I wrote last night about an advertising service from Pay-Per-Play Media that sees 5 second audio ads automatically playing when visiting websites. Annoying would be the nicer way of describing screeching audio ads for Tacos playing when you visit a website, a sure way to drive visitors away would be another take on it.
When writing about a service like this, there is always the very real possibility that the old adage of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” will ring true…indeed I wouldn’t be surprised for example if that everytime we wrote about PayPerPost in the past they ended up with more users. Pay-Per-Play Media got that exact boost, and Pay-Per-Play’s Director of Marketing Charles Heflin sent me this nice email to let me know:
Dude,
You really made yourself and tech crunch look bad with your post about Pay-Per-Play media.
Did you know that $.01 per play is a $10 CPM? Well above industry standard?
Only the geeks with a chip on their shoulder agreed with you. Apparently the rest of the crowd liked the idea… LOL
Do you have any studies or proof that 5 second audio ads actually drive visitors away?
Your “feelings” don’t count… Only facts count.
Oh… thank you for the post BTW … we received over 500 new signups covering 27,000 new websites as a result of the traffic you raised… and counting.
Apparently because no one has studied annoying audio ads on websites, they aren’t annoying.
Having considered Charles’ email, I’ve come to the conclusion that I was wrong. I now encourage EVERYONE to sign up to Pay-Per-Play Media, particularly TechCrunch’s competitors. If you’re running a website, I’d encourage you to get ALL of your competitors to sign up as well….indeed, I really, really hope this takes off in a big way. We wont be running it, so I guess we’ll be the ones who will miss out
I instantly close any page that plays audio on load.
On load audio is simply obnoxious and the worst kind of thoughtless marketing opportunism.
You gotta love these loosers for trying. Youre my idol Charles Heflin.
Heh. I am shocked — shocked! — to discover that the genius who built a business around compulsory audio ads comes across as a smug, defensive jerk.
Thank you! I totally agree with you!
This auto-playing ad is a terrible idea. People have never liked those unskippable ads at the start of DVD movies, but those only happen once. I can just imagine the frustration that would be associated with a repeating audio advertisement.
And if Pay-Per-Play’s Director of Marketing’s writing is any indication, the whole company seems like they have no idea what they’re doing, either.
Well…Duncan, you are absolutely right! Get all your competitors to sign up for this great service!!!
Is it normal for management in Web 2.0 companies to use this kind of casual tone when writing emails? I’m more surprised by the “surfer bra” attitude than by the attempt to sell audio ads.
Any site that starts playing audio automatically gets closed immediately and never visited again. That violates acceptable practices as bad as the annoying flash ad that takes over the page with no apparent close button.
10$ cpm is alot.
Who ever wrote that passive aggressive email should be fired. He must be a founder, as a regular employee would never get away with that.
to my previous comment- Its alot, but after re-reading the email sent to TC + the fact the website doesnt even work (404 on signup, etc..) I will have to think its proabably a scam.
To bad, I would have thrown it on some shit websites.
A five second audio ad at page load … not sure that’s a great idea. But hey, it takes an extra five or eight seconds for the page to load right now so the high graphic Techcrunch ads can load … so maybe it would give me something to listen to while I’m waiting for TC to settle into existence.
lol Nice post.
Pay Per Play video, great idea!
I suppose if you thought the world was going to end in a month … “Pay Per Play” would be a great way of milking every last penny out of your site … cause in a month, it really doesn’t matter if you don’t have any traffic to your site anyways.
Yeah, there are LOTS of annoying ad approaches (and lots of crappy websites are annoying for free), but onload audio….. as several commenters have said, I can attest that I would not go back. I’ve done it in the past, and am very near the brink with a site I hit 100x daily b/c a recent ad campaign makes my mouse curser blink (cursor-changing animated schtick).
I think the only thing this will be good for are sites that have been built that are pretty much dead in the water and get garbage traffic. I’d never put the ads up on a site that I cared about. Just my 2 cents…
No thanks. not for me either. It’s not a professional package that I’d want to be represented on my website.
Also, will this be relevant audio/video ads that are served or anything going trough the pipe?
Nice to know I’m a geek with a chip on my shoulder.
It’s rare that I haven’t closed a page immediately *any* audio starts playing… unless that’s what I am expecting or want, for example YouTube. And if I close a page that annoys me, I won’t be back.
Consider that a lot of people surf the web at work. They’re not looking to draw attention to this activity with ads blaring their presence.
Webmasters who use this form of advertising are simply de-monetising their websites.
