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Advertising Analysis

We revised web advertising in a number of ways from the way it was done on StateNews.com. Here is a list of the major changes we implemented for the Lowdown.

  1. Advertisements were enlarged. Larger advertisements have been proven more effective and would also allow us to put more information into an ad, a common request from our advertising clients. Three new ad sizes were chosen. Two of them based off of IAB recommendations.
  2. Advertising prices were adjusted based on the number of impressions. Previously, web advertising was subscription based, meaning our advertisers weren’t actually paying for the value the ad offered, but rather for the potential value.
  3. Ad designs were simplified. Before this project, our web ads generally contained more information than was needed. To fit all the information into the ad, we often used animation. Because animation reduces the readability of nearby text, we cut down the amount of information in the web ads, greatly reducing the need for animation.
  4. All ads were marked “Advertisement” and stayed in the same location throughout the site. This helped to insure our users would never confuse advertisements with content, a common problem in the modern world of invasive online advertising.

These changes aimed to increase our online advertising revenue without sacrificing The State News’ credibility, an important goal for the news media of today.