Las dificultades de la publicidad online

El último estudio de la consultora estadounidense Pubmatic es muy poco optimista al analizar los últimos resultados del avisaje online en ese país. Sin duda, afectados por la crisis económica, los display han acentuado un descenso que ya se manifestaba desde mediados de 2008. El NYT.com está soportando una baja en sus CPM, incluso en los avisos que acompañan a las páginas de opinión, que en algún momento estuvieron cerca de los US$15 por mil. Hoy no llegan a los US$5. Los medios están buscando en el searching y la publicidad contextual mejores rendimientos, pero el escenario no deja de complejizarse, mientras se mantienen las dudas sobre cuál será el modelo económico que sostendrá internet. Google tampoco lo está pasando bien. A pesar de que su facturación creció en 2008, las utilidades cayeron un 68% en el último trimestre del año. Lo que es peor, Ad Sense no está rentabilizando al ritmo de las expectativas y ya se olvidaron de seis proyectos importantes. La publicidad online parece ser el único camino seguro para generar ingresos en la web. Al menos por el momento. Gracias a Google, su legitimidad no sólo ha dejado de manifiesto la poca transparencia de la publicidad de los grandes medios, sino que además incorporó una oferta que estaba fuera de este territorio. Sin duda, las cifras del estudio están afectadas por la crisis, pero aún no está claro qué tipo de publicidad será la que solvente los proyectos (los informativos, al menos) en la red.

• The data reflected in this report shows a significant decline in Q4 2008 online display ad pricing compared to Q4 2007 for all sizes of websites and all vertical categories, underscoring the fact that the US economy is in a recession and that the online advertising sector is not immune to it. However, the news isn’t entirely negative and shows some promise for the online advertising sector.


• While the ad price averages across most sites also dropped in Q4 2008 from Q3 2008, the quarter-to-quarter drops were not significant by website size or vertical category; this may be an indicator that holiday ad sales helped stave off the consistent bigger drops that happened from quarter to quarter throughout 2008. Some vertical categories even showed improvement from the previous quarter.


• It is clear that growth in online display advertising is slowing consistent with other advertising sectors, but not to the same magnitude. In the coming quarters the average pricing for display advertising may continue to drop consistent with seasonal cycles. However, with overall advertising budgets shrinking, the need for marketers to have more accountable advertising could bring more advertising dollars online in 2009 and start an upward trend as some vertical categories have already experienced.



All sizes of websites (small, medium, and large) were down dramatically from Q4 2007; small, medium, and large sites dropped 52%, 23%, and 54%, respectively, from the previous year.

All sizes of websites were also down from Q3 2008 to Q4 2008, but the drops were not significant, bucking the trend of larger drops from quarter to quarter throughout 2008; this may be an indicator that the online ad sector got just enough of a boost from holiday advertising to keep ad rates steady. Similar to sites by size, all vertical categories also experienced significant drops in their ad pricing from Q4 2007; the biggest drop by a vertical was Business & Finance, which fell from an average price of $2.13 in Q4 2007 to $0.83 in Q4 2008 – a 61% drop.

Also similar to sites by size, no vertical categories dropped by a significant amount from Q3 2008 to Q4 2008, and some verticals even improved from the previous quarter; the Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Gaming, and Music verticals all had higher ad price averages in Q4 of 2008 than in Q3 of 2008.

2008 Q4 Google Earnings Slides

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