I don’t see audio ads being an effective tool to generate income.
Wow…. this guy needs to learn how to handle criticism, what a dumb move. But hey, he got his coverage
There’s nothing I hate more than websites with audio on page load ( And i run a web based music business ).
Dude,
I’m totally going to start writing PayPerPost blog entries and install Pay Per Play on my site. Anything else I can do that hasn’t been proven to annoy the hell out of people?
Why is this annoying? How is this different from a flash site that has music?
If you land on a site that *YOU* are interested in then turn off the music. If you land on a site that has this 5 second advertising message hold your breath for a few seconds. Of course this task may be difficult for those of you that hit the bong every day (and evening)
–Pay Per Play – I have not seen your product but I’m hoping that you have a counter counting backwards to reflect this message is coming to an end; i.e. “5-4-3-2-1 Thank you!”
Alex: Not everyone has that luxury. I use a screen reader in order to read the text on a page. Having some audible file screeching like that is more than annoying. It makes my ears hurt and often causes a migraine. I have to rely on a software program to read to me. The last thing I need is some idiot running an audio advertisement in the background, hence the reason for the ad blocker made specifically for this type of garbage.
Think about other people for a change. Think about the thousands upon thousands of people online that must rely on speech programs to navigate and read text on the internet. This is a proverbial slap in the face of every blind person out there that must rely on speech to get around the internet. I’ve shared my blocking abilities with hundreds of others who rely on speech not to mention the sighted users that can actually read the pages yet despise the annoying crap running in the background so these webmasters can sit back to collect their checks.
I am not against earning money but at the very least webmasters can be decent about how they earn $$$. They don’t have to do it at the expense of deafening those who cannot physically read the pages or anyone else for that matter. It’s childish. Drop these ads at once or consider yourself lumped in with the idiots of the internet.
Paisley
Be of good cheer, Duncan. In my world, prime-time web use is 8am-5pm, which means the audience is at work. Audio is more than an inconvenience in the cubicle, and most people automatically mute things anyway. Due diligence, meet a crappy idea.
Duncan, Mike is a pretty big ad-ho (in case you haven’t noticed) – is there any reason you feel comfortable shutting this audio-ad thing down so finitely like that while Mike is away sucking at Bono’s teet at Davos?
I always thought that you were just a writer at TC… you know, the hunchback who hobbles upstairs from the dungeon to post when Mike’s out of town. I’m concerned that you may feel you actually have some power at Crunch Network. Back to your hole, Quasimodo!
What a whiny beetch. (Heflin) If you got that many sign ups, why crow about it? Just enjoy your supposedly massive CPM and gloat silently like a normal person.
Unless you’re inflating your figures which would be SO unusual.
If it’s a huge success then you shouldn’t have the time to even be perusing TC… much less firing off snarky missives.
Next time, type it up…. save a draft, then if you still feel like sending it the next day… go for it. As much as I hated the idea before, now I even hate their Marketing Director.
I too, wish them luck. Prove us wrong Heflin-monster. We’ll all be watching. But we won’t be listening.
Why do people send snarky, impolite emails? That is an invitation for your unkind words to be reproduced to the entire world and for you to be held up to public ridicule. Charles Heflin did himself and his company a disservice with that.
Audio ads don’t really bother me because I’ll never hear them. 99% of the time I have the sound muted on my computer unless I’m specifically doing something like listening to a podcast. Even then, adblock plus or noscript can easily take away most of these annoyances. I’m not sure why anyone would pay to have their advertisement delivered in an ineffectual manner like that. Even if it does get through, it will more likely tick off your potential customers than lure them in.
I do find the concept rather obnoxious, and ideas like that are the reason I have to resort to leaving the mute button on, and installing adblockers into my browser.
-Jeff
NetAudioAds Pay-Per-Play has not actually launched yet and I know that they are adding in some high speed servers tonight so anyone trying to sign up may experience 404s temporarily.
Sorry folks … beta buggers… Net Audio Ads doesn’t actually launch until February 1st and there is a ton of work being done on the back end.
I am not an employee of NetAudioAds I was contracted to launch it… and yes we have had some issues with spammers but we fully expected it as any large promotion would and they are being dealt with.
If you receive unsolicited messages then report them to NetAudioAds at LHost [at] voice2page [dot] com.
Over 30k affiliates and 14 million websites have signed up so far we have and lined up new deals with advertising partners ranging from the high profile Madison Avenue (covers just about every major branding advertiser) crowd down to your corner Joe’s Pizzeria.
