INTRODUCTION

Advertising is a process, not a medium in its own right, although it uses different
media forms to communicate. Advertising, in its simplest form, is the way in
which the vendor or manufacturer of a product communicates with consumers via
a medium, or many different media.

It can be as simple as a “For Sale” card placed on a supermarket notice board:

The vendor is giving notice that a product is for sale at a given price to people
who might be interested in buying it. This harks back to the earliest forms of
advertising, when exotic new goods shipped into Europe from the Far East and
India (e.g. tea and spices) needed to be brought to the attention of people who
had never encountered them before.

However, even a supermarket notice board might be considered a crowded

marketplace as there may be other desks offered for sale, and other
advertisements for customers to read. In order to attract a customer's attention to
this particular advertisement, the person offering the desk for sale has to make it
eye catching - perhaps through simple use of color:

They also have to emphasis the benefits of the product they are offering. There
are only two basic benefits that a product has when compared to others of a
similar sort. It can be described as being better or cheaper (or both!!):
They might also add an image of the desk - a picture is worth 1000 words after
all - in order to persuade the consumer still further that this desk is the right desk
to buy. They might add a headline or slogan to their ad, to announce exactly what
it is that is being sold. Thus they have all the basic elements of print advertising:
a catchy slogan, an image, and copy text. This advertisement will hopefully fulfill
its purpose which is to provide information which might influence someone to buy
the desk. It has done this by linking the vendor of the desk to people who are
looking to buy a desk. The link appears in the medium of the supermarket notice
board, and the vendor pays the owner of the medium to place it there. The
vendor has chosen this medium because the kind of people who buy the kind of
desk advertised read advertisements on supermarket notice boards.

Therefore advertising is

• A message from vendor/manufacturer to consumer

• Intended to give information which will influence consumer choice
• Aimed at a known audience
• Paid for

Types of Advertising

Advertising, as we have already discussed, is any paid for space which

communicates a message about a product/service and can be categorized
according to the medium in which it appears. Traditionally, this has been split
between

• Television & Cinema

• Radio
• Press & Publication
• Direct Marketing
• Packaging
• Outdoor and Event

Television

The history of mass advertising and the history of television are closely
intertwined. Without advertising, television would have made no headway in
countries without a state sponsored broadcaster (mainly the US) and would
certainly not be the instrument of mass communication it is today. Television
advertising takes the form of TV commercials (often referred to as TVCs or spots)
which are either 30 or 45 seconds long.

TVCs appear in gaps between and during regular programmes, known as

commercial breaks. Advertisers buy time in specific breaks, knowing that their
target audience must be the same as that of the programme during which the
break occurs. Thus teen soaps have commercial breaks filled with pimple cream
and music CD ads.

Advertisers may choose to sponsor a whole programme, which means their logo
and a short identity clip accompany the beginning and end of a programme
("Brought to you by...") and their advertising may feature heavily in commercial
breaks during that programme. This is controversial, as it is felt that sponsors
may interfere in the content of the programme if it doesn't work in their favor.

Television advertising is under threat from devices such as the TiVo - hard drives
which record programmes but edit out ad breaks. The problem is, without the
funding that selling commercial space provides, there would be no TV
programmes to start with, so TV companies are very anxious about the long term
consequences of the TiVo. Read more about the debate here.

Most big manufacturers now include their latest TV ads as part of the material on
their website - try these from Apple but you can look for your own favorites. You
can find ads from our very own ICAC here.

Cinema

Cinemas provide advertisers with a very specific audience (often sorted by age
and taste and often difficult to reach groups, such as 15-18 year olds) who are
concentrating on a big screen in an environment without distractions. Because
audiences are age rated, cinema commercials can be more daring and
innovative than those that appear on TV which are aimed at a general audience.
Cinema campaigns can be national, or extremely local (running in just one
auditorium). Cinema advertising can also range from a single slide to a full length
audio-visual commercial.

As well as advertising in cinemas, manufacturers can also use product

placement to promote their goods & services. Read more about it here.

