KnowVertical Blog

Site Recruitment Engagement Process

The process of engaging with a website or blog as you are building your network will require a lot of upfront work.  The majority of this effort really focuses on understanding the marketplace, what sites are in the market, and where there is a real opportunity for a vertical ad network to exist and be very profitable.  Spending time up front on analysis and reading the market will ensure long term success, while also providing immeasurable leverage when working on building your business with potential partner publishers.

The measurement of an opportunity usually is driven from a detailed supply and demand analysis within a specific category, niche, vertical, etc…   Calculating supply and demand investigates measures that include, but are not limited to: number of sites, curve of the visitor behavior within the category, reach into the target audience or share of category voice, scale and size of advertisers, and overall fragmentation of the market.

The goal of selecting an effective vertical network is to build a niche market that is considered a marketing requirement or tier one budget choice for advertisers focused within the category.  For example, building a vertical network of high quality blogs and websites in the online music and video category would be considered a primary marketing solution for Apple and iTunes and would be locked into their marketing budget year after year.

Beyond looking at the direct target advertisers as a measure of potential success, you should continue to add metrics that drive towards the sweet spot for your network.  This is identified by isolating the niches where there is enough scale in national brands playing within the given category, to ensure the niche is big enough.

The best way to measure this is by looking at the types of visitors to these content sites, and really  understanding what types of advertisers (non-endemic) are focused on these demographics/cognographics in their brand marketing.  For example, the digital music network you built has a high concentration of university students, thus national credit card brands are very interested in reaching this audience with a very well targeted message.

Beyond understanding the types and scale of advertisers in the given space, it is also important to attempt to understand the level of fragmentation of the given category.  Measurement of the total size of the market in this category; the total number of sites in your category and niches; and calculating the cross over (duplicated reach) of the market across the sites in the network.

Each of these strategies will be analyzed in much more detail in a future analysis, but once you have a good grasp into the market you will focus on, it is critical to map out the market at a very detailed and tactical level.  Understanding each of the sites that are contributors to the category, the size and reach of these sites, the engagement of their visitors, and the overlap of users across the different sites in the category online gives you a roadmap to recruitment success.

To understand the vertical and potential value of this network at an even more granular level will also ensure you are focused on the right recruitment strategy.  The knowledge of your marketplace, and the players in this space, will give you a huge advantage when building the network.  Knowing how important any given site is to the success of your network, based on the many achievement metrics, will give you the upper hand in all negotiations with these potential partners.

Your recruitment strategy for the bigger and/or more important sites to the success of your network will be direct and personal.  You will engage via phone, direct mail, and even traveling to meetings with your anchor partners.  The only way to really know who to focus on will be through a comprehensive market analysis.

Too many times people get caught up in chasing their tails and just trying to sign-up anyone they can or spending too much time and money on really small sites or sites that have so much overlap there is not any incremental reach.   This is a waste of time and money, and with the right planning you will never run into this situation.

The smaller sites, or less important to your success, will be recruited via less costly tactics.  As the sites become less and less critical to your ownership of the market and the ability to lock in share of category voice, the less you will engage with these sites directly.  Many of the smaller tail sites, under 20-30K visitors per month will join via your online network application. 

Finally, when you do engage with the sites that are interested in joining your network, there are a few steps that are very important to follow.  Though the steps are usually the same regardless of the importance of the site to your success, the approach or components of the process will change.  For example, for more important sites you might have multiple terms and conditions that you can offer depending on their needs and requirements to partner with you.

Once you have actually started to recruit sits, the first step is the initial pitch or discussion with the potential partner.    For the top tier sites you will meet with them in person or on the phone and have a business discussion on how to work together.  Depending on the size of these players and how much leverage they have, you may have to negotiate more favorable terms, such as content deals, higher  rev-shares, or even guaranteed revenue.

The discussions between you as the network operator/brand and the potential partner will usually end up with them either joining the network or not joining.  There are cases where a site or blog will not join under your terms and will want to trial the relationship for a shorter time period or even with no legal commitment.  These situations will be rarer, but you should be prepared for them.

When you have the publisher interested in joining, you have them sign-off on the network contract.  This contract can be a formal paper contract or as simple as an online set of terms and conditions.  This is a formal relationship between you and your network partner, and in many cases this is a tremendous asset to your business.  Locking in many sites for long term agreements has been the primary measurement source of value for many of the vertical ad networks in the past.

The most important part of the recruitment process is owning and managing the establishment of terms with your partners.  The more you are able to lock in, the better.  Other considerations you may look for are highlighted in this post of terms and conditions.

Once  you have established terms with your network members, you can point them to your system to set-up their ad tags and site details. Providing support throughout this process is important and as the first few ad campaigns are pushed out on the network.

Overall, the contact between you and your partner sites is what makes this a valuable asset.  Spend the time to ensure it is done right and own it from discussion to actual set-up and selling.

