Skyscraper Ads Increase in Popularity, High in Cost
By David Martin, Marc Ryan

Faster than a speeding bullet? Stronger than a locomotive? Maybe not, but the Internet's new "skyscraper" ads are capable of leaping tall web pages in a single bound. Frequenting the outer margins of many popular websites, these elongated descendants of the original banners are one of the newest crazes in online advertising, becoming more popular -and pricey- as the weeks go by.

Since the February 26 release of the Interactive Advertising Bureau's new size standards, the 120 by 600 pixel skyscraper banners have increased in number and impressions, gaining acceptance across a broad range of websites.

During the week beginning February 26th, AdRelevance tracked approximately 320 unique skyscrapers, spread out across only four percent of all websites. Those ads accounted for only 30 million impressions during that time. Today, the data suggests that skyscrapers will be the most successful of the new IAB size units, as about 21 percent of all sites offer the larger unit, and total skyscraper impressions -around 280 million- account for nearly 2 percent of all ad impressions online.

With the original IAB standards, most websites and advertisers latched on to one size, the full banner, as the favorite. Presently over 50 percent of all unique online ad creatives are 468 by 60 pixels. Full banners also account for more than 30 percent of served impressions, by far the most prolific size. Early in 2001, the deluge of full banners on the web led to a demand for more effective ads that stood out, and the IAB responded by standardizing a variety of new, larger formats. However, not all of the new size standards have caught on. The skyscraper is currently served on three times as many sites as the IAB's "square" java-enable ad, and has more than six times as many impressions than the "rectangle" standard unit. Combined, those units account for less than half a percent of all ad impressions.

Ever the 'Net stalwart, Yahoo! is the top property hosting the skyscraper standard, with 39 percent of all skyscraper impressions. About.com clocks in at second with 18 percent, and Switchboard registers a distant third with three percent. Switchboard, CBS Marketwatch, and The Motley Fool go as far as to feature a skyscraper unit on their home pages.

Top Sites Hosting Skyscrapers, May 2001
Rank	Site	Ads	Impressions	Share of Total
1	Yahoo!	120	236,513,000	39%
2	About.com	86	107,856,000	18%
3	Switchboard	6	18,061,000	3%
4	Gamesville	30	15,512,000	3%
5	CBS MarketWatch	84	14,621,000	2%
6	McAfee.com	29	12,854,000	2%
7	The Motley Fool	40	12,528,000	2%
8	metacrawler.com	5	11,629,000	2%
9	iWon	4	11,035,000	2%
10	Direct Hit	5	10,895,000	2%

Whether or not on the most visible pages, most sites placed the skyscraper unit in the margins, leaving room for content and allowing the ad to stand out from site architecture. In the world of the served ad, skyscrapers pick up were the ubiquitous full banner fails. Where scrolling down a page renders its horizontal cousin useless, the skyscraper keeps on revealing itself, often an advantage on news sites where visitors scroll down through an article.

The promise of high exposure is luring more advertisers each week in the early days of the skyscraper's existence. DietSmart, E*TRADE, Datek, Ebay, and The Sports Authority lead the way for advertisers using the new units.

Top Advertisers Using Skyscrapers, May 2001
Rank	Advertiser	Unique Ads	Impressions
1	DietSmart	15	43,115,000
2	E*TRADE	1	33,721,000
3	Datek	4	33,632,000
4	Ebay	3	32,896,000
5	The Sports Authority	12	22,215,000
6	NextCard	6	21,953,000
7	K-Mart	6	19,242,000
8	Uproar	6	18,425,000
9	Providian Financial	5	15,568,000
10	The Washington Post	8	15,337,000

These advertisers could be paying the price for their drive to be different. Like any real estate, the bigger ad units come at a premium. AdRelevance surveyed a number of sites offering the skyscraper unit to determine the published rate card CPM for the new ad format. On average, a full banner CPM runs just under $30, but the skyscraper units run at over $50 per thousand ads. The data is early, however, and with a wide distribution of rates, half of all sites polled charged less than $27 for one thousand skyscraper impressions.

Whether or not the skyscraper becomes the next full banner will be determined by advertisers' perceived return on investment. The larger size of the skyscraper allows for more creative flexibility, but unlike the smaller ad types, the skyscraper can really only fit on the margins of a web page, making it easy to overlook. While only continued innovation will assure online advertising effectiveness, the skyscraper appears to be a step in the right direction.

Standard Unit Rate Card Update
Full non-negotiated rate card prices dropped during the year 2000 for the well-entrenched original IAB standards, and the full banner has held steady at an average of just below $30 in the early part of 2001. While most ad salespeople will tell you that few advertisers pay published CPM rates, they act as a starting point for negotiation. Measuring published rate card prices is an excellent way of determining trends in site pricing strategy.

Average full banner CPM hit a low in the fourth quarter of 2000 at just over $28, but in the first and second quarters of 2001 ticked slightly upwards to $29.37. The median price held steady at $25, meaning that at least half of all sites offer a full banner rate less than that.

Out of 26 AdRelevance site genres, 16 saw a decline in full banner CPM, while 10 increased their prices as a whole. Portals and search engine sites, which traditionally hosted the majority of online ad impressions, saw a drop. In a trend that may indicate higher demand for niche targeting, health and fitness, movies and television, and business-to-business sites increased their rates substantially.

The vertical banner remained the most expensive of the original IAB units, at just over $35 per thousand impressions. The least expensive banner was the micro button, at $11.85 per thousand. Micro buttons have become a very popular format for branding purposes. Recently, many advertisers have leveraged the small size and low price of the micro button to saturate the web with a tiny brand awareness message, ingraining their logos into the consumer subconscious.

AdRelevance classifies ads into IAB size standards using a range of allowable widths and heights. For reference, please see the guide below:

AdRelevance Banner Size Classification
Ad Dimension Type	IAB/CASSIE Size	Minimum Allowable Height	Maximum Allowable Height	Minimum Allowable Width	Maximum Allowable Width
Full banner	468 x 60	0	90	431	-
Short banner	392 x 72	0	90	314	430
Half banner	234 x 60	0	90	178	313
Vertical banner	120 x 240	183	-	0	177
Tall button	125 x 125	108	182	0	177
Medium button	120 x 90	76	107	0	177
Short button	120 x 60	46	75	0	177
Micro button	88 x 31	0	45	0	177