Surround sessions
Encyclopedia
Advertising
sequence in which a visitor receives ads from one advertiser throughout an entire site visit.
Information
Recently introduced by the online unit of the New York Times, the "surround session" is creating a major buzz in the online advertising
community. The session model represents a potentially significant shift in the way advertisers view online media, as more emphasis is placed on the real interaction between advertisers and audience
s.
In a surround session, an advertiser has all or most of the ads on each page for a visitor's entire site visit. As the visitor moves from page to page, the same advertiser is represented in various ad placements. This could allow for reinforcement of an advertiser's message, or possibly the creative use of a story line across several pages.
As currently proposed, an advertiser only pays for sessions that reach a predetermined amount of page view
s, and does not pay for any views in short sessions or the extra views in long sessions. The number of guaranteed page views per session is likely to vary, depending on what buyer
s are looking to purchase and what publishers are able to deliver.
The move to a session-based model might even give new life to beleaguered metric
s such as the click-through
. Many marketers equate a 1% click-through rate with only 1 in 100 visitors clicking on an advertisement. At best, this assumption is slightly imprecise... at worst, it is grossly inaccurate. For example, assume that a particularly "sticky" site averages 11 page views per visitor and a 3% click-through rate. This means that up to 33% of the audience could have responded to the advertisement, assuming no duplicate clicks.
Perhaps most significantly, the surround session is one of the first advertising ideas in recent times that does not further degrade the user experience. This new method of packaging ads does not require longer download times, more screen space, or annoying browser
tricks.
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
sequence in which a visitor receives ads from one advertiser throughout an entire site visit.
Information
Recently introduced by the online unit of the New York Times, the "surround session" is creating a major buzz in the online advertising
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
community. The session model represents a potentially significant shift in the way advertisers view online media, as more emphasis is placed on the real interaction between advertisers and audience
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
s.
In a surround session, an advertiser has all or most of the ads on each page for a visitor's entire site visit. As the visitor moves from page to page, the same advertiser is represented in various ad placements. This could allow for reinforcement of an advertiser's message, or possibly the creative use of a story line across several pages.
As currently proposed, an advertiser only pays for sessions that reach a predetermined amount of page view
Page view
A page view or page impression is a request to load a single HTML file of an Internet site. On the World Wide Web a 'page' request would result from a web surfer clicking on a link on another 'page' pointing to the 'page' in question. This should be contrasted with a hit, which refers to a...
s, and does not pay for any views in short sessions or the extra views in long sessions. The number of guaranteed page views per session is likely to vary, depending on what buyer
Buyer
When someone gets characterised by their role as buyer of certain assets, the term "buyer" gets new meaning:A "buyer" or merchandiser is a person who purchases finished goods, typically for resale, for a firm, government, or organization...
s are looking to purchase and what publishers are able to deliver.
The move to a session-based model might even give new life to beleaguered metric
Software metric
A software metric is a measure of some property of a piece of software or its specifications. Since quantitative measurements are essential in all sciences, there is a continuous effort by computer science practitioners and theoreticians to bring similar approaches to software development...
s such as the click-through
Click-through rate
Clickthrough rate is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. The clickthrough rate of an advertisement is defined as the number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of times the ad is shown , expressed as a percentage. For example, if a banner ad is delivered 100...
. Many marketers equate a 1% click-through rate with only 1 in 100 visitors clicking on an advertisement. At best, this assumption is slightly imprecise... at worst, it is grossly inaccurate. For example, assume that a particularly "sticky" site averages 11 page views per visitor and a 3% click-through rate. This means that up to 33% of the audience could have responded to the advertisement, assuming no duplicate clicks.
Perhaps most significantly, the surround session is one of the first advertising ideas in recent times that does not further degrade the user experience. This new method of packaging ads does not require longer download times, more screen space, or annoying browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
tricks.