Establishing Formal Terms with your Community

When you build your vertical author community you will want to establish specific terms with your member sites.  Most of the terms and conditions that are important to your network will be around ensuring your protection and establishing consideration with your partners. 

If you remember Business Law 101 you will remember COAL.  Consideration, Obligation, Acceptance and Legal.  Consideration is the bind between you as the network operator and the members of the network.  This bind could be based on content syndication, search links, video, or just ad representation.

Because you will be out selling the network of sites and representing your blogs and websites with large Fortune 1,000 advertisers, these terms will ensure you are protecting your brand and your advertiser’s brand.  It is very important that you require standard terms for all partners because you are going to be a premium network and need to have standards.  That being said, many of your relationships with the  larger sites will be more comprehensive and custom.

When you design and build your vertical network, it is very important to prioritize the details of your relationship with your partner sites.   Some of the most important terms focus around exclusivity of ad sales or content; content syndication, ad placements, and/or custom ad placement terms.

There are many resources out on the web that can help you write your terms and conditions with your publishers.  Why not start with the terms for other vertical communities to get a sense of what they are requiring from their networks.  Some of the best or most comprehensive terms include the Glam Publisher Network Terms; AdMob’s Term Sheet; and even Ad.com.

You also can check out the IAB Standards library, where there are plenty of examples of guidelines and term sheets that could help in preparing your network terms.

The idea is to create a relationship that scales and is healthy for all involved.  The one thing that many vertical builders forget is that the members of the networks want the formal terms just as much as you do.  The terms give them a point of clarity around the relationship and help them in ensuring they are fulfilling their commitments.

There are many points to consider when creating these T&C’s, from the simple rules around ad placements, to the use of content and even control and transparency.   If you are working on building T&C for your network, download the 14 Tips - Vertical Ad Network Terms and Conditions cheat sheet.

You will be glad you thought this through, the more time you spend up front, the better you will be in the long run.

A Case For Below the Fold…

Most ad networks really want their member sites to ensure the ad placement is above the fold (so no scrolling is necessary).  This is an old concept and has been carried over and over throughout the years.  Most big budget campaigns are looking for above the fold inventory and continue to pay a premium for this placement.

This logic makes sense if you think about CPM based campaigns, because you are not guaranteed an impression if you are below the fold.  If a visitor doesn’t scroll down on the page, you have paid for a wasted impression to the user.

In the world of direct response advertising this is even more important, because you not only want the user to see and engage with the ad, but also click the ad.  If most of your ads are near the bottom of the page, you could have a hard time getting clicks.   For this reason, many marketers in the direct response area have focused on more performance based marketing, via CPC or CPA type payouts.   This protects them in a blind network, such as AdSense; to ensure they are really only paying when there is an event.  The usage of the performance based model can protect the advertiser.

But this line of thinking is moving into the vertical ad network space for brand advertisers.  Many RFP’s  for big budget campaigns are pushing for premium placement, aka above the fold.   The thinking is similar to that of direct response advertisers, you want to pay for an impression that someone sees and engages with.  The problem with this thinking is it actually is not the best way to approach a brand building campaign.

Unlike direct response ads, the brand building campaign is trying to reach engaged visitors to high quality vertical content sites.   The brand message wants to reach their target audience when their defenses are down and their trust is up.  The brand advertiser wants to compliment the overall message with the user experience on a give website or network of sites.   The direct response advertiser wants to reach the user when they have not found everything they were looking for and need more, thus clicking on an ad.

So, within the brand world, the goal is to have an integrated voice and message that is presented to your target customer at the right time and in the right place.  The users that are engaged with a high quality site, within your target niche, are the most attractive target for you and are the most open to interacting with your message in their experience.

Given these goals, do you think that above the fold is really that valuable?  Yes, it is nice to ensure every visitor to a site you are buying media on is going to see your message.  But think about the engagement part of your goal.  Think about the user having their defenses down and being open to your message.  Common sense will tell you that when you visit a site that you are engaged with, you don’t just look above the fold and then leave.  For users that are actually interested in the content of the site, and thus potentially more interested in what you have to say, are going to take the time to scroll down and interact with what the site/blog has to offer.

Yes, direct response is happy to be first if your face when you hit a site that doesn’t offer you what you are looking for.  They are hoping that you will be interested enough, as you are looking for the next place to visit, to click on their ad.  True, these visitors, that have come to a site and are not happy with the content or it is not what they expected, are much more likely to click on a direct response campaign that looks like it is going to bring them closer to what they were searching form.

In the brand advertising world, it is much more important to ensure you are presenting your message to the right customer or prospect.  You are not trying to offer an alternative to the user that is visiting the high quality vertical site/blog.  You are trying to compliment their visit with more information that they will take with them and potentially act upon.

