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swamping the web
Nearly doubling this year, as ad prices tumble
By Marty Beard
NextCard, Providian Financial, and now First Premier Bank of South Dakota. If you think that you’re seeing more credit card ads online these days, it’s not your imagination.
There actually are more credit card ads online.
Institutions offering consumer credit services are being lured online by cheap ad inventory and the ability to sign up consumers instantaneously, according to a report by Jupiter Media Metrix’s AdRelevance division.
"The fact of the matter is that you can buy a lot more advertising online at a much cheaper price these days than you could a year ago," says AdRelevance analyst Marc Ryan.
"It makes sense for credit companies to be spending more online. A lot of the sub-prime credit card companies have always been among the big advertisers online, and what we’re seeing now is that with cheaper rates it’s easier for them to get more."
The volume of such ads has been increasing all year and appears to be mounting even more as the holiday shopping season approaches.
Online advertising for credit cards appears to be especially effective in attracting recently wired consumers, according to the report, as opposed to more experienced internet users of the sort who bank and trade stocks online, presumably because they already have established credit relationships.
The number of online ads for consumer credit services has increased 93 percent this year, the report says, to 15.4 billion ad impressions in the fourth quarter from eight billion in the first quarter.
Yahoo was the top online host of credit card ads, with 5.7 billion impressions served, followed by iWon with 1.2 billion impressions and Netscape with 532 million.
Jupiter Media Metrix’s findings are consistent with Nielsen//NetRatings’ data on online advertising.
NetRatings consistently ranks credit cards and banks among the internet’s most pervasive advertisers.
The week ending Oct. 28 was no exception.
Providian Financial Corp., the nation’s No. 5 credit card company, had half of the top-10 banners and was the No. 3 overall online advertiser, with its banners and buttons garnering 441 million impressions that week, reaching a unique audience of 29 million, or about 38 percent of the online audience.
According to Jupiter, Providian Financial’s Getsmart.com is the top consumer-credit and financial-services advertiser, with 5.6 billion impressions in the third quarter. About 2.2 billion of those impressions were delivered on Yahoo, 512 million on iWon.com, and 272.8 million on MSN.
Providian persists in its online ad push, despite a rough year in which its stock plunged 92 percent. Its chairman recently resigned in response to the company's troubles, which have been tied in part to its easy-credit policies.
Traffic to Providian’s Getsmart.com increased 386 percent between January and September of this year, from 1.1 million unique visitors to 5.2 million. Citigroup had two billion impressions, and Datek had 1.9 billion.
First Premier Bank of South Dakota was the No. 8 advertiser online for the week, with 154 million banner and button impressions, reaching a unique audience of 4.7 million.
All these eyeballs have made consumer credit services the No. 1 segment within the financial services industry, itself one of the top-three sectors advertising on the internet.
According to the Jupiter Media Metrix report, credit card companies comprised 79 percent of online ads within the consumer-credit segment. Of that segment, Visa ads make up 59 percent; MasterCard ads make up 15 percent; Discover/Novus, 3 percent, and American Express, 2 percent.
The remainder of financial-sector ads came for the most part from consumer counseling and reporting companies. Neway had 8 percent of the ads, ConsumerInfo had 6 percent, and PrivacyGuard had 2 percent.
"It’s the other side of a falling economy," AdRelevance’s Ryan says. "On the one hand, people are trying to encourage spending, and on the other side is the message of ‘how to work yourself out of debt.’ It’s like the polar opposites of the credit category."
