhere



Now that we have explained how online advertisements are used by end user, the next topic to cover is how and where companies keep their ads displayed on a website.

Online advertisements are basically seen everywhere on the web, whether it is e-commerce or content website (such as: eBay, Google). Due to the fact that they are everywhere, advertisements on the web are now becoming competitive and most companies are investing a lot of money to them. Online advertisements expense has been growing over the past years, and it is expected to grow about $17.9 billion over the next four years. Most online websites gain these profits by selling ad spaces on their webpages. But how can online website value their ads spaces on their websites?

The value of the ad display can depend on where the advertisement is located on the website and also how many times the ad was viewed. Usually websites have a standard display for advertisements. Most websites have ads banners that are shown across the top of the webpage and side bar links that display advertisements. The top ads banners tend to cost more than the bottom page ads because they are most likely to be seen by end users.




Another way that websites determine the cost of an ad is cost per click. The way this method works is by the advertiser paying a website, by how many times an end user clicks on the ad and browses the advertiser’s website. With the help of cookies, websites can keep track of user that have been on the advertisers ads. An example of a company that uses this method is Google ads, which charge more for top rank websites, because they have a higher chance to be clicked on. Having these online advertisements provides revenue for some websites, so they are able to maintain their content on the web.

As we know ads are everywhere on the web, even on piracy websites. There has been a recent controversy whether online advertiser should be penalized if they have an advertisement on a piracy website.

But why does this matter? The contents on piracy websites generally provide links use file sharing.  These links allow users to download unlicensed and illegal copyright materials such as movies and music. These piracy website are benefiting from the profits that are generated by online advertiser, which essentially means that the advertisers are contributing to this crime. The revenue produced from ads on these sites is estimated to be $227 million annually.

In most cases brands that purchase online ads are not aware that their ads are displayed on a piracy website. The reason is that the advertised brand hires a third party to send their ads to different websites, some of which are piracy sites. Should these companies be penalized even if they are not aware that their ads are on a piracy website? 

The United Kingdom is now trying to stop piracy websites from profiting from these ads. The article “Attempt to Cut Off Illegal Websites’ Advertising Revenue” explains how the United Kingdom are blocking piracy websites in hopes to cut revenues from these sites. Many argue that having the theses ads on piracy sites is hurting the credibility of the brand and companies will take their ads off these sites eventually. Then other says that if there is money to be made from these web sites, advertiser will continue to display their ads. Should these advertisers be held responsible for posting their ads on piracy websites?  Is it fair that piracy websites are gaining revenue from these advertisements? Should the United States take actions and block theses websites as well?

Sources:
http://musically.com/2014/02/19/study-claims-that-online-piracy-sites-made-227m-from-ads-last-year/

6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. With the one click process, do you think companies such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo will find better ways to attract customers without compromising the privacy of its customers? There was an article that was published by Click & Clean where it provides quick access to privacy features in Chrome and Firefox, including the ability to clear the cache, history, and other private data. You can also use it to securely close your browser, in which case Click & Clean clears private data before shutting down according to criteria you set. Do you think that will help customers feel safe about the information that they have one websites?

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  3. I think that the revenue model for these online advertising is genius. Each click money is being made and has allowed many people to benefit off of this model. This is a very interesting subject and if I knew I could've made money this easily by making videos and having advertisements on my page or Youtube video, I would've done that a long time ago.

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  4. I agree with Donnie the companies can't control where their ads are going. I think the United States should look into blocking the ads from going to these piracy websites.

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  5. As stated in a comment below, advertisement have begun to overwhelm the online market for entertainment and informative purposes. To find a popular news article or youtube video without one or multiple advertisements is almost impossible to come by. It has even gone as far as to allow advertisements to be shown multiple times during a long video clip on websites such as youtube or other popular video related websites. The purpose of attaining educational and informative information has been watered down due to the inflexibility of online distractions and overflowing advertisement content being shown on a webpage. Maybe one day the public and big businesses will understand the happiness and ease of use of public material is greater than the capitalistic viewpoint of making as much money as possible.

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  6. Being a marketing major online advertisement is something that interests me very much. I can not believe what companies are willing to pay this day and time to put their names at the tops of online websites. One such site you mentioned was google. To be at the top of googles search you will pay a pretty penny. I do not approve of using online advertising to pay for piracy websites It is unethical and I do think that the companies who participate in this knowingly or not should pay. They put the money up for the add to be placed. Even though it was placed by a third party agency. The company gave them the ok to go ahead with it. This is why the blame comes back to them. I would be trying to do something to save face. Because who wants there company to be seen on a piracy website? I know I wouldn't want mine to be.

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