Advertising has gone through a lot of advancement, but when anyone mentions internet advertising, you’ll immediately think of advanced technology and nerdy engineers colluding to maximize results by any means necessary. One of the first metrics in use in online advertising, besides the fixed-rate ad, was the CPM advertisement. CPM ads are billed and paid for every 1000 impressions. (An impression basically translates to a view of the ad.)

Later on, the CPC, CPL and CPA metrics were developed. Ad network sold those metrics using terms like ”paying for performance” and various other catchy phrases. Of course, this is utterly untrue. Let’s take the popular CPC metric for example. We won’t disect and pick at miniscule issues. We will point out some of the major issues with the CPC metric, though. First, click fraud goes more than 25% on search engines, including Google®, Yahoo® and Live® Search. Ad networks at 16% aren’t much better.

 On a side note, notice that 60% of all click fraud comes from parked domains. Ouch. Luckily, your ads aren’t running on parked sites, right? Think again. Let’s visit this URL.

http://www.4yourstats.com/

The average parked page, no content, 60% click fraud rate, Google® ads sitting right in the middle. Isn’t it comforting to know that you’re wasting 60% of your money while you’re paying about $5 a click? But enough CPC bashing, let’s move to CPA and CPL.

 It would seem that the CPA and CPL metrics are a lot safer- after all, you really are paying for performance this time. Despite the fact that you’re probably paying 50-70% of your revenue for that performance, it’s all good. Except when you’re getting defrauded by another generation of scammers. Adotas® has an excellent article on this here:

http://www.adotas.com/2007/10/fraud-20/

The “Indy Virus” mentioned in the article is specially formulated to defraud advertisers working with CPL and CPA campaigns. Using various illegal and unethical methods such as identity theft, these cybercriminals pass you leads and conversions that seem completely real but are just the opposite. Some ad networks overlook this kind of fraud, since it brings in more revenue for them. Other ad networks are actively trying to fight it, but are being overwhelmed by the onslaught. And the advertiser is stuck in the middle. So, what are you supposed to do?

You could try a fixed-rate model and suffer the loss of ROI and risk overpaying for underperforming inventory. Or, you could go with Freedom of Ads and purchase media on an accountable CPM basis. Here’s how it works. You set up your campaign and media buy. Then, check the box to activate the SpotBot, our super tool for guaranteeing results. Finally, sit back and relax, knowing that your campaign is in the virtual hands of a very smart algorithm.

So, what is the SpotBot? The SpotBot is an algorithm that ensures that you obtain the results that you are looking for. Here’s what happens. You already know that we run every impression through a real-time auction before it is served (or if you didn’t know that, now you do.) The SpotBot kicks in right before the auction. It automatically compiles and analyzes the past performance of a particular piece of inventory (which is called a ’spot’ in the publisher interface, hence the name SpotBot.) The SpotBot tracks various statistics, such as CTR and conversion rates. If a spot is underperforming its peers, then your bid is automatically adjusted downward to match the relative value of the spot. If the spot is performing normally, or is an overachiever, then your bid remains exactly the same. Strong inventory performance is a right, not a privelege, and you shouldn’t have to pay extra for it.

Remember that use of the SpotBot is completely optional. Chances are that you’ll be working with it often, though. (Let me rephrase that- chances are that it’ll be doing the work for you often.) The SpotBot is just another great tool in our arsenal to guarantee results. Because we’re Freedom of Ads, and we’re driven by results. (Yes, that is our attempt at a catchy phrase.)