Hi Everybody, We're closing another great year at XTEND. 2009 was extremely challenging, starting with a huge global economic crisis that affected all of us and continued with ups and downs across different parts of our business activities. It's amazing to see the amount of challenges and changes our industry goes through in just one year. Nevertheless, we continued to focus on building a stronger foundation for our business, evolving around getting closer to our clients, publishers and partners, gaining a better understanding of their needs and the market needs, and striving to improve and deliver better value to all of our partners. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all ...

So, whats so good about London? It’s a big sprawling city with a greater population of over 11 million people. With its grey weather, infamous underground, and the sudden inclination to rob a bank before grabbing a bite to eat, what’s all the fuss about? What follows is the XTEND guide to London. Little tips on where to stay, eat, drink, sightsee, and of course shop! If you’re only in town for a few days, for the London Affiliate Conference, or to take in the sights and sounds - here are a few suggestions to keep you going when not strolling around Billingsgate! Remember to dress warm in Jan, it’s the time for winter ...

In XTEND we focus a major part of our business to develop direct relations with publishers. As a global ad network, we see a very large opportunity in working with UGC (User Generated Content) sites. Many UGC sites rely on display advertising as their major revenue model. These types of sites attract many unique users, and are also quite sticky which results in a large amount of page views and ad impressions per user per day.  Another characteristic is that these sites are quickly adapted across many countries and languages. One big major issue with UGC sites is content quality. Since the content is generated by web users and is uploaded to the websites (especially when it comes to video content ...

In the 1st Part of “The Facebook Opportunity” I highlighted the impressive size and engagement levels of the Facebook network of users and suggested one way to monetize it – “Facebook Flyers”. In this part I will explore another way to monetize Facebook – Facebook Applications. Some interesting stats: There are more than 500,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform. There are more than one million FB application developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries. Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with platform applications. One of the most important ways for applications developers to earn money from their applications is by placing ads within the ...

Is Facebook really an opportunity for advertisers? I’ll try to answer that in my next 2 posts (This is Part 1, Part 2 to follow), but first let’s look at some facts: • There are now over 300 million active Facebook users worldwide (More than 70% are outside USA). • 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day. • More than 8 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide). • More than 45 million status updates performed each day. • Total time per month spent by users on Facebook is by far the largest than any other website (Together with YouTube). • More than 2 billion photos ...

Check out the interview between AdExchanger and our very own CEO Adi Orzel here. Learn how he believes ad networks need to change to remain viable in the market.

New York is known as the Big Apple and Ad:tech is known as the place to be if you’re in the online marketing business. When you combine these two together you get a great event in an amazing city - and mixing business with pleasure comes so naturally in this urban mecca. We had a fantastic time at Ad:tech, we met many of our current partners and became acquainted with many potential and future partners paving the way for more XTEND success.   The turnout was great, with more than 250 companies exhibiting and thousands of visitors attending, the event was certainly successful not only for XTEND but for the entire show. It was ...

Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer is a built-in feature in AdWords that serves as an automatic bidding tool based on a CPA you set. The Conversion Optimizer currently only works with campaigns that have at least 30 conversions generated over no more than 30 days, meaning that if your campaign generated a 1000 conversions over 5 days, it will be eligible to use the optimizer. Of course, the more conversion data the campaign accumulates for the specific product, the more accuracy you get from the Optimizer. The Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer automatically manages the CPC bids using a prediction algorithm that calculates the likelihood of a conversion to happen. The basic steps the AdWords Conversion Optimizer follows are: Data accumulation: The AdWords Conversion Optimizer studies ...

Hi guys, I wanted to share with you an interesting report I came across, the report name is "Global Benchmark 2009" by Eyeblaster From our experience, bigger banner sizes have always been equal to higher click-thru-rates and better performance. This trend was also found in a study conducted by the IAB [i].  It was found that larger ad units are 25% more effective in key metrics. As a recent example from XTEND, we are seeing increasing numbers of Publishers that are offering larger and larger ad sizes in the hope of increasing their revenue. Advertisers (assuming they have a limited budget and resources) are faced with the decision to invest in larger-sized regular banners or rich media (which, ...

New York City, the Big Apple, The Melting Pot and cultural center of the world- whatever you want to call it- this is the city that’s got everyone buzzing and definitely a place worth exploring!! Lucky that you all get the opportunity to soak up all the NYC fun- but the question is how- with a city that has SOOO much to offer, where does one begin and how does one effectively organize their time to make the most of their stay. Well, being someone who grew up in this amazing metropolis, I will try and give you some tips of how to spend your time in Manhattan. Whatever the season- New York is always happening and ...