There was an article today in the New York Times by Stephanie Clifford about new ad serving technology supported by real-time bidding, allowing ads to be served based on keywords and cookied behavior. Supposedly everything takes place in milliseconds — before the page even load. (Is it me or are page loads getting slower and slower? Thanks ads. Thanks beefy Web 2.0 apps.)
It stands to reason that as this technology matures a good deal of these immediate, personalized ads will be price-based. And how do marketers lower prices? By cutting margins elsewhere, meaning brand advertising budgets, etc. Fast forward a year or two and think about all the low-cost, challenger brand/no brand, tailored ads filling up your screens. Likely, you will have bitten on a price ad or two and had a poor experience and now avoid these ads altogether. Your avoidance behavior may be similar to that toward telemarketers. And it’s too bad because as the behavioral modeling grows it has an opportunity to be an important selling mechanism.
But initially it will be price, price, price! A word of caution marketers: Don’t fall into the price war — web ad bidding war. It will be hard to get out of. And some of your accelerator pedals might stick. Peace!
