Ad Networks are not for the faint of heart

First, this disclaimer: Doug Wintz has worked closely with Burst’s adConductor business in the process of sourcing  and securing ad management solutions for his ad network customers. Doug is a customer and we think Doug is very smart for all the reasons that are on display in his iMedia piece today about starting your own ad network.  

This post is not about selling Doug more stuff, however. It is, actually, about the earlier post in this space about the hubris of the Internet, “Taking ourselves too seriously,” wherein the realities of the marketplace and the limits of technology to overcome them are discussed. Doug Wintz’s experience and his column today tell more of that story. So, you want to start your own ad network. Per Doug, what you need to know is that success is people-driven. It is about having the tools, but also the willingness to meet the needs of web publishers in your network. It is about customer service.

Customer service is the part that has foiled many online. It implies interaction, which implies middle-men, which some would rather have outlawed online in favor of strictly automated relationships. Have your computer call my computer. But that is not marketplace reality. In many respects – and perhaps ironically, but only because the industry has insisted on seeing it differently – the Internet is more people and relationship-driven than offline media, which is largely impersonal and impenetrable (have you written to an editor lately?). Web publishers are mostly people and not businesses, and their sense of self is correspondingly more acute. They want advocates and problem-solvers and response-givers. They want partners. For that reason entering the ad network business is not for the faint of heart, as Doug Wintz says.

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