We can target audio ads down to the zip code level so Joe’s can announce a 5 second 2 for 1 special to Internet surfers in their delivery area… Pretty cool.
This kind of advertising is vital to stimulate our broken economy. I can see there are many harsh opinions going on and this is natural as well. If we weren’t getting pummeled with controversy then that would mean that we are not shaking the tree.
In 2 months we have gained a very large distribution network (over 100 million BPA verified ad plays per day) through publishers who will enjoy CPMs that are higher than industry standard.
It appears that both advertisers and publishers are loving the idea and this was crucial to a successful “out of the gate” launch.
People seem to miss the bigger picture and look to the past to determine the success or failure of future events before the facts are in. This is human nature and it’s understandable.
If the program fails then that will be too bad, our economies local (US), national & worldwide need a little stimulation… no?
I don’t feel sorry for people that get annoyed with advertising. Like it or not it is vital especially if you are employed by a company that relies on it.
We are all used to 2.2 minutes of television ads but we still watch our favorite TV programs… I don’t believe that 5 seconds of audio will keep people away from their favorite websites.
Big brands (and little ones too) can’t rely on TV ads anymore because they are dying. DVRs like TIVO are killing the effectiveness of TV ads and with people spending more time online, less people are watching.
Internet audio ads offer a new vehicle to reach the audience that left their TV set… We need this folks.
Only ONE 5 second ad is triggered when a visitor arrives on a web page that has the PPP code inserted… Another ad DOES NOT start playing automatically after 3 minutes. Only if the user refreshes the page will another ad be heard (after 3 minutes) or they click to another page with the PPP code (after 3 minutes) … If the user clicks to a new page that has the PPP code a new ad will NOT automatically play.
Audio ads are not appropriate for all websites and it is up to the website owner’s discretion to smartly place these ads in places that won’t detract from the web user experience.
Everyone should want our collective economies to do well. We now have coverage in 192 countries and we have affiliates in these countries who are actively increasing NetAudioAds reach and procuring new advertisers to distribute ads in the network.
To be honest, I never expected this to do so well (I was skeptical at first just like you) and it has shocked me that the reality is quite different than the initial gut reaction… Most people want and like the idea of short Internet audio ads.
The only time I have seen negatives is when a well followed figure like Duncan or Aaron Wall start the thread negatively without researching the facts or at least attempting a short interview to gain them.
I want to thank Duncan for being a rarity in Internet marketing by saying he was wrong and allowing the opportunity to set the record straight.
Thank you,
Charles Heflin
(I am not an employee and I do not speak for NetAudioAds, I speak for myself based on facts I have gathered from NetAudioAds)
and this guy is “Director of Marketing” ???? way to go…
what a jerk…
Petty Fued
If you browse with no sound (e.g. at work), you never hear the ad and they get the click count anyway. Brilliant.
I´m really surprise by the fact that nobody realizes that this is made almost ONLY for
Splogs and Arbitrage.
I can assure you that they are thousands (if not millions) of people that get a “decent” traffic by obscure tactics to sites that don´t provide ANY value and they don´t get even close to a $ 10 CPM.
They will be happy.
And now there is one more incentive to make that kind of trash.
Until this “serious enterprise” elegantly joins the Dead Pool
Chuck,
Although I’m not thrilled by the idea, I’m not particularly offended by it either. Good luck with your business, and next time don’t send questionable emails to Duncan (the “missing link” here at TechCrunch) – he might accidentally tap out a coherent post, and he will surely try to sink you to make himself feel big.
How can somebody be “Director of Marketing” and at the same say “I am not an employee and I do not speak for NetAudioAds”?
Charles, are you high or something?
@J.P … I directed the marketing for them but am not an owner or officer and what I say cannot be construed as coming from NetAudioAds.
Duncan
i love reading your blog, but you are sounding like a sour puss. come on you guys can’t be right all the time. suck it up and move on.
Sure thing GladOS.
Garth@6: Yes, and we’re lucky that he spelled all of the words out.
Beyond that, if you think any of Charles’ little statistics are not completely made up in order to make himself look good and justify his paycheck, then you have a bright future ahead of you indeed.
It’s also inspiring to know that nobody there knows how to exclude spammers from the get-go. Hey everybody, email them if one slips through. LOL, whoops sorry about that!