Press & Publication

This category can be subdivided into

 • Magazine Ad - colour or b/w, in double, full, half or quarter pages. Some
magazines have a classified section which includes line and box ads.
• Newspaper Ad - colour or b/w, again in double (rare for a newspaper), full, half or
quarter pages. Many newspapers have a large classified section, sometimes as a
separate pull-out
• Advertorial - an ad presented in editorial style, endorsing a product or service. To
distinguish between advertorial (i.e. paid for) and editorial content, the word
"Advertisement" appears across the top of the advertorial
• Poster - can be displayed indoors. Usually used by not-for-profit or government
organisations

Again, target audiences of advertisements must match the target audience of the
publication in which it appears.

Direct Marketing

This includes material which is sent directly to people's homes or offices -

catalogues, brochures, mailing offers etc. And spam.

Packaging

Many advertising campaigns now involve a rehaul of product packaging and

design, meaning that images and colors are consistent across both promotion
and presentation.

Outdoor & Event

Outdoor advertising comes in many different forms. In a busy city, people may
not even glance at a standard poster, so in an advertising saturated world the
agencies use many different tricks to get our attention. Advertising creeps onto
hitherto unused spaces becomes larger, moves - anything to be different and
eye-catching. This can be regarded as cultural pollution, as our cityscapes are
plastered with paid-for messages. Or perhaps it just brightens up dull urban
areas with wit and creativity?

TELEVISION v/s ONLINE

Findings on television and internet advertising

Daily on the news online, we read how online search is outperforming traditional
media outlets such as mail, print, TV and radio. I think this makes a lot of sense.
Everything is online nowadays. Why wait for the radio to play your favorite song
when you can hear it instantly online? Why wait for tomorrow’s paper or the ten
o’clock new when you can have it delivered real-time with RSS feeds.

In an industry, things change at an extremely fast pace. By the time you print
something your competition could have already came out with a superior product
and has it online on their website within seconds. Compare that to snail mail.
How many clients are you losing currently due to old strategies? We admit print,
radio and TV still work and even more effective when combined with your
companies website address.

Coca Cola, Pepsi and other big players are realizing that they need to get an
online presence. We talk to a lot of businesses that think a website is enough. Or
it’s just for information. We are in an era of E-Commerce. Why not profit from
your company online, market your website and gain new clients. New companies
with a vision to grow fast realize that online is the way to go. Gateway started on
a farm by two brothers! They were not mailing out flyers nationally.

We are not saying not to use traditional means of advertising but just to re-
evaluate your current strategy. For instance in real estate, you can be a veteran
of 20 years, have many contacts and do all traditional advertising. We have some
of the stuff lying around the house we’ll admit. But how we are going to find a
house? The Internet, Google. The new generation wants information fast, and
lots of it to make an informed buying decision something a one page flyer cannot
show us.

Not to mention pay per click serves highly targeted ads for people actually
looking for your services so you’re not wasting your marketing budget on people
who could care less.

As far as marketing dollars go currently online spend outweighs all traditional

media. Why? Because it works! Now let us see how it works by going through the
following survey,
New Paradigm Global Survey shows the global power of connected youth

A comprehensive survey in 12 countries of more than 7,600 young people

between the ages of 16 - 29 shows that 77% of today's online youth would
sooner live without television than live without the Internet. China has the most
devoted young Internet users, with 87% choosing the Internet compared to 13%
favoring television. In the United States the figures were 77% for the Internet and
23% for TV.

The survey was conducted by New Paradigm, the Toronto-based think-tank

headed by business strategist and best-selling author Don Tap Scott. The survey
is part of a $4 million study of today's digital-savvy youth - dubbed the "Net
Generation" by Tap Scott - who have grown up "bathed in bits."

Other survey findings include:

 When asked to choose whether they want to be smarter or better

looking, 69% of the world's N-Genres choose being smarter

 When evaluating a potential employer, 88% of N-Genres in China say a

company’s prestige is important. This figure drops to 83% in India, 72% in

Russia, and 51% in the US.

 56% of the world's online youth would prefer to make the world a better

place than to improve their local community.

 73% of the N-Gen globally says that if a company makes untrue promise

in its advertising, they will tell their friends not to buy it products.

 52% say that teens and young adults are portrayed too negatively in

today's media.
 Commenting on why so many N-Genres choose the Internet over TV, Tap Scott
said that television is unidirectional and passive, and doesn't allow meaningful
participation by the viewer. In contrast, the Internet enables users to find and
share information and take action.