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Top 25 Properties |
|||
| Property |
Unique |
Reach % |
Time Spent |
| 1. AOL Time Warner |
39,879 |
51.7 |
0:16:03 |
| 2. Yahoo |
32,242 |
41.8 |
0:27:40 |
| 3. MSN |
30,141 |
39.0 |
0:24:05 |
| 4. Microsoft |
11,433 |
14.8 |
0:05:06 |
| 5. Lycos Network |
9,252 |
12.0 |
0:07:35 |
| 6. eUniverse Network |
8,261 |
10.7 |
0:08:05 |
| 7. eBay |
7,615 |
9.9 |
0:39:58 |
| 8. Excite@Home |
7,077 |
9.2 |
0:13:41 |
| 9. Google |
6,909 |
9.0 |
0:09:19 |
| 10. Walt Disney Internet Group |
6,702 |
8.7 |
0:14:56 |
| 11. Amazon |
6,276 |
8.1 |
0:07:22 |
| 12. About-Primedia |
6,093 |
7.9 |
0:05:07 |
| 13. American Greetings |
4,728 |
6.1 |
0:08:15 |
| 14. CNET Networks |
4,724 |
6.1 |
0:06:22 |
| 15. InfoSpace |
4,187 |
5.4 |
0:05:35 |
| 16. Ask Jeeves |
3,948 |
5.1 |
0:05:20 |
| 17. AT&T |
3,547 |
4.6 |
0:10:43 |
| 18. EarthLink |
3,264 |
4.2 |
0:06:49 |
| 19. Vivendi Universal |
3,060 |
4.0 |
0:10:49 |
| 20. iWon |
2,963 |
3.8 |
0:26:07 |
| 21. ClassMates Online |
2,936 |
3.8 |
0:04:23 |
| 22. EA Online |
2,872 |
3.7 |
0:54:51 |
| 23. Gator.com |
2,562 |
3.3 |
0:05:26 |
| 24. Viacom International |
2,456 |
3.2 |
0:17:28 |
| 25. Sportsline.com |
2,289 |
3.0 |
0:33:03 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top 10 Advertisers |
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| Advertiser |
Banner & Button |
Unique |
Active |
| 1. AOL Time Warner |
804,268 |
31,989 |
41.44 |
| 2. Microsoft |
738,086 |
25,421 |
32.93 |
| 3. Providian Financial Corp. |
440,558 |
29,021 |
37.59 |
| 4. Yahoo |
281,290 |
19,059 |
24.69 |
| 5. eBay |
280,790 |
18,985 |
24.59 |
| 6. Orbitz |
185,021 |
17,661 |
22.88 |
| 7. Classmates Online Inc |
176,509 |
18,206 |
23.58 |
| 8. First Premier Bank of South Dakota |
153,875 |
4,694 |
6.08 |
| 9. Zairmail Inc |
125,499 |
2,309 |
2.99 |
| 10. eDiets.Com Inc |
121,463 |
20,322 |
26.32 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top 25 Domains |
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| Domain |
Unique |
Reach % |
Time Spent |
| 1. yahoo.com |
30,535 |
39.6 |
0:27:50 |
| 2. aol.com |
28,914 |
37.5 |
0:13:12 |
| 3. msn.com |
26,954 |
34.9 |
0:20:42 |
| 4. passport.com |
14,196 |
18.4 |
0:02:50 |
| 5. microsoft.com |
10,617 |
13.8 |
0:04:47 |
| 6. ebay.com |
7,243 |
9.4 |
0:39:38 |
| 7. google.com |
6,902 |
8.9 |
0:09:19 |
| 8. geocities.com |
6,897 |
8.9 |
0:04:54 |
| 9. netscape.com |
6,556 |
8.5 |
0:09:33 |
| 10. go.com |
6,487 |
8.4 |
0:15:11 |
| 11. amazon.com |
5,917 |
7.7 |
0:06:49 |
| 12. excite.com |
5,391 |
7.0 |
0:15:12 |
| 13. cnn.com |
3,877 |
5.0 |
0:10:25 |
| 14. about.com |
3,346 |
4.3 |
0:04:08 |
| 15. lycos.com |
3,269 |
4.2 |
0:10:39 |
| 16. msnbc.com |
3,174 |
4.1 |
0:07:01 |
| 17. tripod.com |
3,123 |
4.1 |
0:03:59 |
| 18. iwon.com |
2,963 |
3.8 |
0:26:07 |
