Less Ads, but High Impact/Prominent Placement Means More Revenue

This article in @Digiday: http://digiday.com/publishers/publishers-foregoing-online-ads/ details how many prominent publishers are doing what makes sense for themselves, their advertisers and their audience. They are eliminating non effective display placements in favor of fewer higher impact, prominent placements. The end result is:

• Increased advertising revenues
• Better advertiser results
• Audience sees less ads

It all makes sense since ad blindness (the user being conditioned to ignore the standard banners they see on every site) has killed the effectiveness of standard ads with response rates of .01%. 

We at CheckM8 have found that creating custom ad units designed for a publisher's site has increased click through and interaction rates by 10x. This is due to the unique presentation of the ad and the better canvas for the digital messaging, storytelling and assets that most effectively lead to achieving campaign goals.