FAQ
Prospective and New Publishers
- How do I join the Burst Network?
- How does Burst sell advertising for its web site publishers?
- What are the Eligibility Requirements to become a Burst Network Publisher?
- In addition to the Eligibility Requirements, what are the Rules of Membership?
- How long will it take before advertising appears on my site?
Targeted Campaigns
Revenue & Terms
- How much will I make?
- How much of my inventory will you fill?
- How does Burst set prices?
- How much does Burst charge its Publishers?
- What are the Contract Rates?
- What do you mean by Exclusive and Non-exclusive?
- When and how will I be paid?
Tracking & Statistics
- What will my stats tell me about my site's advertising?
- When are my ad stats available?
- How does Burst count visitor traffic?
- What type of statistics do I receive about my site visitors?
Coding and Creative Ad Units
- What creative units does Burst offer publishers?
- What is source code?
- Where will the ad units appear on my page?
- Should I use the same adcode for all of my pages?
Sponsorship Ad Formats
Burst Extras
Prospective and New Publishers
How do I join the Burst Network?
The first step in becoming a Burst web publisher is to submit the completed online application. After submitting this form, you will receive a confirmation email that your application has been received. Our Publisher Services team will review your application and reply with an email acceptance or rejection. If you are accepted into the Burst Network, you will receive an account activation email containing a unique URL to your Burst Publisher Agreement. Once completed, an account will be automatically created and login details emailed so that you may access to your account center, select campaigns, get source code, and view campaign info, stats and reports.
How does Burst sell advertising for its web site publishers?
Burst represents its publishers to national advertisers of consumer products. Our sales force is located in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, London, New York, and San Francisco -- home to the top billing advertising agencies in the US and Europe -- where in-person sales calls represent the members of our ad networks to get a share of the growing online budgets. Burst Network includes your site in pitches to hundreds of advertisers per month and generates between 40-50 proposals each week.
Our primary focus is Targeted Advertising, sold on a cost-per-thousand impression (CPM) basis. Every targeted proposal submitted to a prospective advertiser contains a customized site list that reflects each advertiser's audience and content criteria. The advertiser is presented with a subset of publisher sites, tailored to meet the advertiser's goals and objectives. We offer advertisers many ways to find the most responsive audience for their product. Your attention to quality and interest-based content helps us generate business for you.
What are the Eligibility Requirements to become a Burst Network Member?
We provide a complete listing of our minimum eligibility requirements for potential publishers to review before submitting an application. Simply meeting the minimum eligibility requirements does not guarantee acceptance into Burst Network.
In addition to the Eligibility Requirements, what are the Rules of Membership?
Please review our Publisher Agreement and Advertising Conditions for the complete requirements of membership in the Burst Network.
How long will it take before advertising appears on my site?
It may take up to 24 hours after your account has been created for advertising to appear on your site. For this reason, we recommend setting up a test page not connected with the live sections of your site to ensure that your Burst source code is fully functional before placing the code on your live site.
Targeted Campaigns
Explain in more detail what you mean by Targeted advertising.
Perhaps this is best explained with an example: Say a sporting goods advertiser wants to target their advertising mnessage specifically to a young women interested in sports. We call this approach content or audience targeting. We fulfill these goals by searching our publishers for appropriate web sites, and then propose that list to advertisers. Depending on the advertiser's specific goals this might be a very focused list of web sites that reach young women interested in sports, or it might be a combination of general web sites with content focused on the two broader categories of "Sports" and "Women."
Advertisers often wish to buy targeted campaigns based on demographics. In order to find the sites that best meet the advertiser's target demographic, we rely on the data collected by our demographic survey. Because of the importance of this data, we require that all publishers run the demographic survey either linked from their site or as a part of their default rotation. Targeted advertising carries a higher value and therefore results in higher CPMs to the publisher. Non-targeted advertising campaigns are priced at a lower CPM, or on a performance metric like cost per click (CPC) or cost per action (CPA). In this case, the same advertiser may want an ad campaign to reach a broad range of audiences. We call this Network Level Targeting and we meet it by making the ad campaign available to a wider set of publishers. Burst Publishers are able to decide whether or not to accept all campaigns, regardless of whether they are targeted or non-targeted.
