Text ads that value add
posted: May 9, 2003 6:33:24 PM
Doc Searls has been talking about text ads on blogs, and there is a convergence of folks talking about this including Marc Canter and Grant M. Henninger.
In particular, two things stand out to me with this: 1) contextual advertisement can add value to a site (i.e., this site is about widgets and here is an ad for good deals on widgets), and 2) the marketplace for ads does not need to be only centralized through Google or Overture on search engines--or, why can't ads be distributed through some network directly to sites?
Google is already setting an example with distributing its adwords onto blogspot blogs. As Doc points out, the model is that you get a free blog in exchange for hosting some ads. And, Google must be using its algorithms (and whatever forms of thesauri and controlled vocabularies they have) to try to match site topics, search terms, and ads tied to search terms.
The other interesting idea, which corresponds to what I have been thinking about, is having advertisers pay site owners directly for ad space.
Yea, I too have been thinking about text ads, and see the iCite net as one vehicle for distributing ads. The network of ad distribution is what is interesting for me to imagine. On one hand, how does someone publish an ad that others subscribe to, and on the other hand, how does that facilitate tracking and reimbursement for services rendered (ad served and clicked-through, or just ad served).
btw, I think you have to check out blogads, if you find this subject interesting and are not familiar with their service.
I see the iCite net as potentially facilitating these things with regards to online advertising:
- a distributed way to publish ads, such that they can be queried by topic, price, etc.
- a distributed way to subscribe to ads (no need to grab ads from a central source--including maybe multi-level marketing possibilities)
- a way to push / rotate ad content across a distributed array of sites
- a way to subscribe to a genre / topic of ads and get a rotation of advertisers
- a way for search engine ad programs (Google and Overture) to better match sites and advertising
One caveat to all of this: having worked on a project that used Overture and Google AdWords, and seen how it all works, I think there is a lot of business savvy that goes into tracking click-throughs and pay-per-clicks (PPC). There are ways people try to abuse PPC systems (like click on their competitors' ads and cost them money) that these systems need to watch for and counter. So, it may be complex to set up a totally disintermediated PPC system that people can trust the way they can trust Google or Overture. This may hold things back in a model (I think like blogads) where one buys / sells site real-estate for ads, but PPC is either not done or goes through a PPC broker (hm, like Google or Overture)?
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posted: Mar 1, 2006 11:57:29 AM