I give this idea 10 minutes out of the starting gate until AdBlock filters audio and releases an update: “…when a visitor arrives on a web page that has the PPP code inserted.” Gosh, that’s gonna be a hard annoyance to fix. Maybe they’re hoping grandma and Senor Cho-cho on vacation in Bali are going to feather their beds with their ignorance. Who’s got the chip on their shoulder again?
for a Marketing Director -inhouse or not- you have to be an idiot who does not take his business serious when using LOL’s and Dude and other childish tone when you communicate in business, let alone a media outlet that will publicize it.
Very poor judgment, very poor website design, and very poor copywrite!
(may i suggest a proofread of your content because i found errors in your tier system breakdown page.)
@26 Charles
Good write up! The fact you have shared the stats (below), please let us know how many VC’s contact you on Monday/Tuesday. I think this has a shot at success. AND a company like Adbrite may want to buy you quickly (Iggy – are you reading this?).
……”Over 30k affiliates and 14 million websites have signed up so far we have and lined up new deals with advertising partners ranging from the high profile Madison Avenue…..”
I don’t like waiting 3 seconds for a page to load and Pay-Per-Play wants a study about 5 seconds of audio? Fine. I vote it’s annoying.
I just read abot the AdBlocker idea proposed by #36. I have to agree, if audio ads are used, there will be (very effective) blockers for them — my mute is always on at work.
A few hours before you wrote your PPP post last night, I wrote up an analysis of their business model (getting story ideas from my blog again Duncan?
).
In order to pay their publishers $10 CPM, they’re having to sell ads at $40 CPM. As a veteran of multiple online ad startups, I can tell you that they’re not going to get $40 for ads without response tracking mechanisms, no real room for a brand message, and that run on random blog content.
See http://kalsey.c...ioads_bad_idea/ for my writeup.
case in point for how annoying even “good” content can be: i can’t stand how espn.com auto-starts their videos when i land on their site, even though i like their content–video included–for the most part.
i can’t imagine how crappy this experience would be for ads.
I think this is a perfect acquisition for Pay-Per-Post. Posties will do anything for a roll of pennies, so this is right up their alley. Since their sites don’t get any traffic, they can take turns creating page views on each other sites to work the system and they don’t have to worry about google cutting them off at the knees!
@EH – I haven’t been paid … yet.
I am paid a commission on sales just like the publishers, this is nothing but another product launch. If it flops, it flops … I move on to the next project.
@Faramarz – Poor judgment or not, the debate here and in many other forums is extending the distribution network.
@Adam Kalsey – Nobody at NetAudioAds, nor myself ever stated that there would be a $10 CPM payout to webmasters… My email to Duncan was in reference to his posting of $.01 per play.
The real number is $.02 +/- per play and publishers get 25% of that which will come out to about a $3.50 CPM … Still well above standard.
Did this guy ever stop and ask himself “hey I wonder if people will find this annoying?” I doubt it.
Audio Ads are annoying. Just imagine if you are going to a porn site late at night while the kids and wife are asleep and and audio ad sounds loudly. “Naked Sluts For Free.”
Audio ads suck.
@TheDuhMoment – The fact that 20% of people will never hear an ad when triggered has already been taken into account in their pricing model for advertisers.
Advertisers are also told, up-front, that only 80% of ad plays will be heard.
AdBlockers, volume down, all of this has been researched … NetAudioAds is now 5 years in development… This isn’t a whim. The facts have caused them to start a major marketing push.
I believe in the end there is only one honest ad: the Donate button. If the web would truly evolve there would only be donate buttons, no ads anymore. I dislike ads too as a user, but as a website owner I still use them. That’s why I decided recently to click on ads when I like a website. I am not really interested in the ad I click on, but I feel like I should give a little back to the site owner, because I like him or his business. If there was an ‘instant donate $.01 button’, I would probably click that. However the current ads are actually an easier way to donate, and I don’t even have to pay for it!
ESPN plays the annoying video right when you go to ESPN.com. I stopped going to ESPN.com when they started doing that. Lot’s of my friends also stopped. ESPN keeps losing “mad” traffic as a result. You guys are right about this. Audio sucks. Why doesn’t this schmuck focus instead on building an audience rather than try to make money with annoying things. Last I checked, no one has ever made money with telemarketing services or cluttering your post box with direct mail. What about those annoying inserts that fall out of my NY Times…so annoying. Also, sometimes when I am looking for a domain name for my cool social networking start-up, some of them are taken, and totally not used; those guys parking domains are losing money and just pissed their domain registration fee away. So annoying.
This guy needs to stop worrying about $10 CPM and start worrying about SEO, CRM, Web 2.0, AJAX, Open Source, CMS, Cloud computing, social networking, and the blogosphere.