AdSense for feeds

In May 2005, Google unveiled AdSense for feeds, a version of AdSense than runs on RSS and Atom feeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to the Google Blog, “advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising — and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from”.

AdSense for feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is displayed by the reader/browser, Google writes the ad content into the image that it returns. The ad content is chosen based on the content of the feed surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected to the advertiser’s site in the same way as regular AdSense ads.

AdSense for search

A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search lets website owners place Google search boxes on their pages. When a user searches the web or the site with the search box, Google shares any ad revenue it makes from those searches with the site owner.

Abuse of Google AdSense

Some webmasters create sites tailored to lure searchers from Google and other engines onto their AdSense to make money from clicks. These “zombie” sites often contain nothing but a large amount of interconnected, automated content (e.g. a directory with content from the Open Directory Project). Possibly the most popular form of such “AdSense farms” are splogs (“spam blogs”), which are centered around known high-paying keywords. Also many sites use the free Wikipedia content to attract visitors. These and related approaches are considered to be search engine spam and can be reported to Google.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

AdSense is an advertising program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text and image advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-ads-displayed basis. Google utilizes its search technology to serve ads based on website content, the user’s geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google’s targeted ad system may sign up through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the ads are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

It currently uses JavaScript code to incorporate the advertisements into a participating site. If it is included on a site which has not yet been crawled by the Mediabot, it will temporarily display advertisements for charitable causes known as public service announcements (PSAs). (Note that the Mediabot is a separate crawler from the Googlebot that maintains Google’s search index.)

Many sites use AdSense to monetize their content and some webmasters work hard to maximize their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:

1. They use a wide range of traffic generating techniques including but not limited to online advertising.
2. They build valuable content on their sites; content which attracts AdSense ads and which pay out the most when they get clicked.
3. They use copy on their websites that encourage clicks on Ads. Note that Google prohibits people from using phrases like “Click on my AdSense ads” to increase click rates. Phrases accepted are “Sponsored Links” and “Advertisements”.

The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program which in turn has a complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction, in that it commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (not observable by competitors). Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid increment above the second-highest bid.

Links

• Google AdSense
• Google wants to dominate Madison avenue, too (The New York Times, 2005)
• AdSense patent application

One of the effects of advertising is to modify the nature of the communication media where it is shown. The most clear example is television. Channels that get most of their revenues from publicity try to make their medium a good place for communicating ads. That means trying to make the public stay for long times and in a mental state that will make spectators not to switch the channel through the ads. Programs that are low in mental stimulus and require light concentration and are varied are best for long sitting times and make for much easier emotional jumps to ads, that can become more entertaining than regular shows. A simple way to understand the objectives in television programming is to compare contents from channels paid and chosen by the viewer with channels that get their income mainly from advertisements.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Click-through rate or CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if your banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and 1 person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1%.

Banner ad click-through rates have fallen over time, often measuring significantly less than 1%. By selecting an appropriate advertising site with high affinity (e.g. a movie magazine for a movie advertisement), the same banner can achieve a substantially higher click-through rate. Personalized ads, unusual formats, and more obtrusive ads typically have higher click-through rates than standard banner ads.

References:

• Sherman, Lee and John Deighton, (2001), “Banner advertising: Measuring effectiveness and optimizing placement,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, Spring, Vol. 15, Iss. 2.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Pay per click, or PPC, is an advertising technique used on websites, advertising networks, and search engines.

With search engines, pay per click advertisements are usually text ads placed near search results; when a site visitor clicks on the advertisement, the advertiser is charged a small amount. Variants include pay for placement and pay for ranking. Pay per click is also sometimes known as Cost Per Click (CPC).

While many companies exist in this space, Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing, which was formerly Overture, are the largest network operators as of 2006. MSN has started beta testing with their own PPC services MSN adCenter. Depending on the search engine, minimum prices per click start at US$0.01 (up to US$0.50). Very popular search terms can cost much more on popular engines. Abuse of the pay per click model can result in click fraud. Click fraud is usually not detected very well by smaller PPC engines.

Categories

PPC engines can be categorized in “Keyword”, “Product”, “Service” engines. However, a number of companies may fall in two or more categories. More models are continually being developed.

Keyword PPCs

Advertisers using these bid on “keywords”, which can be words or phrases, and can include product model numbers. When a user searches for a particular word or phrase, the list of advertiser links appears in order of bidding.

