Responsible Advertising

A recent Online Spin article, “The Primary Problem With Online Display Is Audience Value” by Cory Treffiletti got me thinking about “responsibility”.

Specifically, who is responsible for what in the media buying process? And how to those responsibilities shift with various media pricing methodologies?

I posted the following comment on Cory’s article:

It all boils down to responsibility. As we go through this economic calamity, which resulted from a failure in taking personal responsibility for one’s actions (from the person who bought a house they could not afford to the mortgage broker and banker who financed it when they should not have) is there any better time to revisit the responsibilities of the media buying equation? Here’s how I see it:

Publisher – Responsible for placing an ad in front of the correct target audience.

Agency – Responsible for producing excellent, engaging, impactful creative.

Advertiser – Responsible for providing a quality product at a fair price that people demand.

All of the above responsibilities are aligned and all parties motivated in a CPM pricing model. The Internet did itself a great disservice when it migrated to a CPC, and CPA pricing model. The further down this continuum pricing moves, the more the responsibility is shifted to the publisher and away from the advertiser and agency.

I will buy CPA ads all day long selling pet rocks at $100 each and I’ll pay a $90 bounty… but what publisher in their right mind will take that? They have no control over my pricing, or the quality of my product. If I do get ANY distribution of this campaign it will be on garbage properties, for which no one is willing to pay a CPM (and my leads will be garbage too – which is more costly than having not secured any to begin with).

Quality advertisers and agencies WANT to pay a CPM, because with a great product and a creative campaign, they can secure a high quality audience AND a reasonable “cost-per” outcome. When all parties are meeting their respective responsibilities and firing on all cylinders, results are spectacular.