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One of Yahoo’s greatest competitive weaknesses, in comparison to Google, is their contextual advertising platform - though they are still ahead of Microsoft.  AdSense (Google’s contextual advertising system) is hand’s down the most powerful contextual advertising system on the Internet.  With Google’s recent acquisition of Double Click they can now utilize the AdSense contextual network to display CPM priced banners - enhancing their CPM advertising distribution to an unbelievable amount.  Google is the worlds largest display advertising company - bigger than Specific Media, 24/7 Real Media, Platform A (AOL), and any other competitors.  Google has been slowly rolling out their display advertising efforts through the AdSense contextual network.  On this website, as well as other online properties that we own, we have seen these ads and they pay very little.  So we have been forced to turn off image advertisements, and only show text display ads; as CPM payout is worthless.  Back to Yahoo contextual network, it sucks, oh I already mentioned that.  I’m sure many of you have seen these ads before:

They are a perfect example of Yahoo’s terrible contextual network.  There is no revenue optimization system in place - which is clearly evident otherwise Yahoo would be constantly rotating competing ads in order to determine the highest revenue per click advertisements.  I’m certain that the advertisers shown above have a contract with Yahoo for a static price per click, and in return they get premium placement - but this is to the detriment of Yahoo and Yahoo shareholders.  Wake up Yahoo, there is no shame in duplicating Google’s contextual network; what are you waiting for?

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Savy online marketers are realizing that paying for skins on highly trafficked sites is one of the best ways to break through Banner Blindness. PerezHilton.com was featuring a skin by NBC’s new television show Lipstick Jungle (looks like another Sex In The City Show). Below is another website (CollegeHumor.com - owned by IACI) that regularly features skins, but I was unable to capture an example.

So how can custom skins break through banner blindness and help your business achieve dramatic online marketing results:

• Make sure the price of the skin is a low priced CPM, don’t just pay to have it up there for a week. Make sure you are being billed anywhere from .05 - .25 cents per CPM. Of course, this rate will vary with the website and whether or not it corresponds with the topic of what you are advertising. For the Perez Hilton example above, I’m sure NBC had to pay a pretty penny to get the customized skin - but the skin correlates with the targeted user demographic that Perez Hilton attracts.
• Skins should have a strong call to action
• Skins should feature something shocking or attention getting
• Skins rarely involve direct response marketing - most of the examples I have seen have been for new television shows
• Skins should practice the principle: Less is more
• If you are advertising a site, be sure to use analytics and track how many type-ins or clicks you generated

If you are interested in having a Skin developed to use on a highly trafficked site - please contact Banner Blindness to see examples of skins we have designed in the past and how they might enhance your online marketing strategy.