As of 2005, notable PPC Keyword search engines include: Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, GaZabo.com, Miva, which was formerly FindWhat, SearchFeed, Enhance (formerly Ah-Ha), GoClick, 7Search, Kanoodle, ePilot, Search123, Kazazz, Pricethat, Search FAST and others.

An industry of professional services firms that can assist advertisers in marketing their products and services on search engines has also developed. Many of these firms will be members of various trade bodies such as IABUK, SMA-UK and SEMPO, while other reputable firms have chosen to avoid these bodies, as many of them remain heavily biased toward the firms that first got together and founded them.

Product PPCs

“Product” engines let advertisers provide “feeds” of their product databases and when users search for a product, the links to the different advertisers for that particular product appear, giving more prominence to advertisers who pay more, but letting the user sort by price to see the lowest priced product and then click on it to buy. These engines are also called Product comparison engines or Price comparison engines.

Some of the PPC Product search engines are: BizRate, NexTag, PriceGrabber, Pricescan, Pricethat, Pricewatch, PriceLeap, Shopping.com

Service PPCs

“Service” engines let advertisers provide feeds of their service databases and when users search for a service offering links to advertisers for that particular service appear, giving prominence to advertisers who pay more, but letting users sort their results by price or other methods. Some Product PPCs have expanded into the service space while other service engines operate in specific verticals.

Examples of PPC services include NexTag, Pricethat SideStep, and TripAdvisor.

Pay per Call

Similar to pay per click, pay per call is a business model for ad listings in search engines and directories that allows publishers to charge local advertisers on a per-call basis for each lead (call) they generate. The term “pay per call” is sometimes confused with “click to call”[1]. Click-to-call, along with call tracking, is a technology that enables the “pay-per-call” business model.

According to the Kelsey Group, the pay-per-phone-call market is expected to reach US$3.7 billion by 2010.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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Cost Per Click or CPC (as it is often initialized to) is a phrase often used in online advertising and online marketing circles.

With many advertising networks and websites, the advertiser is charged for advertising their ad (on the advertising network or website) only when a user clicks on their ad. How much they pay (for that click) is called their Cost Per Click or CPC.

The CPC can be determined by different factors, depending on which advertising network or website the advertiser is advertising on.

Other common forms, of charging for advertising, include:

• CPM
• CPA
• CPT

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Effective Cost Per Action (often abbreviated to eCPA) is a phrase often used in online advertising and online marketing circles.

CPA is considered the optimal form of buying online advertising from the advertiser’s point of view, as they only pay for an advert when an action has occurred. An action can be a product being purchased, a form being filled, etc. (The desired action to be performed is determined by the advertiser.)

eCPA is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis. In other words, the eCPA tells the advertiser what they would have paid if they purchased the advertising inventory on a CPA basis (instead of a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis).

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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Cost Per Action or CPA (as it is often initialized to) is a phrase often used in online advertising and online marketing circles.

CPA is considered the optimal form of buying online advertising from the advertiser’s point of view. An advertiser only pays for the ad when an action has occurred. An action can be a product being purchased, a form being filled, etc. (The desired action to be preformed is determined by the advertiser.)

A related term, eCPA or effective Cost Per Action, is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis.

The CPA can be determined by different factors, depending where the online advertising inventory is being purchased.

Other common forms, of charging for advertising, include:

• CPC
• CPM
• CPT

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An affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.

Broadcast networks

In a radio network or TV network, an affiliate is a radio station or TV station that agrees to carry the broadcasts of, but is not owned by, the network. Usually, the stations are still responsible for the content (such as profanity) to some extent. An affiliate is not the same as an owned and operated station, which is owned by the network such a station carries programming for.

Electronic commerce

Affiliate marketing typically refers to this Electronic commerce version of the traditional agent/referral fee sales channel concept. An e-commerce affiliate is a website which links back to an e-commerce site such as Amazon.com. When a reader of the website clicks on a link, they are connected to the e-tailer and if they purchase something the affiliate receives a small payment, usually a percentage of the money the customer spends. Affiliates can also be referred as publishers. The Hotel and Travel Industry uses affiliate marketing to a large extent.

Corporate structure

A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid the appearance of control. This is sometimes seen with multinational companies that need to avoid restrictive laws (or negative public opinion) on foreign ownership.

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