by Lisa Barone, Bruce Clay, Inc.

The question at hand is: Will ad exchanges change everything?

If by “everything” you mean the face of online advertising, then all you really have to do is take a look at recent events to find your answer:

• In April, Google purchased online ad firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.
• That same month, Yahoo paid $680 million to acquire the remaining 80 percent of RightMedia.
• Microsoft purchased advertising firm aQuantive for $6 billion and then AdECN for an undisclosed amount.

All in all, my stellar math skills tell me that those figures account for nearly 10 billion of the search engines’ dollars during the past year. This number doesn’t even take into consideration the money already being spent by online ad companies like ContextWeb, Right Media Inc. and Turn Inc. So, if you’re asking me whether or not I think ad exchanges have the power to change the face of online advertising, my answer is a resounding “yes!”, followed by an “it already has!”

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By Greg Jarboe, Guest Blogger

I’m not an ad guy. I’m the co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization firm and public relations agency. So, why should I care if ad exchanges are changing everything?

I care because I’m a former radio reporter and newspaper editor, who was also the director of corporate communications at Ziff-Davis when the Internet changed everything I knew about the news and media. And I’ve learned over the years that ads pay the piper, even when readers, listeners, viewers or visitors call the tune.

Yahoo! Internet Life didn’t fold because it didn’t have enough readers. The magazine had a paid circulation base of 1.1 million subscribers when Ziff-Davis closed it in 2002. Yahoo! Internet Life’s operations were shuttered because advertising dollars declined precipitously after the dot-com bubble burst.

Now, if ad exchanges are turning the advertising world upside down, then they’re also going to turn the news and media worlds upside down, too.

So, are ad exchanges changing everything?

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By Jeffrey Pruitt, iCrossing

What do we want to measure? A marketer’s “nirvana” would be tracking all interactive advertising data in the context of search; because we can tie this back to keyword data (words are a great lens into our audience, think of this as a constant and ongoing survey).

Combining performance metrics from all interactive channels (and offline channels as well) with spend and budget information enables us to understand multi channel integration and interaction and also spurs a new type of conversation in the boardroom. This enables us to bring multiple partners into the boardroom to discuss integration (both organizationally and tactically), appropriate budget allocation, and most importantly search as a promotional vehicle. We want to track the customer interaction with the brand, from the time they express interest until the time they perform an action; we might see this through an interaction of display media, email, visitors going direct to a site, paid search, natural search, etc…

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By John Tawadros, COO, iProspect

There’s no point in telling you that measurement is critical — that’s a given. However, the definition of measurement can vary a great deal, especially considering how many different types of media are used in a comprehensive interactive marketing program. From my perspective, when it comes to measurement, what matters most is to think of everything that could be included — and smart marketers know that compiling that list should involve more minds than one.

For any given full campaign launch for a new product — such as the iPhone phenom — there’s a lot I’d want to know. For example, what was my reach in television (eyeball count)? I’d also want to know the impact to search query volume (demand) generated immediately post television commercials or radio ads, and how long the “buzz” lasts. In addition, it’s key to understand what consumers are seeing in the results page, to know what is being communicated on those sites, and to ascertain whether or not I have a presence there.

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By Greg Jarboe
The president and co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization firm and public relations agency.

Peter Drucker, the famous author, management consultant and university professor, once wrote, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” And he was right. So, asking some of the top interactive agencies, “What can you measure,” is like asking them, “What can you manage?”

Now, all interactive agencies can measure impressions and clicks.

This means they can manage more than most traditional agencies, which can only measure impressions. But, if you want to identify the leading interactive agencies from the ones that are followers, you need to ask a harder question than “What can you measure?”

You need to ask, “What do you want to measure?”

This implies that there’s something that they want to manage, but haven’t been able to up to now. Admitting that there is something that you don’t know and being able to articulate what you want to find out is what really separates the early adopters from the later adopters. It means that the innovators know what they don’t know in addition to knowing what everyone else knows. This puts them in a position to find new answers sooner, rather than later than their competitors.

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by David Dalka
Startup advisor, mobile advertising and mobile search thought leader and consultant

It’s 1997 again! No you’re not in a time machine! Take a look at some of the mobile ad startups out there and what do you see? A counter for ads served. No ROI, no relevancy just a mad rush to push out ads to anyone, anywhere at anytime. Remember counters? Back in 1997 they were on every web site on the Internet and people would try to inflate them. This unfortunately seems to the current state that we find ourselves in today.

At the same time marketplaces and a new breed of people who understand that new metrics need to be created across all interactive media are coming onto the scene. Not surprisingly these industry leaders of the future, many already in key execution roles come from financial services backgrounds where they’ve invented metrics, revolutionized both technology and customer result communication. The biggest question of all is how can you create relevancy when the mobile carriers seem determined to never steer the promise of their user data to actual usage.

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by Matthew Snyder
Head of Business Development and Strategy, Nokia Ad Connector
NOKIA

When we think about mobile and the mobile experience it is really something personal. It can be considered the digital extension of ourselves that enables us to be connected to our family, friends, co-workers, businesses and even new communities.

The transition of voice centric mobile telephony devices have now evolved to be the next wave of computers that gives us value to consume content, leverage location-based services and link into the online world in either mobile friendly forms or in full browsing experiences. The on-the-go context is now ready to bring more value to the complexity of our daily lives with this digital connector.

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By Steve Baldwin
Marketing Manager, Did-it Search Marketing

There are some 2.2 billion cell phones in the world and many advertising executives seem to view these phones in the same way that oil industry executives regard the unspoiled reaches of Alaska, Africa, and the North Sea: as fertile fields for exploitation and future profits. Development of this pristine, ad-free frontier sometimes seems inevitable, especially when you consider that all three major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft) have mobile strategies in place, plus the fact that the mobile carriers themselves (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and others) have already tested mobile ads.

With so many powerful forces gathered at the fringes of this hitherto unspoiled ground, what’s holding the advertising juggernaut back? Well, you, me, and according to a recent study commissioned by Harris Interactive, four out of five cell phone users. Contrary to the wishes of the deep-pocketed information, advertising, and telecommunications industries, most people detest the idea that their cell phones will be polluted by advertising, even if it’s as relevant or non-obtrusive as text-based search advertising.

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By Mike Baker
Enpocket President and CEO

Smart phones are all the rage, and as the mobile Internet becomes easier to navigate, brands want to capitalize on the opportunity, and rightfully so. The mobile handset is a highly personal – and personalized device – that goes with a consumer almost everywhere, almost all the time, and as long as brands do it the right way, they can drive loyalty and education among consumers.

For mobile to break out and fulfill its potential, we need not only cool handsets, but also widespread broadband adoption, all-you-can-eat-data plans (flat pricing that doesn’t inhibit usage), and useful mobile Internet services. The last item is the least obvious: what’s required is a business model to fund innovation of thousands of services (like the Internet). This is what’s most missing in mobile today.

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By Cindy Krum
Senior SEO Analyst at Blue Moon Works

How will the evolution of mobile technology and acceptance of mobile communication impact the bottom line of your marketing program? The answer depends largely on your ability to effectively integrate mobile into the marketing mix by leveraging the correct mobile channel and offering a compelling mobile marketing message.

Begin by establishing whether or not mobile is appropriate for your marketing campaign. Mobile marketing is a great way to connect with your customers, and allow them to interact with your brand in a very personal way, but it is not right for all marketing campaigns. You should evaluate how your target market is using mobile technology and how mobile marketing will uniquely allow you to reach your marketing goals.

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