Revenue & Terms
How much will I make?
Earnings vary greatly between publishers and are affected by a number of factors. Your earnings are based on the pricing for each ad campaign and the number of campaigns you select to fill your inventory. Other factors, such as the geographic location of your visitors, the demographics of your visitors, the number of unique views versus total page views, and your overall traffic levels can also play a part in determining your overall revenue potential. Market conditions for pricing are constantly changing. Please contact us for more information about current prices and conditions.
How much of my inventory will you fill?
This depends on a number of factors as well, especially the number of campaigns you choose to participate in, the creative types you choose to run, the geographic location of your visitors, your unique views versus total page views, etc. Our suggestion is that you join to get the best sense of how well we can fill your inventory, since it is difficult to predict. Please also keep in mind that we offer a number of options for customizing your defaults to maximize the use of your advertising space.
How does Burst set prices?
Burst negotiates pricing with advertisers based, in part, on the level of targeting requested - how broad or narrow is the desired viewing audience. The competitive marketplace also impacts price. Burst tries to be competitive with other online buys to extract maximum value for our publishers' audiences. For Burst Network, our sales team will negotiate either a cost-per-thousand impression (CPM) or cost-per-click (CPC) purchase with an advertiser. Burst publishers can decline any advertising for any reason, including price or pricing model. You can track your ad revenue and each campaign's payment status via an online Campaign Report in your personal, password-protected Burst Publishers Account Center.
How much does Burst charge its Publishers?
Nothing! There are no fees to join the Burst Network. Revenue is split between the Publisher and Burst based on the publisher's contract rate.
What are the Contract Rates?
We have different levels of agreements with our publishers. The standard offer is month-to-month non-exclusive, in which case our contract rate is 50%. Publishers earn 50%, and Burst's revenue is 50%.
If you allow us to be the exclusive ad network for your inventory for one year, our contract rate is 55%. Publishers earn 55%, and Burst's revenue is 45%. After three years of exclusivity, our contract rate is 60%. Publishers earn 60%, and Burst's revenue is 40%.
What do you mean by Exclusive and Non-exclusive?
Exclusivity simply means that you, your staff, and Burst will be the only sales agents for your site, and that you agree not to work with any other advertising networks. Regardless of exclusivity, you are always free to sell ad space directly for your site. New publishers can start off on a non-exclusive contract that is automatically renewed monthly unless your account is closed or you request an exclusive contract. A non-exclusive contract gives you the option to offer your impressions for sale through as many third-party sales organizations as you desire. Although you are casting a wider net, marketplace dynamics result in advertisers seeking to purchase your impressions from the lowest-cost provider. By giving us exclusivity, we are able to get you higher CPMs.
When and how will I be paid?
We pay our publishers on the 15th of each month for campaigns with end dates 45+ days prior. Our minimum payment size is $50.00 (unless you have chosen to set a higher minimum for your account). If your balance is less than $50.00, it will carry over until the time that you have a balance greater than $50.00.
This means that the campaigns that completed in July will be paid 45 days after that campaign completion period, meaning September 15 (45 days after July 31), provided the minimum payment amount has been met.
Payment is made by EFT (available for US/UK/Canada), PayPal, or check. If you choose to receive a check there will be a $5 processing fee.
Tracking and Statistics
What will my stats tell me about my site's advertising?
We offer a robust suite of Reporting Tools listed in the Reports Section of your Account.
Report Builder offers customized reporting and the ability to save reports.
Yesterday's Campaigns highlights the campaigns served on your site yesterday.
Past Year's Summary Report will show you all data for each year you've been a member. Reports will appear in your account after 12 months with Burst.
Campaign Reports gives you a more detailed view of campaigns that you are currently running, have completed running and campaigns by check.
When are my ad stats available?
Reports are built based on information imported from our ad-hosting server to our database. This is done on an hourly basis, and reported in Eastern Standard Time.
How does Burst count visitor traffic?
Burst's tracking methods count how many times an advertiser's banner is viewed. We base our statistics on the number of times an ad is downloaded from our server on to your page(s). This “impression” number will typically be higher than the number of page views if you place more than one ad on each page.