| 19. classmates.com |
2,936 |
3.8 |
0:04:23 |
| 20. earthlink.net |
2,926 |
3.8 |
0:07:02 |
| 21. compuserve.com |
2,904 |
3.8 |
0:16:51 |
| 22. angelfire.com |
2,649 |
3.4 |
0:03:33 |
| 23. att.net |
2,564 |
3.3 |
0:11:17 |
| 24. bluemountain.com |
2,545 |
3.3 |
0:07:08 |
| 25. gator.com |
2,527 |
3.3 |
0:05:23 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top 25 Advertising Domains |
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| Domain |
Banner |
Active |
| 1. msn.com |
1,170,112 |
30.72 |
| 2. yahoo.com |
1,050,626 |
32.33 |
| 3. aol.com |
381,019 |
29.87 |
| 4. musiccity.com |
264,218 |
2.61 |
| 5. ebay.com |
189,765 |
6.15 |
| 6. netscape.com |
128,821 |
6.63 |
| 7. lycos.com |
97,899 |
3.48 |
| 8. pogo.com |
97,724 |
2.8 |
| 9. go.com |
94,971 |
6.59 |
| 10. monster.com |
89,052 |
1.93 |
| 11. excite.com |
72,568 |
2.85 |
| 12. cnn.com |
45,818 |
4.26 |
| 13. att.net |
45,386 |
2.62 |
| 14. compuserve.com |
31,111 |
2.7 |
| 15. audiogalaxy.com |
30,209 |
1.06 |
| 16. blackplanet.com |
28,003 |
0.62 |
| 17. mapquest.com |
27,103 |
2.86 |
| 18. cnet.com |
24,209 |
2.39 |
| 19. msnbc.com |
23,968 |
4.14 |
| 20. netzero.net |
23,322 |
1.33 |
| 21. looksmart.com |
23,248 |
1.84 |
| 22. fastclick.net |
22,960 |
5.46 |
| 23. about.com |
21,794 |
2.73 |
| 24. cartoonnetwork.com |
20,980 |
1.11 |
| 25. realtor.com |
19,074 |
0.85 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top Ten Banners |
|||
| Advertiser |
Unique |
Active |
Banner |
| 1. Providian Financial Corp. |
14,780 |
19.14 |
121,261 |
| 2. Classmates Online Inc |
9,780 |
12.67 |
87,912 |
| 3. Providian Financial Corp. |
9,447 |
12.24 |
48,052 |
| 4. eDiets.Com Inc |
8,921 |
11.56 |
18,828 |
| 5. Providian Financial Corp. |
8,663 |
11.22 |
25,505 |
| 6. Providian Financial Corp. |
7,604 |
9.85 |
23,534 |
| 7. Orbitz |
7,082 |
9.17 |
33,053 |
| 8. eDiets.Com |
6,745 |
8.74 |
25,293 |
| 9. Bonzi.com Software |
6,628 |
8.59 |
49,232 |
| 10. Providian Financial Corp. |
6,434 |
8.33 |
19,074 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Average Usage |
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|
Current Week |
Last Week |
% Chg |
|
| Number of Sessions per Week |
6 |
6 |
0.00 |
| Page Views per Week |
229 |
220 |
4.09 |
| Page Views per Surfing Session |
37 |
35 |
5.71 |
| Time Spent per Week |
3:26:27 |
3:21:00 |
2.71 |
| Time Spent During Surfing Session |
0:32:59 |
0:32:21 |
1.96 |
| Duration a Page Viewed |
0:00:53 |
0:00:55 |
-3.55 |
| Active Internet Universe |
77,198,458 |
76,557,776 |
0.84 |
| Current Internet Universe Estimate |
171,815,501 |
171,198,578 |
0.36 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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November 7, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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