It is also common sense that as users scroll down a site, and spend more time on a site, they are more willing to take in all the information on the site.  Additionally, when these sites or blogs are already within their web trust family, the user is even more interested in what is being presented, and your ad campaign will offer the user a much more valuable experience.

Common sense should drive what you do as you build out your vertical author community.   Think about your target customer and think about where you want them to be, both physically and mentally, when you present your idea or message to them.   More often than not, you want them where they are most open to engage.

Finally, beyond common sense, there was a study just released by ClickTale, one of the emerging Web 2.0 research firms on the web.  They have release a few really compelling studies around online consumer behavior. Their most recent study, Visibility and Scroll Reach, is available on their blog.  They have also released studies on consumer interaction with AJAX and even additional research on site visitation behavior.

The recent study by ClickTale provides a good understanding of the real usage on websites and blogs.  What ClickTale has uncovered, validating our common sense, is that users on a given website or blog are Boolean.  They are either interested in the content on the site, thus engaged and trusting, or not.  The study estimated that more than 75% of users scrolled below the fold in any given visit.  Additionally, the data showed that regardless of page size, the distribution of scrolling was similar.  This last finding is what proves our theory.

Based on the ClickTale study, and our hypothesis, the users that find a site that is interesting are not deterred by the size of the page or amount of scrolling required to engage with the content.   Some of the conclusions from this study point out this exact finding…

It appears that visitors scroll in a relative way - about the same percentage of page views will reach the middle of a web page regardless of the actual page height in pixels.

Visitors appear to be using the location of the scroll bar but not the size of the tracker when scrolling, since the scroll bar location is a relative indicator and the scroll tracker size is an indicator of page height.

Feel free to read the whole study, and many of their other studies at the ClickTale Blog.  And don’t forget to scroll to the bottom; the best part of the study is below the fold.

FAQ: Publisher Syndication Strategy...

Many Network Operators want to know if the content on their author partner sites has to be exclusive to the network.  When you are building a network with some of the midsized sites they probably will already have relationships with some larger partners where they syndicate their content.  Ultimately you want this content shared on your property, but in the short term it actually helps to keep the status quo.

So the question that is important is 'do sites that join my network have to discontinue the content syndication or publishing relationships they have established over the past few years?' 

The real answer to this ultimately depends on what is your primary objective is as a network brand or community.

Most networks, especially early in the launch and operations, are extremely open to having their vertical author community members published on other sites and blogs.  By having your member sites continue to syndicate their content out across the web, it accomplishes a few things that are truly essential to your short term success.  First of all, this is an excellent way to drive additional traffic and raise awareness of your network.   When the site author writes, and is published, across the web (as long as it is across high quality sites), you are able to have your network brand exposed to those readers. 

The syndication of your partner sites content does provide a vehicle to introduce your vertical network in an organic way. Through encouraging the content syndication model, regardless if you are central or not, allows for many immediate benefits.  Member sites and blogs will keep increasing their traffic; make their members happy; ensure their topline revenue growth; and become more and more influential on the web.  All of this is not only a benefit to the sites, but also an even bigger benefit to your brand and your network.

An important ingredient of the first few months of the network is to establish your brand and set a footprint into the category.  It is going to take months to build out your network and it will take many more months for it to grow to become the category leader.  By utilizing the established relationships of the authors you have partnered with, you can really grow your overall awareness and buzz on the net.  If these sites happen to be Connector sites, which they probably will be given they are already syndicated, you will gain from the exponential exposure from these relationships.

Though you will ultimately want to have more control over the content on the network member sites and where it is shown as you expand, the initial focus is really growth.  You will have less leverage earlier in the build out process and actually should encourage your sites to continue what they have been doing to grow their traffic and increase visitors and readers.  Not only will you gain from having your network exposed via a second or third degree connection, but you will be able to manage your member site authors expectations and have more time to establish yourself. 

This is the second benefit of allowing your partner sites to continue to syndicate their content and sell ads via other channels.  It has been found that when vertical networks build out and grow, the more exclusivity that is required up front, the higher the expectations of the publishers joining the network.  By allowing the sites that you are partnered with to continue to do what they have been doing to grow and monetize their site, you are not setting their expectations or constraining their growth. 

Once you have really established your brand and sales team, you will have much more to offer your partner sites.  Having the ability to offer your members resources such as syndication of their blog across your properties or network, or even the ability to write exclusively for your properties will be where you want to be months from now, but focus on the first phase of the network, which is build, grow and introduce your brand to the marketplace. 

Empowering your partners to grow the network will not only provide incremental revenue gains, but will build a relationship with your partner sites that will last for many years to come.

Proof: The Power of AdSense...

We have posted many times on the power of AdSense within specific niches.  It is a great partner for your remnant as you build out your vertical publisher community, but don't under estimate GOOG!

Okay Adbrite is not very good at least, but AdSense is so don't under estimate it!