Burstmedia Impressions

[darkmessiah]

Can anyone sum up there experiences with Burstmedia including payment punctuality, how they accept sites, banner load time , customer service, etc.

[Czar]

BurstMedia is one of the most reputable and responsive banner ad networks online. They're right up there with FastClick and Engage US in terms of support, technology and reporting.

For the most part, you'll likely see slightly lower average CPM rates from Burst than Engage, though when you manage to attract a targeted campaign or two, you'll see impressive returns.

Like FastClick, Burst seems to be accepting only about 10-15% of applicants these days, so it remains quite a challenge to get your foot in the door, but it's well worth trying.

Oh yeah, and payments are always on time (NET45, I believe).

[darkmessiah]

Generally, what type of sites are they looking for? Do they have to be really professional or something?

[Cyberspace]

What sort of CPM rates are people seeing with them right now?

[Czar]

Burst look for sites that have a strong standing within a particular niche and, yes, they do generally have to be aesthetically-pleasing in design terms.

I've heard that they, like everyone, have been especially picky regarding sites that could fit into the broad "entertainment" category, but they seem to be fairly open to other properties.

As for present rates, I'm seeing in the range of $0.25-$0.35 Net CPM right now, though this is traditionally lower at the start of the month, so I expect this to rise slightly during the coming week. What's more, I managed to snare a targeted campaign yesterday (yeehah), which will see a dramatic rise in this average rate.

Burst is great at selling targeted campaigns, which is a bonus, but you'll generally have to run their demographic survey in order to attract these.

[}:8) Supermoo]

Czar,

Do you sell the targeted campaign to Burst! or do they organise it for you? If they organise it for you, can you send them advertisers from you site, to advertise with them on your site exclusivley?

Thanks,

[Czar]

Great (and very timely) question, Moo!

Burst organises the targetd campaigns on behalf of their members. That is, they do all the work in attracting the advertisers and designating which sites are best suited to the campaign (at which time you'll see the advertiser's proposal appear within the "Proposed Campaigns" area of Burst's ad management interface). Before the campaign actually runs, the advertiser will review the content and demographics of each of these sites, and decide which to accept, and which to exclude. My experience has been that you will suffer many exclusions, in which case the campaign vanishes from your "Proposed Campaigns" area.

When you have been accepted, you'll receive an insertion order via email, to which you can reply if you want to dump the campaign (no, thanks!). You don't have to do anything if you want to run the campaign.

As for the second part of your question, Burst does not presently support the insertion of campaigns that you have sold in-house, so you'll need to use your own ad rotator for this. And while I don't believe I'm allowed to discuss the contents of the surveys that Burst! occassionally runs within its member ranks, I can tell you that the company has considered implementing this feature, and has requested feedback from their members regarding the attractiveness of such a feature.

HTH

[}:8) Supermoo]

Thanks for that input Czar,

It seems Burst! has always been one of the better advertising solutions and I think it shows when you find out they're listening to their publisher community and the end-level users.

Now only to get a site good enough to be accepted! ;)