Member Article

APIs and display advertising

As a successful online banner advertising producer, Kino Creative have commissioned a series of articles on the future of display advertising, summarised here for Bdaily by Ann Winter.

How have APIs (that’s application programming interface, or the code that runs the internet) revolutionised display advertising?

In 1994 the first display advertisement hit the internet – a simple clickable banner for a US law firm. It measured direct responses, or clicks – but advertising revenue was determined by impressions, measured in site traffic. Since the mid 2000s APIs have done the maths - and almost everything else - for us. They remember our browsing and wish lists, carry our online shopping baskets, track our paths through websites, and filter data on site traffic, among a myriad of other functions.

Who’s the big API daddy?

Step forward, Mr. Google… Google Analytics leads the marketeers’ market. Since 2005, when Google invaded webmaster territory with its analytics API, Google Analytics has facilitated the sale, placement and production of advertising on the web:

60.55% of the top 10,000 sites now use Google Analytics

59.63% of the top 100,000 sites use.. …Google Analytics

45.8% top million sites also use…

…You can see where this is [going](http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/traffic_analysis/all retrieved 27/02/2012).

Another [source](http://trends.builtwith.com/analytics/Google-Analytics retrieved 27-02-2012) aggregates:

82.1% market share to Google Analytics, as well as

55.6% total usage (32.2% websites don’t use tracking)

Google’s marketing APIs include AdSense, DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange, perfect if you are happy to surrender control of the ads which appear on your site. Here’s the rest of their API portfolio:

In January last year Google was claiming 188% more revenue for site publishers using DoubleClick compared with those using AdSense, but the increase revenue also marks a further relinquishing of creative control.

Display advertising and APIs

The more devices and platforms we publish on, the more we need sharp display advertising APIs that co-ordinate campaigns across web, mobile, TV, video, press and audio platforms. In this sense, everything is “display”. Rich media APIs not only offer segmentation, but track and record responses, provide forecasting and targeting data, and feed into allocation and pricing. According to Google, they also reduce the admin
costs of display ads by a hefty 28%.

APIs for Kino Creative

Kino Creative have used Eyeblaster, Tangozebra and Flashtalking for smooth Flash banner campaign management, analytics and reporting across rich media platforms. They have used them extensively in easyJet campaigns in the UK and across Europe, allowing their Flash banners to dynamically generate geographically specific prices and routes depending on the IP address reading the data.

Eyeblaster, Tangozebra and Flashtalking offer a comparable service for SMEs like Kino Creative, us, and deciding between them has largely been about cost. Kino Creative are keeping an eye on their offers for rich media, particularly mobile marketing and marketing solutions for social networks.

What’s next?

Read our next post on “personal relevance”, privacy and display advertising.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ann Winter .