Federated Media Publishing announced that it has acquired Lijit Networks Inc., a provider of advertising services, audience analytics and reader engagement tools for online publishers. The combination of the two companies would allow it to reach almost 300 million global unique visitors, according to Quantcast.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Explaining the acquisition, Deanna Brown, chief executive officer, Federated Media Publishing, said:

“The Lijit Networks team is just as passionate and committed to powering publishers as we are at Federated Media Publishing and that was a crucial element to this decision. Our combined relationships, proprietary tools and conversational marketing services will be invaluable to publishers and advertisers alike.”

Meanwhile, Todd Vernon, founder and CEO of Lijit Networks, has this to say on the importance of the sale:

“Federated Media invented how to leverage authentic voices and engaged conversations that exist in the independent web. The combination of the two companies is a game changer in the industry that unlocks new opportunities for both companies through our combined publisher network.”

With the addition of Lijit Networks’ existing publisher relationships, Federated Media Publishing will now reach more than 77,000 online publishers and nearly 15,000 expert communities, making it one of the largest companies to power publishing on the web.

In the end, it would be the online publishers who should benefit from this acquisition. Federated Media, once seen as the entity that handles ad sales for larger sites, can now cater to smaller ones as well.

Federated Media Acquires Lijit Networks (Now Reaches 300 Million Uniques) is a post from: The Inquisitr

Lots of web users seem to just visually skim over banners and ads placed strategically on websites.

Pretty much no one clicks them, so it would seem. A company called Solve Media has put together a bunch of statistics- without context- of all the things you are more likely to do than purposely click on a banner ad. The company that piled the statistics is one that has a bit of an interest in bashing banner ads, as they sell in-CAPTCHA ads, but they’re amusing to look at nonetheless.

Among the things you are supposedly more likely to do than click a banner ad are giving birth to twins, completing Navy SEAL training and climbing Mount Everest. (Which does seem a bit less likely than getting sucked in by a promotion for Pajama Jeans.)

Images below, do you think the stats are accurate?

Banner Ads: Are You More Likely to Survive a Plane Crash Than Click One? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bad job news, bad home sales news- sometimes it feels like the adage “there is no bottom” gets truer every day.

One area not experiencing the depression seen in other areas is sales of online advertising. 2010 was huge for this sector, with a 14.9% rise and $26 billion in sales. Sound encouraging? 2011 is set to be even more dramatic, with a 20.2% jump, to $31.3 billion in revenue. The trend doesn’t seem to be a one-trick fiscal pony, either, with gains predicted for the next few years, according to eMarketer.

While the gains forecasted were somewhat less impressive than this year’s expected 20% increase, 2012 is set to see pretty massive cheddar-flow in online ad sales as well. A 17.6% rise is expected in 2012, and revenues are predicted to jump 12% in 2013, 10.4% in 2014 and 8.8% in 2015- where spending is expected to be at $49.5 billion.

Media Life Magazine quoted principal analyst David Hallerman on why the expected gains are so significant:

…Hallerman says that the internet has become as fundamental as TV to advertisers, and that a couple different factors will play into the medium’s expected growth. “As consumers continue to increase their time spent online and as the resurgent economy continues to bolster ad budgets, we’re going to continue to see an influx of dollars toward the internet,” Hallerman said in a release. According to the forecast internet ad spending will account for 28 percent of total U.S. major media ad spending in 2015.

Online Advertising Set to Jump 20% in 2011 is a post from: The Inquisitr

The FTC haven’t changed their rules for advertising in eleven-years and now the agency is welcoming public opinion to determine how they can change those rules to better adapt to the online environment.

FOC staff are busy updating the “Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising” rules which they believe have become outdated with the advent of an “app economy” that’s also full of “pop-up” ads and social network marketing.

At this point the FTC is only “reviewing” their guidelines, however they will more than likely attempt to create new guidelines which protect consumers from unscrupulous marketing practices, which was the main point of the 2000 guidelines.

Public comments on the program will be accepted by the FTC until July 11, a 45-day period. Users can submit their comments electronically.