"Look at Live Earth concerts this past weekend," said Tap Scott. "More than
10,000 'Friends of Live Earth' events were pulled together in 130 countries.
People around the world could go online for background materials, event
guidelines, and suggestions for running a green event, advice on how to receive
a concert satellite feed, and updates when additional materials such as short
films became available. Television can't do these sorts of things.

"Rich multi-media sites such as LiveEarth.org and Al Gore's

AllianceForClimateProtection.org show how the Net Generation can employ
digital tools to make a difference. While high-profile media events like the live
earth concerts help rise awareness, the global warming battle will be won in the
trenches of the internet.

Further findings of the global survey were released today in Boston at a

conference about the Net Generation for New Paradigm's clients. Twenty of the
world's leading companies are sponsoring the N-Gen study, including Nokia,
MetLife, FedEx, Accenture, Cisco Systems, and MasterCard.

About New Paradigm

New Paradigm is a think tank headed by IT strategist, speaker, and best-

selling author Don Tap Scott (Wikinomics, Growing up Digital). Since 1993 New
Paradigm has provided clients with insightful, thought-provoking analysis of
emerging technology trends and their impact on business, and serves as a
"strategic early warning system" for clients, helping them distinguish real
imperatives from all the hype and noise.

About the New Paradigm Global Net Generation Survey

 This survey was conducted online between April 5 and May 3, 2007 among
7,692 respondents in 12 countries (U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Spain,
Mexico, Brazil, Russia, China, Japan, and India). Figures for age, sex,
race/ethnicity, and region were weighted where necessary to bring them in line
with their actual proportions in the population.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are
subject to multiple sources of error which are often not possible to quantify or
estimate. With a pure probability sample of 7,692 respondents one could say with
95% probability that overall results would have a sampling error of +/- 1.1
percentage points. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and
therefore no theoretical sampling error may be calculated.

Current practice

Marketers are proportioning as much as 20% of their advertising budgets to on-

line marketing, and they, as well as their clients, are interested in how on-line ads
compare to TV advertising and affect brand image.

While TV ads are long, disruptive and easily avoidable, Most of the on-line
advertising is concise and must be watched, whether it is a banner ad on a
website or a mini-commercial before an online program begins. Also, using
targeted ads online means that different viewers see different advertisements on
the same page.

Marketing research companies like IAG Research and ARSgroup have

developed different methods to gauge how effective ads are in TV and the
Internet.

IAG uses incentive-based internet polls to see what TV ads viewers

remembered, and they place “cookies” on hard drives so they know when
panellists are exposed to an online ad. ARSgroup tests how engaging ads are in
TV, internet and movie theatres.
The use of these tools is still in its infancy, but recent research suggests online
advertising is more effective.

NBC conducted an online survey of its NBC Rewind viewers and says its internet
ads elicit higher brand recall than those on TV. They found that the ads are more
entertaining, engaging and, most importantly for the viewer, less disruptive.

Peter Naylor, senior VP of digital media sales at NBC Universal said, “These
research results show that when the right message is tailored to the right
medium, this engaged audience really responds and our advertisers win.”

These results combined with the Internet’s growing presence in everyday life
may lead to online advertising becoming more important than TV ads.

ONLINE ADVERTISING

While online advertising has grown significantly as and industry, to many marketers it is
still relatively new. Some struggle to understand it in terms of an existing media frame of
reference. Should online be viewed in a print paradigm since it employs small ads, mixed
in with content, on a “page”? Or should a direct response model be applied to online
because of its interactivity? Most recently, the burgeoning video capabilities of online
have encouraged some advertisers to liken it to television. Trying to force fit online
advertising into a pre-existing; one-silo media model may sometimes be useful. For
example, an advertiser planning to redeploy a print budget online might reasonably use
print metrics for the purposes of comparison. But thinking about the online channel
merely as an extension of print, and a way to reach people not hit by traditional media,
obscures the larger opportunity that online represents.

