Online Ads: Will Fewer, but Bigger, Be Better?

Several large Web publishers are adopting new display-ad formats with hopes they will engage readers—and boost revenues

By Robert D. Hof

With the rise in recent years of search advertisements—the little snippets of commercial text that appear next to search results—online display ads don't get much respect these days. While search ads are expected to grow about 9% this year, revenues for pictorial display ads may actually fall. Now, several major Web sites are hoping to rekindle interest in display ads—especially those used for creating a brand impression rather than simply eliciting a click.

On Mar. 10, the Online Publishers Assn. (OPA) is announcing a trio of new display-ad formats that it hopes will spark more creative use of the Web's mainstay ads. The main goal is to engage readers more fully, and in the process allow online publishers to charge advertisers more. Not least, the initiative offers an alternative to the increasing encroachment of cheap ads served on their sites by advertising networks, which many premium sites think are devaluing their ad space.

The three new ad units are all bigger than standard display ads, and potentially they'll be the only ad on the first screen. They also will be more interactive, even allowing viewers to bookmark them the way they do Web pages so they can come back to them. They include a "Fixed Panel" that's 336 pixels wide and 860 pixels tall, and scrolls to the top and bottom of a page as the user scrolls; an "XXL Box" that's 468 by 648 pixels, featuring the ability to embed video; and a huge 970-by-418-pixel "Pushdown" ad that opens up and then rolls up to the top of the page.

The publishers taking part include a wide variety of sites—including this one—run by outfits such as BusinessWeek (MHP), The New York Times (NYT), Time (TWX), Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO), USA Today (GCI), and others, accounting in total for two-thirds of the U.S. Internet audience. They've each committed to offer at least one of the ad formats by July.

Challenging the Ad Networks

The idea is to give more room for creativity to brand marketers—who, like the publishers, fret that the Web isn't providing them the ability to get a message across that's anything near as engaging as television or even print ads. "A disproportionate amount of money is spent on direct-response ads," such as Google (GOOG) search ads and "click-here" pitches for credit reports or dating sites, says Martin A. Nisenholtz, senior vice-president for digital operations at the New York Times Co. "The Web should be getting more branding dollars."

The new formats are a clear shot across the bow of ad networks. Many of these middlemen, which serve as brokers between advertisers and Web sites, are focused on delivering those direct-response ads by the ton. The ad units will be available only through the direct sales forces of OPA members, which don't include ad networks and most portals such as Yahoo (YHOO). However, ultimately advertisers and agencies will be able to run these or similar ads anywhere if they see they're getting results.