What type of statistics do I receive about my site visitors?
Burst supplies you with two types of statistics on your site visitors: Site Demographics and Geographic Statistics.
Site DemographicsEvery publisher is required to run the Burst Media Site Demographic Survey. The data from completed surveys are voluntary and shared with you in your Burst Publisher Account Center under the link"Demographic Survey". The results of the demographic survey are updated within the first five working days of each month with the data collected during the previous month.You may also add questions of your own to better understand your audience.
Geographic StatisticsGeo-targeting works on the simple principle that every web user and the network they use to access the Internet has an address - Internet Protocol (or IP address) that can be mapped to their geographic network point of origin. Burst provides this site traffic geographic information to its publishers in their password protected pages as GeoStats. The results shown are twenty-eight day averages captured through the previous day.
Coding and Creative Ad Units
What Creative Units does Burst offer publishers?
Burst offers the following Rich Media creative units; all of which conform to IAB standards:
- 468 x 60 Above-the-Scroll Banner
- 728 x 90 Above-the-Scroll Leaderboard
- Flexible Above-the-Scroll Size – Displays both 728 x 90 and 468 x 60
- 120 x 600 Skyscraper
- 160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper
- Flexible Skyscraper Size – Displays both 120 x 600 and 160 x 600
- Pop-Ups, Pop-Unders, and Layer Ads
- 468 x 60 Below-the-Scroll Banner
- 125 x 125 Cube
- 300 x 250 Box
What is source code?
When you join Burst we ask you to add various unique source code (depending on the creative units you post) into the HTML of the page(s) of your choice or your ad delivery software. This adcode is our lifeline to you and it serves two important functions:
- Once in place it triggers a statistics program at our server. You must keep your source code posted if you want to be eligible for campaigns. Your site will not be included in proposals without the statistical information that the source code generates on Burst’s server or if your stats drop below the minimum 5,000-page view-per-month requirement.
- Your adcode tells the Burst server exactly which ad to send to your page(s) based on the targeted and non-targeted advertising campaigns you have approved and their relative earning power on this adcode.
Where will the ad units appear on my page?
468x60 Above-the-Scroll | 728x90 Leaderboard
- The Burst Above-the-Scroll banner must appear without the need to scroll in any direction.
- The Burst Above-the-Scroll banner must appear first and above any other Above-the-Scroll advertising on the same page. By joining Burst you agree to give our advertising priority position.
- There can only be one insertion of the Burst Above-the-Scroll code per page, either the 468x60 Above-the-Scroll or the 728x90 Leaderboard, but not both.
- The 468 Above-the-Scroll|728x90 Leaderboard Combo Flexible code" is recommended to maximize your revenue potential. This option will run both the leaderboard and Above-the-Scroll banner in the same ad space.
- To allow intrusive advertising (Pops and Layer Campaigns) select the "Allow Intrusives?" checkbox. That if you select the "Allow Intrusives?" checkbox, you still control which intrusive campaigns run on your site in the Review Campaigns section of your account.
468x60 Below-the-Scroll
- All Burst Below-the-Scroll banners must appear adjacent to web page content and cannot be stacked with banners from any other advertiser regardless of the source.
- Burst Below-the-Scroll banners must appear first and above any other advertising on the same page. By joining Burst you agree to give our advertising priority position.
- There can only be one insertion of the Burst Below-the-Scroll code per page.
120x600 Skyscraper | 160x600 Wide Skyscraper
- The Burst 120x600 Skyscraper or 160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper banner must appear within the first 400 pixels of the web page or begin within the first scroll of the screen as viewed at 800 x 600 resolution without scrolling.
- The Burst Skyscraper must appear first, and above any other skyscraper advertising on the same page. By joining Burst you agree to give our advertising priority position.
- There can only be one insertion of Burst Skyscraper code per page, either the 120x600 Skyscraper or the 160x600 Wide Skyscraper but not both.
- The 120x600 Skyscraper | 160x600 Wide Skyscraper Combo Flexible Code is recommended to maximize your revenue potential. This option will run both the 120x600 Skyscraper and the 160x600 Wide Skyscraper banner in the same ad space.
For additional details, please review our Advertising Conditions. Remember, only one of each creative type can appear per page.