Our existing advertising models (TV, print, outdoor, etc.) are predicated on a particular
mode of message transportation and a send-receive approach. Traditionally, strategy and
channel have gone hand-in-hand. A crude synopsis might be: Use TV and outdoor for
reach and awareness, print for beauty shots and targeting, radio for deal-selling, and
direct mail for a call to action. While a model could be cobbled together for online (print
meets direct mail meets TV), the complexity would limit its usefulness. Instead of a
model, think of a metaphor: fishing from a boat on a digital ocean. You can’t put a net in
only one place, but you can cover only so much ground. Marketers have to be flexible
about the fluidity of the medium and work with the different underlying currents. At this
stage, the best approach to online marketing is to jump in, try some things, and see what
works. The marketers who have been most successful so far are those who have
embraced the power shift that is occurring. Consumers have more control now, over both
what gets to them and how they interact with it. Because of this ongoing transfer of
power, the approach that worked last year might not work this year. As the climate
changes and the fish get smarter, new approaches are required. Rather than continuing to
monitor “send-and-receive” and impressions, marketers now need to be measuring
engagement and digital dialogue.

ONLINE ADVERTISING PROGRAMME

There are plenty of ways to make money on the Internet; one of the best of these is
Affiliate Advertising or Online Advertising. This is a business that is rapidly gaining
popularity as a way of making money on the Internet. Affiliate Advertising or Online
Advertising helps to develop powerful brands which in turn also helps to build a good
relationship with Online Customers.

Online Advertisements direct consumers to the seller's website through Affiliates who
promote marketing of their products. So by this way all of them stand to benefit. Sellers
products are marketed, Affiliates in turn earn their commissions for the sale & consumers
get their products online. There is lot of products like Online Shopping at Amazon.com,
Online Shopping in eBay India, Shopping Mall in eBay Singapore, Shopping Mall in
eBay Italy, International Tours & Travels, and Home & Outdoor Products from Buy.com,
etc.

One of the leading Indian

matrimonial web site
advertising on times
jobs.com

ADVERTISMNET CAMPAIGN
Coordinated series of linked advertisements (broadcast usually through several media
channels) that
 focus on a common theme and one or few brands or products,
 are directed at a particular segment of the population (targeted audience),
  are aimed at achieving a specific objective (such as awareness or market share).
Successful advertising campaigns achieve far more than the sporadic advertising, and
may last from a few weeks and months to years.

ADVERTISING NETWORK
A network representing many Web sites in selling advertising, allowing advertising
buyers to reach broad audiences relatively easily through run-of-category and run-of-
network buys.
Advertising networks provide a way for media buyers to coordinate ad campaigns across
dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of sites in an efficient manner. The campaigns often
involve running ads over a category (run-of-category) or an entire network (run-of-
network). Site-specific buys are not a major emphasis when dealing with advertising
networks. In fact, site-specific buys are not even available at some networks, so as not to
conflict with in-house sales reps.

Ad networks vary in size and focus. Large ad networks may require premium brands and
millions of impressions per month. Small ad networks may accept unbranded sites with
thousands of impressions per month.

One of the key issues for publishers is exclusive vs. non-exclusive representation.
Exclusive representation generally brings a higher percentage of revenue sharing, but
sometimes results in a smaller percentage of ad inventory being sold. In non-exclusive
arrangements, publishers may use secondary advertising options to fill the space left
unsold by the primary ad network.

AD SENSE
Ad Sense is the program that gives advertising revenue from each page on website—with
a minimal investment in time and no additional resources.

Ad Sense delivers relevant text and image ads that are precisely targeted to particular site
and particular site content
AD WORDS
Web site owner can display his/her ads on another web site and host advertising network.
Money transaction take place only if people click on ads.

How ad words work on Google

GUEST SITE CREATE IT’S ADS

You create ads and choose keywords, which are words or phrases related to your
business. “Get keyword ideas”

GUEST SITE ADS APPEAR ON GOOGLE

When people search on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may appear next to
the search results. Now you are advertising to an audience that is already interested in
you.

GUEST SITE ATTRACT CUSTOMERS

People can simply click on your ad to make a purchase or learn more about you.

BANNER ADVERTISMENT
A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web. This form of
online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to
attract traffic to a website by linking them to the web site of the advertiser. The
advertisement is constructed from an image (GIF, JPEG, PNG), JavaScript program or
multimedia object employing technologies such as Silverlight, Java, Shockwave or Flash,
often employing animation or sound to maximize presence. Images are usually in a high-
aspect ratio shape (i.e. either wide and short, or tall and narrow) hence the reference to
banners. These images are usually placed on web pages that have interesting content,
such as a newspaper article or an opinion piece.

The web banner is displayed when a web page that references the banner is loaded into a
web browser. This event is known as an "impression". When the viewer clicks on the
banner, the viewer is directed to the website advertised in the banner. This event is known
as a "click through". In many cases, banners are delivered by a central ad server.

