Yesterday’s post spurred today’s post so forgive the incestuous mental run-on. I doubt it’ll stain.
‘Miss Knees’ mentioned that she had problems finding a source of contextual ads which works well. My immediate thought was why bother. Then I thought explaning that reaction might be useful. So…
What is a contextual ad?
Contextual advertising is the ‘innovation’ behind Google’s wealth. Instead of placing the same ads everywhere – like a billboard on the street – contextual advertising places ads close to things that interest people who might be interested in the ad. Like a billboard for Nike beside a sneaker store. Hang on, perhaps this isn’t such a new idea…
What are the advantages of contextual ads?
The theory is that by placing relevant ads on webpages the chances of getting someone to click on them and spend money is higher. This is generally true.
How can I get contextual ads onto my site?
The most famous contextual ad program is Google adsense. Yahoo! offers something very similar and there are a host of competing programs. The major programs are well run, slick and easy to implement.
Are there any downsides to contextual ads?
Firstly you’re an affiliate of an affiliate. If Acme Corp. wants to advertise on Google they might offer the search engine giant $5 for each click Google can send. Google then gets you to send the clicks but takes $4 of each $5 and pays the remaining $1 to you. Hardly fair. Worse still Google doesn’t declare what its revenue split is. Numbers as high as 78.5 cents on each dollar (sorry that’s a worthless – gotta pay NY Times-doesn’t-get-it link) have been mentioned but it’s likely Google pay advertisers differently depending on how much they earn. Essentially Google promise to pay you ‘well’ but won’t go public with how much they keep.
The second major drawback is sex itself. Google and Yahoo! don’t have large stocks of adult ads and are limited in what they can offer sex(y) websites. Even if you have lots of readers you might not be able to get ads that fit your site.
Then there are problems the contextual ad technology itself as it relates to blogs.
Technological problems? What are you talking about? Google can do anything!
Contextual ads would work very well indeed if they were placed by people but unfortunately they’re placed by computer algorithms, and the giant mechanical brains which make placement decisions are still appallingly dumb.
The algorithms work okay when websites contain keyword rich pages. If you write about drugs or technology they have no problem identifying stuff like ‘Xanax’, ‘Propecia’, ‘Playstation’ or ‘Printer’. On search engine pages this works perfectly as each search query is a string of keywords, but on blogs there’s a problem.
Even though most blogs have a theme they are constructed as groups of pages each holding a single post. To place a contextual ad on a single-post-page the algorithm has to be able to identify the theme of the blog accurately and that’s enough to choke today’s cutting edge machine intelligence.
E.g. On a blog filled with erotic stories the best products to advertise may be vibrators and adult DVDs, but give Google’s contextual ad tool a page which features an erotic story set on a train and it’ll provide a list of ads for travel services.
If it were a person you’d slap it.
This flaw seriously limits the effectiveness of contextual ads on sites that don’t deal with keyword friendly topics like iPods and Digital Cameras. Sex sites, which tend to deal in concepts that aren’t easy to connect (i.e. fisting=Crisco) need smarter options.
So don’t sweat it Miss Knees. Contextual ads (as served by Google et al) and sex-blogs don’t mix.
(Ad networks are part of the answer and if anyone wants more on that – let me know.)
Popularity: 33% [?]
Very good points. I guess I say fuck and pussy enough in my posts that my contextual ads seem to be a little bit on target, but obviously not targeted enough judging by my “revenue.” (I put revenue in quotes because I’m not sure you’re allowed to call it that until you make enough to at least purchase a tank of gas)
Like I mentioned in a previous comment, direct affiliate links have been my best source but there are so many variables there. I have to stop being lazy and actually pick the right site to advertise with an individual post’s topic. Then I have to choose the right banner or text content to convince someone to click. And last, but definitely not least, I have to trust that the site I’m sending them to will hold up their end of the bargain and create content the user will actually buy so that I can earn my cut (trusting that they’ll be honest with me about what that cut is).
I, for one, would like to hear what you have to say about ad networks. Now I will don my schoolgirl’s outfit and await my next lesson…
Have you seen chitika? It’s an intersting solution. It’s all contextual, but you can choose to display on a box only the ads linked to a certain keyworld. So if you have a Ps2 review you can put the keyword Ps2 and be sure that the box will always contain things related to the page. Anyway they don’t accept adult sites.
Miss Knees – I’ll work on something now but I’ll probably find the outfit distracting (or is that the point?)
Banana32 – I know Chitika. It’s been aggressively pimped by a well known blogger who’s getting paid a lot for his endorsement. Their system puts you even further down the food chain as their getting thir money from Google and Yahoo! themselves. As you said – they’re not really adult friendly and I’m not sure their tech would work well for that anyway. Interesting product though.
If the outfit is too distracting I can be naked. But then I’m not sure where I’d put my extra pencils.