[Electronista]

FTC Wants To Change Eleven-Year-Old Advertising Guidelines is a post from: The Inquisitr

In 2010 a trend that pleases those of us in the online publication game emerged, advertisers decided it was time to focus their ad spending towards the online market, allowing online publications to earn more ad revenue than their print counterparts.

The trending info comes from eMarketer who’s CEO Geoff Ramsey said of his company’s findings:

“Marketers are devoting bigger shares of their budgets to digital media as they see more customers shifting time toward the Web.”

Placing the findings into perspective, newspaper ad revenues for both online and print publications came in at $25.7 billion in 2010, that number is compared to an estimated $25.8 billion spent through online advertising for the rest of the internet, including new media company’s, social networking websites and various other web properties.

The move makes sense since online ads can be easily implemented by any company willing to create a banner ad, hire someone to build a flash ad or otherwise hire out their marketing needs. Online ads as Ramsey points out also offer measurable results, which fail with tradition ads outside of perhaps tracking coupon offers and other limited ad options with tracking capabilities.

eMarketer also found that by 2014 online display ads will overtake search ads, while online video advertising is expected to skyrocket with a minimum of 34% growth per year through 2014.

It should be noted that the numbers listed above are found in just one study, however given various trending data points over the last 12 months, it’s safe to say that if online ad buys have not overtaken traditional newspaper print and newsprint online ads, they are very close to doing so over the next 12 months.

Print and Online Newspaper Ad Spending Defeated By Online Ad Buys In 2010 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Counterpoint: You have already won a free iPad.

[GraphJam]

[Graph] Relative load times of website content is a post from: The Inquisitr

The search partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo was finalized today after federal regulators from the U.S and European Union gave the companies a green light.

The move, a strategic partnership will help both companies cut costs, while fighting against Google who controls 70% of the search market.

Under the deal, Bing will provide Yahoo search results and in return Microsoft will receive part of the ad revenues generated from those searches. For Yahoo it will mean not having to support their own infrastructure for searches, while they’ll be able to focus on their advertising platform and other ventures.

The full integration of both companies technologies is expected to be completed by the end of 2011. [GadgetCrave]

Yahoo And Microsoft Finalize Search Partnership is a post from: The Inquisitr

The online video network found 88 percent of its visitors prefer to see a two-minute ad before a video than to see four 30-second ads spread throughout the video. The finding is specific to 22-minute programs.

“The opt-in rate is proving this is something people want,” Hulu spokesperson Christina Lee tells AdAge. “We are trying to break down a lot of these very traditional ways of thinking about advertising,” she adds.

Hulu is also experimenting with letting users select the type of ad they see — something it believes increases engagement.

We suspect it may just increase trips to the kitchen to make a snack. But hey, whatever they want to believe.

(Via Silicon Alley Insider)

Two-Minute Preroll Ads: The Future of Online Video? is a post from: The Inquisitr

The plan, currently being tested in small doses but not yet formally announced, is basically to treat the ads like the rest of the site. You’ll be able to leave comments, share virtual gifts with other users, or become a fan — the equivalent of a friend in a normal profile. The whole thing is really just an interactive widget, only customized to look and act like typical social media content.

You can see why advertisers would latch onto the idea. If people are becoming engaged with their ad, they’re more likely to look at it, spend time on it, and refer other people to it. Initial advertising success, of course, is measured largely by click-through rates, so attracting people and bringing them back repeatedly can have great benefit.

But here’s the thing: We all know how obnoxious some folks can become when hidden behind the masks of their monitors. Imagine the kind of immature comments you sometimes see on blogs and news sites — then imagine how much more frequent and offensive they could become when the content itself is an ad. Most Facebook users are probably smart enough to pick out commercials. Will they tear the companies a new one, right on their own paid spots? Or just ignore the things altogether?

In the long run, one could theorize that clicks are clicks — and even if people are leaving remarks that belittle the company, they’re still spending the time and giving their click-gold. At the same time, though, the company’s end goal is to achieve marketing success. A flame-filled ad may deliver a short-term goal of traffic numbers but may ultimately undermine the company’s campaign and not pay off in the end.

So will Facebook hit the jackpot on this one? Or will it be a short-lived, fast-failed experiment? Time, soon enough, will tell.

Facebook Gambles with Social Advertising — Will It Pay Off? is a post from: The Inquisitr