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Commission Junction
Third-party server quietly rises among top domains
By Marty Beard
Third-party ad-serving networks have a huge presence on the internet, but some of the biggest ones out there aren’t necessarily household names.
People, media people especially, know of Doubleclick, but far fewer have ever heard of Commission Junction.
Yet Commission Junction is the fifth-largest third-party ad server out there, with a base of top-shelf clients that are themselves very well known, such as The New York Times. So far this year, it has served more than 40 billion impressions.
According to Nielsen//NetRatings’ rankings of top ad domains, a Commission Junction site, qksz.net, was the No. 21 ad domain for the week ending Oct. 7. The network generated 11 million impressions and reached 1.39 percent of the internet audience in that span of time.
Qksz.net is a site within the Commission Junction network that serves and tracks ads.
Commission Junction's name is reminiscent of the lyrics of an old "Schoolhouse Rock" ditty, "Conjunction junction/What’s your function?"
So, Commission Junction, what’s your function?
"CJ is the only one among the top networks operating entirely on a pay-for-performance basis," says company spokeswoman Beth Mansfield. "We only do CPA advertising--paying for leads and sales--with no CPM advertising."
The company got its start as an affiliate network, and it was only this summer that it relaunched as a "pay-for-performance" ad network.
Company founder Lex Sisney created the company with a goal of aggregating the many steps involved in online advertising and internet affiliate programs.
As with other now-major companies such as Southwest Airlines, Commission Junction was conceived and sketched out on a cocktail napkin over a beer or two. The company, founded in 1998, is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., with offices in San Francisco, New York and London.
The site launched its "open marketplace" in July, giving client advertisers and publishers the ability to access payment and conversion data generated by the network’s advertisers and publishers.
Since switching to the open network model, the company claims that its earnings per 100 clicks increased 28 percent, its click-through rates by14 percent, and its average lead commission by 196 percent.
Among Commission Junction’s clients are some of the web’s biggest advertisers: eBay, Capital One, NextCard and Buy.com, in addition to The New York Times.
Commission Junction says it served almost 44 billion impressions between Jan. 2001 and Sept. 2001. Its average click-through rate was 1.9 percent, and its average conversion rate was 3.2 percent. There are 5,500 sites in its network.
So far this year, the company has generated more than two million total sales transactions, which amounted to $97 million.
Mansfield concedes that the jump in traffic may be tied to the events of the past month.
"We have quite a few blue-chip companies in our ad network that drive large amounts of traffic, including eBay, KMart's Bluelight.com, Capital One, and The New York Times," she says.
Of late, another ad network, Fastclick, known for serving pop-unders such as the X10, has been appearing regularly in the Nielsen rankings as well. For the week ending Oct. 7, it came in at No. 15, with 23 million impressions, reaching 4.93 percent of the internet audience.
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Top 25 Properties |
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| Property |
Unique Audience |
Reach % |
Time Spent |
| 1. AOL Time Warner |
39,453 |
52.1 |
0:15:56 |
| 2. Yahoo |
31,024 |
41.0 |
0:26:32 |
| 3. MSN |
29,434 |
38.9 |
0:22:17 |
| 4. Microsoft |
10,351 |
13.7 |
0:04:44 |
| 5. Lycos Network |
8,718 |
11.5 |
0:08:02 |
| 6. eBay |
7,445 |
9.8 |
0:35:47 |
| 7. Excite@Home |
7,123 |
9.4 |
0:13:37 |
| 8. Walt Disney Internet Group |
6,578 |
8.7 |
0:15:16 |
| 9. Google |
6,177 |
8.2 |
0:06:36 |
| 10. About-Primedia |
5,735 |
7.6 |
0:04:57 |
| 11. Amazon |
5,556 |
7.3 |
0:07:46 |
| 12. eUniverse Network |
5,532 |
7.3 |
0:09:36 |
| 13. CNET Networks |
4,038 |
5.3 |
0:06:07 |
| 14. InfoSpace |
4,008 |
5.3 |
0:04:56 |
| 15. American Greetings |
3,940 |
5.2 |
0:07:27 |
| 16. Ask Jeeves |
3,546 |
4.7 |
0:05:11 |
| 17. AT&T |
3,533 |
4.7 |
0:10:46 |
| 18. ClassMates Online |
3,522 |
4.7 |
0:04:14 |
| 19. EarthLink |
3,243 |
4.3 |
0:05:54 |
| 20. iWon |
2,774 |
3.7 |
0:28:27 |
| 21. Vivendi Universal |
2,727 |
3.6 |
0:09:40 |
