Nielsen: Media Sellers Are Not Created Equal

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When a CPG company ran an online campaign across three ad networks and one women's interest site, Nielsen research found the ads successfully reached their intended audience only 27 percent of the time.

The campaign for a household product was aimed at women ages 25 to 54. However, Nielsen reported that the campaign was more often viewed by older women.

Also, the analysis found that the campaign reached between 22 and 27 percent on the ad networks and 44 percent on the women's interest site. Nielsen did not disclose the name of the advertiser, the ad networks, or women's site.

"There is an industry assumption that ad networks are positioned to serve the most addressable advertising to specific audiences. However, in this campaign, that may not be true," the Nielsen analysis found. Even though ad networks typically are less expensive than special interest sites, in this case, it may be more cost effective to run the ad campaign on the women's interest site because it offered better targeting.