BURST! Questions

[Stallion]

I'm thinking of applying for BURST! on a PHP site I'm going to start, and had a few questions.

1) Do the 125x125 and 120x60 buttons have to be above the fold? Or can one be at the top and one at the bottom?

2) I take it BURST! provides publishers with the ability to specify a default ad/link to appear when inventory is unsold. However, how often IS the inventory unsold? It seems like they are always sold to one of the Run-of-network advertisers. If so, what percentage of your banners are default?

3) Do they provide the same "default" feature for the smaller buttons, or is it just for the full-size banners?

4) What's the deal with the surveys? Are they shown in place of default advertisements, or only if the publisher hasn't set a default? Are they paid? CPM? CPC? Per submission? Not at all? What percentage of your banners are surveys?

5) What percentage of your ads are CPM versus CPC? Does that percentage vary with each creative type?

6) Do you have any other revenue streams (be it advertising, or otherwise) that help you to support your site financially?

[bstrawse]

Originally posted by Stallion
I'm thinking of applying for BURST! on a PHP site I'm going to start, and had a few questions.

1) Do the 125x125 and 120x60 buttons have to be above the fold? Or can one be at the top and one at the bottom?

2) I take it BURST! provides publishers with the ability to specify a default ad/link to appear when inventory is unsold. However, how often IS the inventory unsold? It seems like they are always sold to one of the Run-of-network advertisers. If so, what percentage of your banners are default?

3) Do they provide the same "default" feature for the smaller buttons, or is it just for the full-size banners?

4) What's the deal with the surveys? Are they shown in place of default advertisements, or only if the publisher hasn't set a default? Are they paid? CPM? CPC? Per submission? Not at all? What percentage of your banners are surveys?

5) What percentage of your ads are CPM versus CPC? Does that percentage vary with each creative type?

6) Do you have any other revenue streams (be it advertising, or otherwise) that help you to support your site financially?

Lots of questions, I'll do my best here...

1) The buttons can be anywhere on the page. Most of mine are on the left hand or right hand side of the page.

2) There is an option for default campaigns. I redirect my defaults back to my ad server with a special group setup called "defaults", which are primarily promotion of my own sites or affiliate programs. Burst can also provide some defaults. On average, about 10-12% of my daily impressions sent to Burst go back as defaults, the other 88-90% are served with RON or Targetted banners from Burst.

3) There are defaults for the smaller banners/buttons as well.

4) The surveys are not paid and you are required to either post one all of the time, or have it rotate through your banners. I post mine continuously and promote it in my newsletters. The demographic information captured in the survey helps your site receive targetted advertising.

5) My ads are about 50% CPC and 50% CPM, I believe.

6) Most of my revenue streams currently are from advertising or syndication of my site's content. I sell my ad space and then use Burst for large ad orders and unsold inventory.

Bryan

[Stallion]

Thanks for the quick response!

2) So BURST! provides some default ads should you choose them to handle it? I'm assuming they're paid...but are they CPM, CPC, or a mixture of both?

4) If you choose to promote it independent of the ads, how much promotion is needed? How does BURST! determine if you're pushing it enough?

6) What's your site? I'm interested in possibly offering content syndication, and always am on the lookout for successful offerings.

[aspen]

I run my survey off a cookie controlled on unload popup and get a very good response to it, you are not required to run survey banners at all, only offer your survey some way, popup, text link, its your choice. You don't need to get a required amount of people taking your survey or anything, but the more you do get the easier it will be for them to sell targetted advertising for you.

Defaults are not paid, there is a CC default that gives you $1.50 per signup though. But like has been said you can send your defaults elsewhere.

Lately Burst has given really good CPC rates, we currently have two .3+ CPC buttons/cubes running.

[bstrawse]

Originally posted by Stallion
Thanks for the quick response!

2) So BURST! provides some default ads should you choose them to handle it? I'm assuming they're paid...but are they CPM, CPC, or a mixture of both?

4) If you choose to promote it independent of the ads, how much promotion is needed? How does BURST! determine if you're pushing it enough?

6) What's your site? I'm interested in possibly offering content syndication, and always am on the lookout for successful offerings.

As aspen outlined, the defaults are unpaid, with the exception of the NextCard CPL deal that they have running.

Not quite sure what you're asking with #4....

The site that had content syndication was Loss Prevention Online, which was a site catered to the retail loss prevention industry, we've since closed it due to other reasons.

We do have one site with content syndication (free even) at www.audiophilez.com. This is an MP3 Search Engine, the search boxes and/or search plugins are syndicated out to about 225 sites currently...

I just noticed you're in my backyard. I'm in Taunton, MA, you're in Cumberland, RI.. small world.

Take care,
Bryan

[Stallion]

Sounds great!

I'll be applying for a few sites once they're finished... :-)

[mjames]

You made a good choice with BURST!. I find them the best remaining ad providor.

