Banner Ad Server:
Central Ad 4.0
Every ISP who's serious about significant revenue from Web-based advertising will eventually install a banner ad server. Here's one that can help give your ISP the ad sales profit advantage.
[January 3, 2000] |
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What is a banner ad server? A software package that automatically manages Web-based banner ad campaigns for Web sites and HTML newsletters. It automates Web banner rotation and tracks results (click-throughs and page views) in real time for you, the ISP, and for your advertisers.
Why do you need a banner ad server? There are three main reasons:
- Profit If you want to add a serious revenue stream via advertising sales from your captive Web audience, selling ad space on your Web site is a great strategy. All the largest ISPs have taken advantage of it and if you haven't already, it's time you did, too.
- Professionalism If you want to be taken seriously, you'll need an ad server. Otherwise, you won't be able to satisfy basic advertiser requirements, such as real time reporting via password protected login, banner campaign management, and simple Web banner rotation.
- Lower stress It's tough enough to manage your ISP, without having to worry about manually managing multiple banner ad campaigns. A banner ad server is not an option, it's a requirement.
The answer depends on your Web traffic. If you have fewer than four million
page views a month, then a good banner ad package can run on the same
Web server that is serving up those page views. If you get to the point
where you need a separate banner-ad server box to manage your ad campaigns,
you've moved into the realm of needing the professional services of advanced
banner ad software firms, such as Net Gravity (which we'll discuss in
a future article).
Central Ad 4.0
Central Ad Software, Inc. is a
privately held company founded by Brian J. White in 1996. Since then,
it has rapidly grown to become one of the prominent distributors of affordable
ad serving solutions: Central Ad.
I've had considerable experience with Central Ad and have found it to be an appropriate solution for all sites up to a few million page views per month—which includes the greater majority of Web sites today. For its first three years, the ISP-Lists used Central Ad and kept over 200 advertisers happy.
Central Ad 4.0 ($595) is the newest release of the product, and the publisher has completely rewritten its previous banner ad engine in C++, for increased speed, performance, and scalability. It is compatible with Linux (dynamic and static builds), Slackware, FreeBSD, Solaris, BSDI, and Windows NT.
Here's a list of some of Central Ad 4.0's most significant features:
- Support for serving HTML, text, FORM, and other banners. This means you can support the requests of the most demanding advertisers who ask for the unusual -- such things as forms within banners and text instead of banners, in a banner space.
- Multiple banners per advertiser account
- Robust reporting and a more intuitive administrative interface
- Site REGIONS configurable for targeting and statistical analysis
- Statistics maintained by region, campaign, account, and banner
- 100 percent Web-based administration with password security
- IP-check verification for added security
- Support for third-party code (Networks, audit firms, etc.)
- SSI or Non-SSI capabilities
- Maintains records of all banner displays and click-throughs by day
- Banner scheduling by campaign
- GIF and JPEG support
Installation Tip: Even if you are a highly experienced PERL programmer and know how to install scripts and software, my advice is to pay the extra $50 to have Central Ad install the software for you. You'll save yourself a day of frustration and will be serving ads promptly—and you'll forestall that call from your CEO asking why the server's not ready for deployment yet.
A minor grumble
There is one significant downside to Central Ad 4.0. Actually, it's not
with the software, but with the firm itself: They don't provide a phone
number for sales or support on their Web site. This means they're looking
to do business on their terms rather than terms that might be convenient
for customers. Still, the quality of the software far outweighs this irritation.
To Your Banner Ad Serving Success!
Christopher ("Sparky") Knight
Founder & Managing Editor of the ISP-Lists Discussion Community
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DISCLAIMER: Christopher Knight, nor ISP-Planet.com, nor internet.com Corporation have any ownership interest in "CentralAd.com", nor are we paid to do ISP profiles. This ISP-Planet ISP Profile was done as a courtesy to ISPs everywhere. Send us your feedback at: feedback@isp-planet.com