When the advertiser scans their logfiles and detects that a web user has visited the
advertiser's site from the content site by clicking on the banner ad, the advertiser sends
the content provider some small amount of money (usually around five to ten US cents).
This payback system is often how the content provider is able to pay for the Internet
access to supply the content in the first place.

Web banners function the same way as traditional advertisements are intended to
function: notifying consumers of the product or service and presenting reasons why the
consumer should choose the product in question, although web banners differ in that the
results for advertisement campaigns may be monitored real-time and may be targeted to
the viewer's interests.

height by width
Rectangular and pop-up ads
(in pixels)
Large rectangle 280 by 336
Medium rectangle 250 by 300
Square pop-up 250 by 250
Vertical rectangle 400 by 240
Rectangle 150 by 180
Banner and button ads
Leaderboard 90 by 728
Full banner 60 by 468
Half banner 60 by 234
Button 1 90 by 120
Button 2 60 by 120
Micro bar 31 by 88
Micro button 15 by 80
Vertical banner 240 by 120
Square button 125 by 125
"Skyscraper" ads
Skyscraper 600 by 120
Wide skyscraper 600 by 160
Half-page 600 by 300

PRACTICALLY SIZES MAY DIFER ACCORDING TO WEB PAGE LAY OUT LIKE
DIFFERENT BANNERS USED BY GOOGLE ARE

SQUARE (200*200)

Banner (468 x 60)

Half Banner (234x60)

Small Rectangle (180x150)

Vertical Banner (120 x 240)

TEXT AD

It is an advertisement way using text-based hyperlinks.

Text-based ads, although common in email, have been dominated on the Web by their
graphical-based counterparts. Affiliate marketing is one area where text ads have
flourished. However, many mainstream advertisers are only beginning to discover the
power of text. Google has caused a buzz with its text advertising options, generating a
self-proclaimed "click-through rate 4-5 times higher than industry standard for banner
ads." While lacking some of the advantages of graphical ads, text-based ads have some
powerful advantages of their own. They download almost instantly and are not affected
by ad blocking software.

Leader board (728 x 90) - View sample placements

BUTTON

SQUARE(250*250)

IMAGE ADS
These ads contain gif, jpeg images. These images are able to get more attraction than text
advertisements. These advertisements are generally used to left impression on surfer’s
mind or to remind the brand or product.
Leader board (728 x 90)

Banner (468 x 60)

Small Square (200 x 200) Medium Rectangle (300 x 250)

VIDEO ADS
These are represented as image ads but on click processor start buffering on site surfer’s
main memory. Buffered data contains information about advertiser and many other
information related to product. These ads are useful when targeted customer is really
interested and intending to purchase.

Skyscraper 120x600 Skyscraper 120x600

Leader board ((728*90)

Small Square (200x200) Square (250x250)

Buffering
Rectangle (300x250) Large Rectangle (336x280)

PRICING STRUCTURE
Details of different prices and discounts offered on different order sizes.
THIRD ADVERTISING PARTY PRICING STUCTURE
Different models are used to generate revenue.

 Pay per click

 Pay per click search engine
 Pay per sales
 Pay per lead
 CPM

PAY PER CLICK (CLICK THROUGH)

It is an Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying
click-through.

In a PPC agreement, the advertiser only pays for qualifying clicks to the destination site
based on a prearranged per-click rate. Popular PPC advertising options include per-click
advertising networks, search engines, and affiliate programs.

Paying per click is sometimes seen by some as a middle ground between paying per
impression and paying per action. When paying per impression, the advertiser assumes
the risk of low-quality traffic generated by the publisher. When getting paid for actions,
the publisher assumes the risk of low-converting offers by the advertiser. In the PPC
model, the publisher does not have to worry about the sales conversion rate of the target
site, and the advertiser does not have to worry about how many impressions it takes to
attract the specified number of clicks.

PAY PER CLICK SEARCH ENGINE

Search engine where results are ranked according to the bid amount, and advertisers are
charged when a searcher clicks on the search listing.

Advertisers supply the following details:

Listing - includes title, description, and URL.
Keywords - the keywords that apply to the listing.
Bids - amount paid per click (varies by keyword).