[PaulT]

If you get accepted

[Ralph Slate]

Burst is an excellent network, but it will only perform for you if your site measures up based on CTR.

Most of the campaigns are CPC, with a few CPM thrown in. Most of the CPM campaigns are low CPM, well under $1. You will find that these cheap CPM campaigns will get 5% CTR, meaning that you're effectively being paid 1/2 cent per click. I don't run those for that reason.

Most of the remaining CPM campaigns are subject to optimization, where if you don't have a certain CTR at a certain point in time, you don't even see the campaign anymore on your selection screen. This optimizaton lasts as long as the advertiser runs the campaign with Burst -- I've been optimized out of one particular campaign since February.

The latest trend has been towards popup/popunder campaigns. Unfortunately these seem to have preempted the sale of regular CPM campaigns. Burst's popunder delivery is somewhat flawed -- there have been many complaints of people getting 5-10 popunders when browsing a Burst site. The once-per-session thing doesn't seem to always be enabled. In addition, you show a paying 468x60 banner simultaneously with the popunder, so the true CPM of the popunder is really 1/2 of what they tell you, because you show 2 banners for the advertiser.

The CPC campaigns don't generally perform well unless your site is suitable for them. For example, there was one advertising luggage. That might work on a travel site, but generally you'll see 0.01% CTR with such a campaign on a generic site, and that means you'll get maybe $0.01 effective CPM from such a campaign. Most aren't worth running for that reason, in my opinion. If random banners get a better CTR than that on your site you'll do better.

So basically, if you have a low Pages-Per-Unique site which gets a good CTR, you'll do better with Burst than if you have a high PPU site that has a poor CTR. The CTR is the key.

All that said, Burst is an excellent network, they always pay on time (never late in nearly 3 years), and are well-positioned to be in the forefront when the ad industry makes a comeback.

Ralph

[seancentric]

Here are the official answers:

1) Do the 125x125 and 120x60 buttons have to be above the fold? Or can one be at the top and one at the bottom?

Only the above-the-scroll banner needs to be above-the-scroll. There are no positioning requirements, but you can only have one button or cube on each page.

2) I take it BURST! provides publishers with the ability to specify a default ad/link to appear when inventory is unsold. However, how often IS the inventory unsold? It seems like they are always sold to one of the Run-of-network advertisers. If so, what percentage of your banners are default?

Default rates vary, but rates have been fairly high recently, given the current marketplace. Defaults are usually some redirect to some other network (if you have an non-exclusive contract), a public service type of banner, or some ad you or your staff have sold on your own.

3) Do they provide the same "default" feature for the smaller buttons, or is it just for the full-size banners?

Default rates are generally higher for cubes and buttons, unfortunately, than for banners.

4) What's the deal with the surveys? Are they shown in place of default advertisements, or only if the publisher hasn't set a default? Are they paid? CPM? CPC? Per submission? Not at all? What percentage of your banners are surveys?

They are not in place of ads. As advertisers continue to make media choices based on solid demographics, collecting such information is becoming increasingly important. Demographics can provide you with useful insights into who visits your website, and arms BURST!'s sales force with information that can be used to better promote your site to advertisers. The banners for the survey are just to get your visitors to take the survey, which is completely up to them. You can set the percentage of your deault banners that include the survey creative units. No, they do not pay. The demographic survey is vital because it gives advertisers valuable information.

5) What percentage of your ads are CPM versus CPC? Does that percentage vary with each creative type?

We like to have as many CPM ads as possible and discourage CPC as a general rule.

6) Do you have any other revenue streams (be it advertising, or otherwise) that help you to support your site financially?

BURST! always allows and encourages our publishers and/or their staff to sell ads on their own. We're in the banner business. Our sales team works hard to sell your site to big advertisers. That is the revenue stream.

Please let me know outside of this forum if you have further questions.

Sean

[seancentric]

4) If you choose to promote it independent of the ads, how much promotion is needed? How does BURST! determine if you're pushing it enough?

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BURST!’s demographic survey is brief, easy to load, and flexible.

BURST!'s demographic survey allows publishers to add up to three of their own questions.

BURST! reports results to you monthly. However, your survey will need at least 200 respondents to be considered statistically reliable.

BURST! uses a third-party independent national research firm to host your sites demographic survey. This gives your site’s visitors assurance that their information will be kept private and used only to help your site.

BURST!'s Demographic Survey does not collect information from minors age 13 or younger.

All versions of the BURST! Demographic Survey will return your visitors to your adcode's preferred URL. You can also customize the look and feel of your Site Demographic Survey by loading it into frames -- in your posting instructions, a variety of customization options are available.

You pick the creative you prefer to use for the click-thru to your survey.

Again, please send me ICQ, MSN, AIM, or email, if you have further questions.

Cheers,
Sean