Advertising is a vital part of the Internet ecosystem. Ever since the first websites went live with the creation of the World Wide Web in the mid-1990s, ads have funded many of the essential services we take for granted today. Global technology giants such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter have built their entire business model on advertising revenue streams. Even traditional media conglomerates have embraced online marketing migrating their content to various digital platforms. With so many vital services relying on advertising, content providers need to ensure their online marketing infrastructure delivers their message without impacting the end-user experience.
The Evolution of Online Advertising
With advertising playing such a crucial part of many online revenue streams, serving engaging ads is vital to the survival of many digital sites and services. As the computing power embedded in personal devices continues to grow exponentially, this new paradigm allows advertisers to create rich, immersive content for their target audience. Static display ads with low image resolution have been replaced with multimedia capable content developed to grab the attention of website visitors. However, this new advertising standard does come with a few disadvantages.
Rich, Immersive, Multimedia Ads Require More Bandwidth
Advertising that leverages the latest multimedia innovations such as high-resolution imaging and video can have a detrimental impact on the performance of your website. In the past, where online ads typically utilized simple images, the data size of the ad file was limited to a few kilobytes. However, modern, eye-catching advertising leverages data types that result in much larger content files. This size factor can significantly increase page load times.
As a webpage typically consists of multiple individual files that a user’s browser needs to download, pages that contain large ad files will take longer to render. Extended load times can result in a degraded user experience. Since most users abandon sites that do not load in a few seconds, site operators that utilize rich, immersive, multimedia ads need to ensure their advertising solution does not impact their site visitor statistics.
Leveraging a CDN for Enhanced Online Advertising
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) improves the performance of websites and web applications by caching static content on servers located across the globe. When a user visits a particular website, his browser loads static content from the closest node improving page load times. Traditionally, website operators have cached static content such as images, text, stylesheets, and JavaScript files on a CDN service. However, as technology evolved and web applications increased in complexity and sophistication, CDNs have enhanced the variety of services they offer. These technology improvements provide several benefits to sites that host online ads as part of their revenue-generating model.
Increased Bandwidth Leads to Improved Page Load Times
As CDN service providers typically locate their globally distributed nodes on high-performance networks, they have the ability to offer superior bandwidth. Websites that leverage a CDN have access to this accelerated networking offering that allows ad content to load alongside web content without detrimentally affecting the page load time. Utilizing a CDN to host ads with other static content improves not only the performance of a website but also helps lower infrastructure costs. As the CDN manages the majority of the web traffic, a site operator can decrease the size of their web server and save on bandwidth charges.
Streaming Technologies for Multimedia Content
As advertisers compete with each other for the attention of their target market, innovative new online advertising techniques create richer experiences for site visitors. High-resolution images and video have become the norm as marketers continue looking for new ways to get their messages delivered. A CDN that offers streaming technologies can help provide the high definition video ads many advertisers need to meet their strategic objectives in today’s innovative online advertising market. By leveraging the latest streaming technologies and protocols, a CDN can deliver video ads to end-users without impacting the performance of your website.
Improved Analytics for Targeted Marketing
In addition to the technology platform a CDN offers its customers, advanced analytics help site operators and marketers gain valuable insights they can leverage to hone their marketing message. As online advertising comes at a cost, every business needs to maximize this return on investment. Tracking the success of targeted marketing not only allows you to focus your marketing message but also helps you analyze trends and habits. By examining statistics such as demographic information, location, shopping habits, and personal preferences, online advertisers can create an effective marketing strategy. Crafting high-resolution, eye-catching, targeted ads increases the effectiveness of an online advertising campaign and ultimately, the success of an organization’s marketing strategy.
Increased Reliability and Resiliency
As every business and consumer increasingly rely on digital services to find and purchase products and services, no business can afford to have a site or web application offline. Even a minimal amount of downtime can have a detrimental effect on a commercially driven organization. Not only does the business face the risk of lost revenue, but an unreliable or poor performing site can have a significant impact on your brand’s reputation. A CDN not only improves the performance of your website but also adds a layer of vital reliability and resiliency. By distributing a cached copy of the site’s static content, if your origin server suffers an incident, the CDN can continue servicing your site visitors.
Leverage a CDN to Improve your Advertising Reach
In today’s digitally driven world, web-based advertising plays a crucial role in the eCommerce ecosystem. As any commercial need typically starts with a web search, organizations competing in the online economy need to leverage this vital marketing tool. Utilizing a CDN can help your business extend and boost your advertising reach. By hosting your ads alongside your other static content, you can improve your page load times and deliver rich multimedia ads to your site visitors without impacting your website’s performance. A CDN can also provide the crucial analytics you need to hone your marketing message and can also help protect your online reputation by ensuring the reliability and resiliency of your web presence. By leveraging a CDN, you can ensure your advertising reaches your potential market delivering your messages in any format to your intended audience seamlessly and efficiently.