wsj.com
Publishers say ad agencies consistently crank out large, tracking-laden digital ads, which are slowing down the Internet
Here’s another reason more people may be blocking Web ads: The business of creating digital ads is bloated and slow.
According to many publishers, ad agencies consistently produce oversized, tracking-laden digital ad files and often deliver them at the last minute without enough time for publishers to push back. This behavior is contributing to how slowly some Web pages are loading, encouraging the growing use of ad-blocking software among consumers, they argue.
As the industry has wrestled with who is to blame for the growth of ad blocking, “greedy”Web publishers and “money-grabbing” ad tech companies have largely emerged as the villains responsible for bogging down the user experience. But among publishers, there’s a growing sentiment that ad agencies are as much at fault as they try to create ads that cater to clients’ long lists of demands.
“We are at a crossroads,” said Tim Mahlman, AOL’s president of publisher platforms. “People are pointing the finger back at us, yet the advertisers are [always] wanting to push the envelope on creative. There has to be a common ground. Can we do killer ads not at the cost of turning people away?”
Mr. Mahlman points to a central conflict facing the online ad world: On the one side, the digital media business has spent the past several years trying to attract more TV advertisers by proving itself as a viable vehicle for image-oriented branding, rather than serving primarily as a venue for marketers looking to sell products directly.
That’s led the industry to push for big, in-your face ad units, which take over Web pages and are loaded with interactivity.
Plus, the ad world has become fixated on only running ad that are “viewable.” And ads that score high for viewability are often the largest.
In addition, marketers have pushed to track every possible metric, since that is considered digital media’s strength. That has meant stuffing ads with trackers to gauge how viewable they are and whether they are running in the right places, reaching real people and targeting preferred demographics.
All of this combines to create fat ads. These are exactly the kind of ads that don’t work well in mobile, a medium where digital media companies are trying to speed loading times and avoid overtaxing consumers’ mobile data plans.
Some publishers say there’s a pervasive attitude regarding who should tackle these issues and who should not. “Agencies look at this as not their problem,” said an ad sales executive.
But take Forbes, for instance, which—like many publishers—provides its ad partners with guidelines for the kinds of ads that it accepts. Those specs typically include preferred maximum file sizes.
Yet according to Chief Revenue Officer Mark Howard, agencies will frequently supply Forbes with ads that are four to nine times larger than Forbes’ specs. Other publishers say they see the same kind of pattern.
Besides ignoring those guidelines, agencies will often send the ad information late, even if sites require that creative gets delivered three days before the start of a campaign, publishers say.
Why don’t publishers like Forbes just say no?
“It’s hard to turn down revenue when the wider Web isn’t following any of the rules,” said Jason Kint, chief executive of Digital Content Next, a digital publishing trade association.
So, why aren’t agencies all following the rules? Harry Kargman, chief executive at the mobile ad firm Kargo, says that agencies are often in an impossible spot. Before a campaign, they often need to secure multiple executive approvals both internally and from their clients. And clients are always pushing for more.
“What’s best for their client isn’t necessarily best for the consumer,” he said. For example, Mr. Kargman wants to get advertisers to stop running full-screen mobile “interstitial” ads, which consumers dislike intensely. But marketers keep pushing their agencies to buy them.
And marketers are known for making decisions at the 11th hour. Publishers are left with the choice of pushing back—and maybe losing business. Mr. Kargman said half of the campaigns his company ran during the first quarter of this year were delayed.
“Brands and agencies are well aware of page load times, ad blocking, etc., but take zero responsibility for it at a campaign level,” he said.
Gaston Legorburu, chief creative strategist at Publicis. Sapient, acknowledged that agencies and clients need to get better about these practices. “There is a lack of maturity,” he said, particularly among marketers who are relatively new to the Web.
He has had advertisers try to stuff the functionality of entire websites—like car configurators—into single banner ads. “That’s just annoying to consumers,” he said. “You need to invite people in.”
The Interactive Advertising Bureau is examining this issue as part of an initiative announced last year called LEAN (Light, Encrypted, Ad choice supported, Non-invasive ads). It hopes to establish a set of standards and guidelines for streamlining ads. Alanna Gombert, deputy general manager of the IAB Tech Lab, said that the movement is still in its research and experimentation stage.
However, even as various factions of the business advocate that digital ads go on a diet, not everyone agrees fat ads are a major problem—or that agencies and their clients are at fault.
“I just don’t think we have a good idea on realistically how much bloated ad sizes truly impact page load speeds,” said Abe Diaz, vice president and associate media director at the agency RPA. “I strongly believe that the bigger issue is the number of ads publishers are putting on pages, how and when those ads load, and all the various trackers that the sites themselves place on their pages.”
Jed Hartman, chief revenue officer at the Washington Post, said agencies and their clients should not be blamed, arguing that the entire Web advertising ecosystem shares responsibility for tackling ad blocking and improving the user experience.
He urged the industry to move quickly, before ad blocking becomes more prevalent in mobile. “The ship has sailed in desktop,” he said.
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