Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  18/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I purchased 60,000 ad impressions from the Burnaby Now in September 2022 for $1500 plus tax. Two political opponents (******* *** *** ***** ****) also bought ad impression packages (150,000 impressions a piece). In that span, I did not see my ad impressions or those of ******* or *****'s ad impressions. However, I constantly saw ads for the ******* ******** ***********, who bought an extremely large advertising package with Burnaby Now. I contend that this ad package was so large and obtrusive that the terms of the other ad packages could not be fulfilled.

  Business response

  04/05/2023

  Thanks for the inquiry!

  Mr. ******* purchased $1,600 worth of online display ads to promote himself in the fall 2022 election in Burnaby.  He purchased 60,000 ad impressions on burnabynow.com at a cost of $1,600.  He contacted me after the election, October 16 and questioned if the ads actually ran as he and 20 others did not see them.

  I gave him the results of his campaign - it performed extremely well and the attached report pulled from google, shows 476 people clicked on his ad which resulted in a click through rate of .79%.  Industry average is .10% so this is a very successful result.  The ad impressions are broken down by device and you can see that 426 people clicked on the ad from their mobile device which is an even better click through rate of 1.13%.

  The population of Burnaby is 270,000 and while our campaign resulted at above average results, only 476 people actually saw his ad.  So it is not surprising that he and some of his friends did not.  We can't guarantee that an advertiser will see their own ad on their device, so we rely on google to provide us with the data showing impressions served, which ads performed well and which device generated the best click through rate.  We also have included a screen shot of Mr. *******'s ad on a mobile device. 

  Please let me know if you have any questions and it's unfortunate Mr. ******* was not successful in winning his seat in the Burnaby election.  He did receive 5,047 votes or 15.7% overall and the advertising report does show that 476 people were interested to read more about his platform due to his advertising investment with us. 

  Thank you,

  Lara G*****, Regional Publisher, Burnaby Now, New West Record and Tri-City News

  Customer response

  08/05/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: I believe that the Burnaby Now and their subsidiaries sold a majority of the direct ad space to the ******* ******** ***********, and was left in a situation where they were unable to fulfill the full commitment of views for myself, ******* *** and ***** ****.

  As well, there was no evidence on my end that 476 people clicked through the ad to my website. As far as I can tell, the number is closer to 40.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** *******

  Business response

  08/05/2023

  Hi there,

  The great thing about digital advertising is it is completely measurable so we can show you exactly how many clicks you received on your ad and this is provided to us directly from google.  This is the report I attached in my original reply and have reviewed with you just after you lost the election in the fall and started questioning your advertising.  As mentioned, your ads performed well over industry standard and for the investment you made, the results were fantastic.  

  Unfortunately, I can't comment on the advertising results of the other two competing council candidates you mention in your complaint (******* and *****) as that is private and confidential information.  We don't share reports and results of any competitors.

  The more impressions you buy, the more you will see your ad.  We have hundreds of thousands of ad impressions and could never oversell our sites - our system will only allow us to sell the ad impressions available.  In fact, we have so much inventory, we have massive amounts of unsold ad impressions every month, it would be great if we could sell out!

  I am sorry you are not satisfied with your advertising campaign.  We have clearly illustrated the campaign performed higher than industry average and provided you with screen shots of your campaign.  Your competitor bought a significant amount of ad impressions which is why you saw their ads more frequently - no different than a business buying more radio spots, more televisions commercials or more full page ads which why you saw their ads more than your own.  

   

   

  Customer response

  09/05/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: the vendor was not truthful during the selling process, and is now being evasive and will not provide verified hard data to prove their questionable click through numbers that are not supported by the analytics of my website.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** *******

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