| 22. Gator.com |
2,666 |
3.5 |
0:05:47 |
| 23. EA Online |
2,605 |
3.4 |
0:59:52 |
| 24. iVillage |
2,578 |
3.4 |
0:09:39 |
| 25. Homestead.com |
2,386 |
3.2 |
0:02:50 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top 10 Advertisers |
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| Advertiser | Impressions (000) |
Unique Audience (000) |
Active Reach (%) |
| 1. Microsoft |
555,806 |
22,706 |
30.01 |
| 2. Yahoo |
322,212 |
19,341 |
25.56 |
| 3. AOL Time Warner |
313,419 |
23,667 |
31.28 |
| 4. Providian Financial Corp. |
261,618 |
25,695 |
33.96 |
| 5. eBay |
205,488 |
14,747 |
19.49 |
| 6. Classmates Online |
126,465 |
14,593 |
19.29 |
| 7. Orbitz |
103,886 |
13,452 |
17.78 |
| 8. Zairmail |
86,669 |
1,463 |
1.93 |
| 9. Bank One Corp |
80,473 |
18,990 |
25.10 |
| 10. Nextcard Inc |
74,360 |
11,103 |
14.67 |
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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 |
29,413 |
38.9 |
0:26:53 |
| 2. aol.com |
28,009 |
37.0 |
0:13:17 |
| 3. msn.com |
26,199 |
34.6 |
0:19:45 |
| 4. passport.com |
13,612 |
18.0 |
0:02:52 |
| 5. microsoft.com |
9,846 |
13.0 |
0:04:44 |
| 6. ebay.com |
6,921 |
9.2 |
0:35:59 |
| 7. go.com |
6,360 |
8.4 |
0:15:29 |
| 8. geocities.com |
6,305 |
8.3 |
0:04:06 |
| 9. google.com |
6,172 |
8.2 |
0:06:36 |
| 10. netscape.com |
5,823 |
7.7 |
0:09:59 |
| 11. excite.com |
5,431 |
7.2 |
0:15:25 |
| 12. amazon.com |
5,210 |
6.9 |
0:07:26 |
| 13. cnn.com |
4,949 |
6.5 |
0:10:04 |
| 14. msnbc.com |
3,994 |
5.3 |
0:08:22 |
| 15. classmates.com |
3,522 |
4.7 |
0:04:14 |
| 16. lycos.com |
3,459 |
4.6 |
0:09:37 |
| 17. about.com |
3,099 |
4.1 |
0:03:54 |
| 18. compuserve.com |
2,844 |
3.8 |
0:17:15 |
| 19. earthlink.net |
2,824 |
3.7 |
0:06:20 |
| 20. iwon.com |
2,774 |
3.7 |
0:28:27 |
| 21. tripod.com |
2,738 |
3.6 |
0:04:05 |
| 22. gator.com |
2,658 |
3.5 |
0:05:44 |
| 23. att.net |
2,528 |
3.3 |
0:11:30 |
| 24. angelfire.com |
2,483 |
3.3 |
0:04:12 |
| 25. homestead.com |
2,386 |
3.2 |
0:02:50 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
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Top 25 Advertising Domains |
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| Domain |
Impressions (000) |
Active Reach (%) |
| 1. yahoo.com |
973,846 |
32.39 |
| 2. msn.com |
891,597 |
30.63 |
| 3. aol.com |
389,045 |
30.15 |
| 4. ebay.com |
170,414 |
5.91 |
| 5. netscape.com |
135,877 |
7.08 |
| 6. musiccity.com |
163,949 |
2.02 |
| 7. att.net |
47,776 |
2.6 |
| 8. go.com |
91,641 |
6.54 |
| 9. lycos.com |
90,237 |
3.49 |
| 10. pogo.com |
89,173 |
2.58 |
| 11. cnn.com |
44,333 |
4.78 |
| 12. monster.com |
57,716 |
1.96 |
| 13. compuserve.com |
28,680 |
2.64 |
| 14. msnbc.com |
32,124 |
5.28 |
| 15. fastclick.net |
23,104 |
4.93 |
| 16. netzero.net |
17,507 |
1.44 |
| 17. cnet.com |
14,887 |
1.9 |
| 18. nytimes.com |
15,081 |
1.17 |
| 19. mail.com |
11,511 |
0.22 |
| 20. mapquest.com |
21,351 |
2.44 |
| 21. qksz.net |
11,011 |
1.39 |
| 22. audiogalaxy.com |
26,843 |
1.14 |
| 23. akamai.net |
9,266 |
1.27 |
| 24. drudgereport.com |
10,625 |
0.74 |
| 25. looksmart.com |
18,749 |
1.96 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top Ten Banners |
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| Advertiser |
Impressions (000) |
Unique Audience |
Active Reach |
| 1. Classmates Online |
80,176 |
8,302 |
10.97 |
| 2. Providian Financial Corp. |
29,241 |
8,209 |
10.85 |
| 3. eDiets |
14,844 |
7,770 |
10.27 |
| 4. Debticated Consumer Counseling |
28,833 |
7,285 |
9.63 |
| 5. Bonzi.com |
48,855 |
6,965 |
9.21 |
| 6. Providian Financial Corp. |
27,511 |
6,704 |
8.86 |
| 7. Debticated Consumer Counseling |
24,580 |
6,517 |
8.61 |
| 8. Orbitz |
28,069 |
6,102 |
8.06 |
| 9. eBay |
22,814 |
5,874 |
7.76 |
| 10. Providian Financial Corp. |
14,773 |
5,822 |
7.69 |
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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 |
| Page Views per Week |
219 |
214 |
2.34 |
| Page Views per Surfing Session |
35 |
34 |
2.94 |
| Time Spent per Week |
3:18:23 |
3:17:00 |
0.71 |
| Time Spent During Surfing Session |
0:31:49 |
0:31:41 |
0.42 |
| Duration a Page Viewed |
0:00:55 |
0:00:56 |
-2.45 |
| Active Internet Universe |
75,663,613 |
75,100,137 |
0.75 |
| Current Internet Universe Estimate |
170,631,543 |
169,355,382 |
0.75 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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October 19, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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