CPA TV Ads are Here

[Linda Buquet]

Well that's a new one on me... didn't know anyone did TV commercials on a CPA basis, but it appears a company called REVShare does. A Press Release just came across my reader, via TechCrunch so I thought some of the big advertisers that read the 5 Star blog may be interested in learning more.

"REVShare CPA advertising bears a great deal of similarity to Google’s AdWords model. We’ve essentially done for television what Google has done on the Internet by removing the barriers for entry, and making a vast amount of media not only easier to acquire but also easier to manage,” said Joseph Gray, CEO and founder."

Press Release: Carlyle Group & H.I.G. Ventures Make $20 Million Investment in REVShare - "Founded in 1989, REVShare utilizes a proprietary bidding system whereby advertisers specify a price they are willing to pay per response (i.e. when someone is prompted to call a toll-free number or visit a website) and the air time is allocated according to media return on investment (ROI). Under this system, stations are able to sell their inventory without revealing the effective rate of their ads, and advertisers are able to pay rates that are determined by a combination of market forces and response to their ads."

[Larwee]

This is nothing new at all like they are making it sound. They are just doing something slightly differently and giving it a new name.

This is something that started in radio DECADES ago. It could have been 50 years ago or possibly even longer than that. It went under the name of per inquiry advertising or PI Advertising. It has also been used in television for many decades.

The stations would allow advertisers to advertise something without charging them anything to advertise. This usually was done with unsold advertising time but not always. A few years ago there were some small radio stations that only had the PI Advertising.

It worked in various ways, but generally if something was sold the radio or television station would get a certain percentage or certain amount for each item sold. This started out at first being done with mail orders. Later it was done with phone orders.

This isn't as common as it once was with more of the paid so-called information commercials and more actual paid advertising but it is still being done at some radio and televison stations.

What they have done is taken the very long established per inquiry advertising added a bidding system and started calling it CPA TV advertising.

[jazzguy]

Wow Larwee...that was an excellent and informative read. Thanks for that.

Jazzguy (Lyle)