Forum Moderators: martinibuster
"Scoop! Google is about to unveil a completely revamped Adwords/Adsense program to counter inroads from competitors such as Kanoodle"
Is this true? Is this old news?
And "inroads" by the likes of Kanoodle? C'mon. :-)
BTW, I continue to take that "inroads by Kanoodle" claim with a large grain of salt. If Google does offer the kind of advertiser controls that were mentioned in the story, they're probably intended to (a) broaden the advertiser base and (b) make it harder for future competitors of consequence, such as an AdSense-like product from Overture, to get a foothold in the marketplace at Google's expense.
Also asked questions like:
* Would I be interested in CPM advertising?
* If I would want to bid different amounts for different sites?
* If I was interested in animated / flash image ads?
and many more...
Wonder if this is part of the change?
How would they do this?
Would they list out the x number of thousand pages (not even domains) from publishers that target this?
And select by hand which ones would be included / would be rejected?
This is not the self-serve / easy to use Adwords that grew like wildfire.
This is not the self-serve / easy to use Adwords that grew like wildfire.
Maybe they will offer Adwords (the basic system) and an Adwordsplus service that offers more choices.
Probably room for that kind of thing.
I have no idea, although they did ask me for a list of sites I would like to run my ads on.
From a publishers point of view I would like to have a link on the bottom of the ads, on my page, that said something like "Advertise Here."
After clicking on the link, and signing up, the advertiser ads would automatically appear on your site.
From a publishers point of view I would like to have a link on the bottom of the ads, on my page, that said something like "Advertise Here."After clicking on the link, and signing up, the advertiser ads would automatically appear on your site.
As a publisher, I'd like that too, as long as it didn't over-ride my url filter list.
Also asked questions like:* Would I be interested in CPM advertising?
CPM advertising would allow Google to expand its market enormously. After all, there are many companies that can benefit from targeted advertising but are interested in creating brand awareness, not in stimulating e-commerce transactions or inquiries.
The tricky part would be in figuring out how to price such campaigns in a marketplace where PPC and CPM ads existed side by side.
Also - it's hardly a secret meeting. They sent around an email saying that they were going...
I mention the article because it talks about the "mindset" differences between Google (which regards itself as a technology company) and Kanoodle (which regards itself as a media company). It poses the question of whether Google, which allegedly has no media execs in its senior ranks, can adapt to the needs of large publishers and advertisers.
My own opinion: Google has been slow to recognize the needs of advertisers beyond its traditional PPC base, but with the financial stakes being so high, it will learn to adapt out of necessity--and because even techies can learn to think outside the server box. :-)
Tribal's network is MUCH smaller than Googles however. So I am not sure how manageable it would be for Google.
If a few portals or news sites (such as USA TODAY) are attracted by a network like Kanoodle, that's probably because their content is a poor match for AdSense. AdSense and other contextual ads work best on special-interest sites, and particularly on special-interest sites where readers are interested in buying things. For example:
- On my European travel site, a typical article on, say, Elbonian river cruises will attract readers who are interested in spending money on Elbonian river cruises or, at the very least, on European travel. This means that ads for Elbonian river cruises are likely to generate clicks for the publisher (me) and conversions for the advertiser.
- On USAToday.com, a typical article on, say, the war in Iraq or the NFL football playoffs will attract readers who are broadly interested in news and sports. The chances that readers of those stories will be interested in contextually matched ads are fairly remote. So, for USAToday.com, it would make more sense to display ads for products and services that target USAToday.com's demographics, in the same way that ads do in the printed newspaper.
I think that it would be fairly easy for Google to add "behavioral" or "demographic" ads to its mix for advertisers who want that kind of advertising. For example, a "premium partner" news site could tag 80% of its pages to display "behavioral" or "demographic" ads and the other 20%--e.g., sections like travel, food, or cars--to display keyword-matched contextual ads. There shouldn't be anything technologically difficult about this; it's just a matter of recognizing the need and implementing a system of advertiser and publisher controls.
Side note: It's important to remember that the real strength of AdSense is in targeted direct-response advertising, not mass-market brand advertising. Even if it does meet the needs of general-interest premium partners by offering ads that are targeted to behavior or demographics, its "unique selling proposition" will continue to be its ability to help direct-response advertisers obtain sales and inquiries from targeted ads on Web sites that reach qualified prospects.
I doubt they are ready to roll out such features to the mainstream but who know what those rested and relaxed minds will do when they get back from all that snow fun. ;)
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