Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is an advertising sales management services firm?
Intermarkets, Inc. is a unique service provider for publishers. We manage all aspects of publishers' advertising sales activities, including:
- Selling advertising inventory
- Trafficking advertising
- Maximizing results for publishers and advertisers
- Reporting to publishers and advertisers.
How does Intermarkets differ from "rep" firms?
Intermarkets acts as the manager of the advertising sales activities for publishers, as opposed to being a media buyer for advertisers or advertising agencies. The differences may seem minor, but for publishers, the differences are substantial.
What are the differences?
First, Intermarkets is focused on maximizing results for the publishers with whom we work. This means that our primary focus is on filling all the available advertising space for a publisher. It also means that we take care of doing all the "leg work" and administrative tasks that are required to maximize results for publishers.
In contrast, many "rep" firms act as media buyers; their focus is on working with specific advertisers and managing their advertisers' budgets to maximize results for the advertisers. This focus on the advertisers' needs means that often, the most effective placements for the media buys are not on those sites which are represented by the "rep" firms.
We believe that it is not possible to focus on both maximizing results for advertisers and for publishers at the same time by a single entity. They are two different, but not necessarily conflicting, objectives, best negotiated by two different parties. There are many fine "rep" firms in the marketplace, however, we believe that the interests of publishers are best served by an advertising sales management services firm whose primary responsibility is for maximizing results for publishers.
What are the minimum requirements to becoming a publisher with Intermarkets?
Our minimum requirements for considering new publishers is that your website needs to have at least 80% U.S. traffic and two million monthly pageviews available for advertising placements.
What does a publisher need to do to join the Intermarkets portfolio?
After reviewing our site and if your website meets our minimum requirements listed above, please contact us. Please include your publisher website, monthly pageviews, any other traffic information and how you can be contacted. We'll review your information and get back to you. If you become a publisher, after reviewing and agreeing to our Standard Agreement, we'll send you some short code to put on your Web pages. Then, we'll send you a check every month for the ad sales we've made for your site. Unless there are unusual circumstances, the ad codes never change. And, the ad inventory is always filled with paying ads. Literally, that's all there is to it. You don't have to get bogged down dealing with setting up campaigns, collecting payments, reviewing links or providing reports. We do it all. And we pay you for it!
Speaking of pay, how much do you retain?
The range for advertising sales reps is between 35% and 65%. Often, rep firms may retain additional portions of revenues in ways that are a bit surprising. For example, the reps may retain an additional percentage to cover bad debts or your net revenue may be reduced by ad serving fees for inventory that the reps couldn't sell.
Intermarkets retains 50% of the revenues, which is right in the middle of the range, AND...we do NOT charge publishers for serving any unsold inventory or for covering bad debts. With the fact that we're maximizing revenues for publishers, we believe 50% is very competitive for the level of service we provide.
50%! Yikes! What happened to the standard 15% or so for agencies?
The 15% for agencies is standard for media buyers and applies as a discount to sales when the media buyer is simply making the buy on behalf of a client or an advertising agency. We're not media buyers. When you're working with a media buyer, it is your responsibility and cost to do all of the ad serving, trafficking and reporting (in addition to soliciting the media buyers to make the sale) as well as provide ongoing relationship management. Media buyers work for the advertiser; they are a client for the publisher. We do not pursue media buying activities.
What types of ad placements can Intermarkets run for me?
We can run the standard 468x60, 728x90, 300x250 and 180x150 banners, 120x600 skyscrapers and 720x300 popunders. We also have a limited supply of text links.
What kinds of creatives can Intermarkets run for me?
We can run animated .gif, .jpeg and .swf artwork. We can also redirect to third-party Java scripts. Artwork must be hosted on our servers. For highly targeted campaigns, such as day-part targeting, geo-targeting, day-or-the-week targeting, etc., please contact us and we will help find a solution for you. Targeting options on popunders are fairly limited; targeting for banners is more robust and is available for added fees for the advertiser.
Where is Intermarkets located?
Our headquarters is located in beautiful Vienna, Virginia, about 13 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., convenient to both Ronald Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport, and about 5 miles from the Vienna/Fairfax Metro station. Vienna is in the north central region of Fairfax County, Virginia, home to Vance International, Inc., ITM Group, Future Net, Inc., CTG Inc. and a variety of other businesses. We are also adjacent to the Dulles Technology Corridor as well as Tysons Corner, both of which are major commercial and technology centers, with headquarters for many firms such as AOL Time Warner, Accenture and Mars Incorporated.
