According to specialists, sold out spaces exist where demand exceeds supply. The sites with high traffic have problems covering the advertising space, requiring a significant advertising budget to use all available space (the client pays for every 1,000 ad postings). “The monthly volume of posts made on gsp.ro is 21 million, which is hard to sell. The budgets available in Romania are not sufficiently large to cover all the space: sold out on gsp.ro means €300,000 a month, some 2 percent of the total online advertising budgets for 2008, in a market estimated to be worth €15 million,” says Gabriel Boaca, Sales Manager at Boom.
Romanian publishers prefer to tax a banner for 1,000 posts (CPM), which brings a guaranteed income, according to Orlando Nicoara, General Manager of MediaPro Interactiv, largest online publisher in Romania.
Nicoara added that the low use of the pricing system, which requires user interaction, is conditioned by the low level of development of the Romanian e-commerce market.
Online advertising is more significant on niche sites. “They have reduced traffic, meaning fewer posts per page, so these are easily covered with advertising. Advertiser interest is higher,” added Boaca. Business and women’s sites are sold out.