Should I use the same adcode for all of my pages?
Burst must review and approve all sites on which you place your Burst adcodes. If you wish to add additional sites to your account, however, we ask that you complete the New Adcode Request Form via your account center so that we can review the site and issue a secondary adcode where appropriate. If your site has large sections that fall into very different categories, we may also consider breaking up your site into multiple adcodes to properly categorize your site. We also ask that if you plan to use your Burst code on forums, that you request a second adcode just for the forums. Burst will work with you and provide as many adcodes as necessary for your site. However, the use of multiple adcodes should be carefully considered given the financial implications explained above, the maintenance of multiple adcode descriptions, and non-targeted advertising approval.
Burst Extras
How can I communicate with other Burst Network Publishers?
Once you are a Burst Publisher, you will have access to the Burst Publisher Forums via your account center. The Publisher Forums are an excellent place to discuss advertising and publishing issues with fellow publishers. It can also be a great place to ask for help if you would like advice from your peers in the business.
Other Questions?
If your question is not answered above, please contact Publisher Services at support@burstmedia.com.
Sponsorship Ad Formats
Rich Media Categories
What's a Floater? How about a Superstital? These alternatives to the typical static online banner offer dynamic branding opportunities for advertisers and additional revenue for publishers but can be confusing, especially to those new to the world of online advertising. Here’s a crash course in sponsorships and rich media terminology.
What is an Interstitial or Transitional?
Interstitial or transitional ads are a full page message placed between the visitor’s current and destination page. These types of ads play before the visitor is taken to their desired destination page, but they offer the viewer the option of skipping the advertisement.
What is a Superstitial?
Superstitial ads are a full page message (often containing video) that loads completely before displaying to visitors.
What is an Expandable?
Expandable ads drop down or grow beyond the original dimensions when a viewer rolls their mouse over them. The user is not redirected, but rather exposed to a page-based mini-site. It collapses back into its unit’s space when the user rolls off of it. Panels may contain HTML, Flash, dynamic content, video, or audio.
What is a Floater?
A floating ad format appears over page content. It is delivered by a "transparent" layer over the web page the user is viewing, giving the appearance that the ad elements are "floating" across the page.
What is a Polite?
A polite ad can contain any combination of messaging or imagery including video, audio, animation, Flash, Java, GIF, JPEG, etc. with virtually unlimited file size. It does not expand beyond the size of the ad, so all of the action happens within the unit space (hence the term "polite".)
What is a Roadblock?
Online roadblocks occupy all ad units available on a specific page or website simultaneously.
What are Non-Standard Units?
The Burst Network supports 6 standard IAB units (found in the Banner Source Code section of the Account Center.) In a Sponsorship, an advertiser may request units of different sizes.
What is a Logo/Branding Sponsorship?
A logo or branding sponsorship usually involves a non-standard ad unit, or a logo of an advertiser that would be hard-coded, and typically run on either a homepage, content relevant pages, or site-wide. The hard-coding needs to be done by the publisher. This has been a popular form of sponsorship especially with advertisers looking for a branded experience.
What is Unit Exclusivity?
Unit exclusivity is when a publisher agrees to run a creative in a specific ad space on his/her site for only that advertiser over a specified period of time. The ad space for that unit becomes exclusively owned by the advertiser for the specified campaign period.
What is an Advertorial?
An advertorial is an advertisement written in the form of an objective opinion editorial and presented in a printed publication -usually designed to look like an independent news story, but must be labeled as an advertisement. The term “Advertorial” is a combination of advertisement and editorial.
Burst’s Rich Media Vendors
Burst Media provides advertisers with cutting-edge rich media creative by partnering with the industry’s leading innovators. Burst is a preferred vendor of several rich media providers including Eyeblaster, Eyewonder, Klipmart/DoubleClick, Rovion, Pointroll, Viewpoint, CheckM8, and Interpolls. Preferred vendor status allows Burst to offer our advertisers preferred rates and additional customer service. If you are a publisher, please contact Burst Media's Publisher Services department at 781-272-5544 ext. 363 or email support@burstmedia.com to learn more. Advertisers please contact your Burst Media Account Executive.
