Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Through this collaboration, the AdSense service places contextually relevant ads alongside CNN.com content, allowing both small and large advertisers to target CNN.com specifically and connect with high quality content and traffic. Under the terms of the deal, Google will serve as the exclusive provider of auction-based text advertisements throughout CNN.com.
I see a huge market for the "Just for Men" hair coloring on the Wolf Blitzer pages.
As I have learned, there is not a lot you can sell in context with the news. This will work on CNN's health features and other non-news pages, but as for where most eyes are looking...zzzzzzz.
That's great! That or Gillette razors...
help or hurt adsensers?
No effect at all.
help or hurt adsensers?
Plenty advertising dollars will now be rolling towards CNN and presumably less to the smaller publishers,
Plenty advertising dollars will now be rolling towards CNN and presumably less to the smaller publishers
I don't think CNN will be siphoning off many ads for businesses that are selling Elbonian river cruises, hog-breeding pens, camera tripods, homebrewing apparatus, or the thousands of other niche products and services that aren't a good fit for a general news site.
Pls. consider for example CNN travel for Carribean Cruiseships and some Carribean Islands where clicks do generate up to a few dollars.
Small publishers should be worrying about real issues, such as whether they're offering content of enough intrinsic value to keep advertisers who now have placement reports and soon will be able to buy site-targeted CPC ads. As AdSense continues to mature, AdSense publishers will need to think more like real publishers and less like Web entrepreneurs.
As CNN has content in all niches, be it news stories about lung cancer or Elbonian river cruises or advances in solar energy, all sectors/niches will take a hit. Probably not in a "my revenues have been cut by 50%" fashion, but it will support the continuing trend of shrinking revenues.
it will support the continuing trend of shrinking revenues.
Where do you get the notion that revenues are shrinking?
Your revenues may be shrinking, but it's always a mistake to assume that your own site's trend (whether it's up, down, level, or flip-flopping) is universal.
Back to the discussion at hand: What's CNN's daily reach as a percentage of Web traffic? About one percent, according to Alexa (and yes, I know that Alexa isn't perfect, so let's say anywhere from a quarter of a percent to two percent). Of that traffic, how much is on pages about niche topics, as opposed to mass-market topics like general news, sports, business, and entertainment? Probably not much, unless one assumes that most readers are ignoring the news headlines that dominate the home page, and that they're really coming to CNN.com to read about wireless routers, Kitchenaid mixer accessories, and B&Bs in Bologna. In short, for most of us, CNN simply isn't a competitor or a threat.
Still, some publishers are going to feel threatened (rightly or wrongly), so that leads to a question: If CNN really is going to siphon away your AdSense revenues, what's your backup plan?
It's probably just PR after losing some account.
p/g
P.S. europeforvisitors, do you automatically become one of Brett's mods when you hit 10,000 posts?
Your revenues may be shrinking, but it's always a mistake to assume that your own site's trend (whether it's up, down, level, or flip-flopping) is universal.
I am so sorry. I forgot to put that "on my sites" disclaimer to my posting.
What I meant in my post was this:
Probably not in a "my revenues have been cut by 50%" fashion, but it will support the continuing trend of shrinking revenues on my sites.
EFV, honestly, I did not mean to offend you or Google or anyone else in any way. I stand corrected.
More disclaimers (I am just being proactive here): Yes, I know that Adsense is a take-it-or-leave-it deal. I know that any party can terminate the contract at any time without the need to provide reason. Yes, I know that Adsense may not work for everyone, and that it might make sense to not use Adsense for certain niches.
Where do you get the notion that revenues are shrinking?
Would be interesting to have some poll on that.
Publishers are usually much better off with finding other advertisers than adsense.
Why the "deal" announcement?
I'm with PG on this one...why the announcement since the adsense has been on CNN for a long time now.
I don't remember the first time I saw one but I do remember what the ads are since the hardly ever change. Most of them are for reverse lookup, coffee exposed, criminal record checks and my favorite trip to Mars offer from example.com.
JAG
Hurts the adsensers with another huge premium publisher, with a high payout, taking a larger share of the fixed adsense revenue payout.
Fact check: The AdSense revenue payout isn't fixed. It changes every quarter. (For example, it was $1.06 billion in 2Q 2007, compared to $1.05 billion in 1Q 2006 and $916 million in 4Q 2006.)
Also, since the agreement lets Google sell ads specifically for CNN, it means that ads won't simply be diverted from the existing ad pool. They're likely to be incremental ad sales in many if not most cases.
Side note: I just looked at the home page of CNN.com, and the three Ads by Google were for "Criminal Record - Warning," "Reverse Lookup," and "Fast Public Record Search." And I thought I had problems when I used AdSense on my home page!
However, it's all good for at least two of my AdWords clients, who are in niches that are frequently featured in Money and Health articles on CNN.
Side note: I just looked at the home page of CNN.com, and the three Ads by Google were for "Criminal Record - Warning," "Reverse Lookup," and "Fast Public Record Search." And I thought I had problems when I used AdSense on my home page!
It's not just the homepage. Those ads you mentioned, plus the ones I mentioned earlier, have shown up on almost all the pages for a long time now. Really odd.
JAG
I don't think CNN will be siphoning off many ads for businesses that are selling Elbonian river cruises
EFV, can I take my Peugeot Lease into Elbonia? ;)
Can I sign on Dilbert as my additional driver?
I'll start to think that this whole CNN thing has been effective when Fox News follows suit.
