Respectfully, I think you're still missing my point.
It isn't primarily about the time cost for the sales team. It is about what sort of image they want to portray for "what companies advertise on Tumblr." If you see a bunch of acai and weightloss ads, and you're a big brand, you're not going to advertise there. That's a problem, because odds are you have a lot more money to spend. So in order to attract the right advertisers, Tumblr has to portray an image of success that aligns with those targets.
So your statement about small and midsize startups doesn't make sense in that context. They don't want small and midsize startups. Again, they want big brands. And you approach the business strategy for that very differently.
Also, "native" ads aren't really that different than display. I'd personally consider it a subset of display (like video). You generally are looking at post-impression (vs. click) performance, reach, engagement, etc. It is VERY hard to measure well. So small and midsize startups are again not the right fit if they care about measurable ROI.
Tumblr doesn't want "some of these companies" that might grow into bigger companies. They want the big companies that have the big dollars and will pay high-margin CPMs TODAY.
Once you have that business funnel doing well, THEN maybe you consider expanding out to a self-serve platform with lots of small guys. Because at that point large advertisers will know you are a solid inventory source and not be swayed when a tiny little startup who doesn't even know how to set a conversion tag claims that the clicks they are tracking aren't driving them lots of profit (see pretty much every post griping about FB ads on HN).
Also, setting up a self-serve system takes a LOT of work and resources compared to tossing together some janky (but functional) tools that your internal ad ops team can use to traffic things. Which again makes it low on the list.
And "profitably" vs. "revenue positive" doesn't matter--if you care about direct response performance, they don't want you as an advertiser at that stage.
Again, not saying you or other smaller companies couldn't find success on Tumblr. But just because you want them does not mean they want you (at least at the stage they are at). That $25k min. is to weed out smaller budgets and direct response advertisers who need to test small and see profit before continuing to spend more.
It isn't primarily about the time cost for the sales team. It is about what sort of image they want to portray for "what companies advertise on Tumblr." If you see a bunch of acai and weightloss ads, and you're a big brand, you're not going to advertise there. That's a problem, because odds are you have a lot more money to spend. So in order to attract the right advertisers, Tumblr has to portray an image of success that aligns with those targets.
So your statement about small and midsize startups doesn't make sense in that context. They don't want small and midsize startups. Again, they want big brands. And you approach the business strategy for that very differently.
Also, "native" ads aren't really that different than display. I'd personally consider it a subset of display (like video). You generally are looking at post-impression (vs. click) performance, reach, engagement, etc. It is VERY hard to measure well. So small and midsize startups are again not the right fit if they care about measurable ROI.
Tumblr doesn't want "some of these companies" that might grow into bigger companies. They want the big companies that have the big dollars and will pay high-margin CPMs TODAY.
Once you have that business funnel doing well, THEN maybe you consider expanding out to a self-serve platform with lots of small guys. Because at that point large advertisers will know you are a solid inventory source and not be swayed when a tiny little startup who doesn't even know how to set a conversion tag claims that the clicks they are tracking aren't driving them lots of profit (see pretty much every post griping about FB ads on HN).
Also, setting up a self-serve system takes a LOT of work and resources compared to tossing together some janky (but functional) tools that your internal ad ops team can use to traffic things. Which again makes it low on the list.
And "profitably" vs. "revenue positive" doesn't matter--if you care about direct response performance, they don't want you as an advertiser at that stage.
Again, not saying you or other smaller companies couldn't find success on Tumblr. But just because you want them does not mean they want you (at least at the stage they are at). That $25k min. is to weed out smaller budgets and direct response advertisers who need to test small and see profit before continuing to spend more.