When a search is performed, the first search engine listing is the one with the highest bid
for that keyword. The ranking of listings continues from highest to lowest bids. A higher
ranking generally brings more traffic.

Critics claim that PPC search results are not useful in finding information. The claim is
often made that paid results are tainted and contrary to the very essence of the Web.

Proponents of PPC search maintain that the free market is effective in bringing the best
results to the top, at least for commercial searches. In theory, the highest bids will be held
by the best companies for each keyword, because a company's ability to bid is determined
largely by its conversion rate.
From a marketing perspective, it is important to determine which PPC search engines
generate sufficient quality and quantity of visitors for a particular product category.

In this type of advertising price structure auction is continuous process it keeps on

changing the bid price and results of searches. Search results are shown through apre
determined algorithm.

PAY PER SALES

Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely based on qualifying
sales.
In a pay per sale agreement, the advertiser only pays for sales generated by the
destination site based on an agreed upon commission rate.

Paying per sale is often seen as the payment model most favorable to advertisers and least
favorable to publishers. In such an agreement, the publisher must not only be concerned
with the quality and quantity of his or her audience, but also the quality of the advertiser's
creative units and destination site.

If possible, many publishers avoid sales-based agreements, preferring to stick to the CPM
model. However, some publishers, facing weak ad sales, have little choice but to accept
sales-based agreements to utilize remnant space.

For advertisers, pay per sale has some unique advantages compared to pay per click and
pay per lead. There are fewer concerns about whether conversions are legitimate, and
whether traffic is incentive or of low quality.

PAY PER LEAD

Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely based on qualifying
leads.
In a pay per lead agreement, the advertiser only pays for leads generated at their
destination site. No payment is made for visitors who don't sign up.

A lead is generally a signup involving contact information and perhaps some

demographic information; it is typically a non-cash conversion event. A lead may consist
of as little as an email address, or it may involve a detailed form covering multiple pages.

One risk to the advertiser is the potential for fraudulent activity by incentivized 3rd-
parties or marketing partners. Some false leads are easy to spot. Nonetheless, it is
advisable to make a regular audit of the results.

CPM
It is cost per thousand model.
The CPM model refers to advertising bought on the basis of impression. This is in
contrast to the various types of pay-for-performance advertising, whereby payment is
only triggered by a mutually agreed upon activity (i.e. click-through, registration, sale).

The total price paid in a CPM deal is calculated by multiplying the CPM rate by the
number of CPM units. For example, one million impressions at $10 CPM equals a
$10,000 total price.

1,000,000 / 1,000 = 1,000 units

1,000 units X $10 CPM = $10,000 total price

The amount paid per impression is calculated by dividing the CPM by 1000. For
example, a $10 CPM equals $.01 per impression.

$10 CPM / 1000 impressions = $.01 per impression

MODE OF PAYMENT
Generally third party advertisers follow payment threshold model.

PAYMENT THRESHOLD
The minimum accumulated commission an affiliate must earn to trigger payment from an
affiliate program.

Payment thresholds involve two factors:

(1) Minimum payment - $25, $50, $100, etc.

(2) Time interval - monthly, quarterly, etc.

At the specified time interval, accumulated commissions for each affiliate are compared
to the minimum payment level. If an affiliate fails to meet the minimum payment level,
the amount is rolled over to the next period. This continues until the accumulated
commission is greater than the minimum payment level. When this happens, payment is
sent a certain amount of days after the end of the period, as specified in the contract.

RATES OF BANNERS
Rates of banners are dependent upon
(i) Size and shape of banner (rectangle/ button/ square/ sky scraper/ leader board)
(ii) Type (text add/ image add/ video add/ flash)
(iii) Ad- space (Header of site/ left of the site/ right of the site/ at one or two scroll)
(iv) Page number on a web-site (home page/ content page /linked pages)
Tools in use to describe rates of banners are rate card or negotiations ( auction or biding)

RATE CARD
It is a document detailing prices for various ad placement options.
While a rate card lists ad prices, among other things, it might be a disservice to regard it
as a fixed price sheet. In some respects, the rate card functions as a PR piece, as sites
attempt to position their starting CPM rates in line with sites of a similar stature.

Currently, few sites are fetching the prices listed on their rate cards, and many
negotiations begin at significantly less than the listed price. The stability of the price is
directly tied to the supply demand for a specific audience.