justageek - 8:17 pm on Jan 18, 2004 (gmt 0)

Jag, you sound like you know something that is probably not public, can you disclose the information of which public newsletter carries Google AdSense ads?

Nope. Sorry. I'll get in trouble from the mod again :-)

What I can say though is that this type of advertising has been done for quite a few years but a lot of people just don't know it. I know one company that has done it as you describe. I know Overture is about to do it and I think Sprinks did it also but I'm not sure how automated it was.

But as I said in some of my other posts is that this type of advertising works and the automated part works. The final checks that are in place are the only ones that have to be human and they are done by the e-newsletter publisher. This is because a reputable publisher will want to check the offer that is in the e-newsletter before they blast to their list. Even then there is almost always a test blast to a small part of the list. Then, it finally gets a full blast. The advertiser usually has very little to do with the process other than to have their email as part of a seed list so they can see the final product. The advertiser or their agency is the one who checks someplace like MINS for all the information needed to do the blast.

This is what Google needs to do also. To efv's point there may be some work on Google's part in the initial stages but it would be best to farm it out to an agency and let them handle it.

The reason for this is the agency can find from MINS the proper place to advertise and the automated system cannot. The automated systems I have seen can accurately determine that an e-newsletter is about maybe a Porsche. What it doesn't know that the agency will know is that the e-newsletter is talking about Porsche but the audience is not able to afford one so the system needs some help so it can show Porsche remote control cars versus Porsche dealers. This is nice because the advertisements can be much more appropriate than the standard vanilla AdSense ads because now the audience is segmented. Best of all, when the initial legwork is done then the system can be fully automated and you would be surprised how fast it can happen.

Since most folks don't know how all this works the first reaction is one of doubt from both the advertiser and the publisher but that's only because of the experience with the lack of other targeting that AdSense lacks. If it is done properly and if Google does enlist help it can be done successfully as others have done.

JAG