Forum Moderators: open
[content.overture.com...]
This on the back of 93% of advertisers saying they want more traffic.
Like Google, it's an opt out feature. Interstingly enough MSN will be providing a lot of the content pages, which is a big plus for both the relationship between Overture and MSN, and as a way of competing for eyeballs with increased reach opportunities.
It's a opt-in service, which I find somewhat nicer for existing customers.
At least in Germany only the top3 listings get displayed.
Like adwords, you can't test it separately.
Our clients don't want more traffic. They want more conversions.
imho
That's more traffic, but it's costing me money without benefiting me or the person doing the search.
The way I see it, the more irrelevant hits I get (more traffic), the less people are going to respect the sponsor links, and eventually my hits go down.
So far their spelling (or mis-spelling) match technique is not very impressive to me. If I wanted to pay for "smiley widgets" instead of "small widgets" I would bid on it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting enough irrelevant hits to cause any harm, but it's enough that I notice it. I don't mind the site content matching, but if their other magic tricks are faulty, how good will the content matching be?
Seems you'll be able to report on traffic in aggregate (all), overture only or content targeted only.
Will be interesting to see whether the referring URL of these clicks makes it possible to tell overture and content targeted traffic apart (as you can with google's referring URLs).
If you're in the US, go to this page:
[content.overture.com...]
there should be equivalent pages for each country
Why would a web site use Overture's Context Match over Google's Ad Sense?
Like Micke say we dont want more traffic but more convertion. They should concentrate in sort what is there already like giving the option to opt out from these no very wellknown search engines in which we may dont want to appear
Applied Semantics used to be technology partner for OV - until Google bought the company and built their Content Ads and the adsense program on it.
That's why OV Content Match is restricted for now to only a handful of large partners.
If that is true than we have a case of pretty sharp and unscrupulous business tactics from Google, or - a case of Overture having made a BIG mistake.
From :
[google.com...]
"Google combines filtering technology, an editorial team, and your input to create a robust set of filters that are right for you, including:
Editorial review. Across the Google network, ads do not run on publisher sites until they have been reviewed and approved by Google's editorial team. We classify each AdWords ad as Family-Safe, Non-Family-Safe or Adult/Explicit. Of these, only Family-Safe ads are shown on publishers' sites."
Overture seems to want to offer a higher degree of context, which is good. And they want quality web sites.
Still, an Overture VP was quoted as asking, "Why would a marketer want their ad to be on a Blog?" Well, it depends on the blog, doesn't it?
But where the ad is displayed is important. "The effectiveness of Web site advertising is directly and significantly impacted by the level of personal loyalty audience members feel toward the content of specific sites, according to the latest researchs released today by the Online Publishers Association," according to this article by Tobi Elkin in Ad Age:
[adage.com...]
Because blogs are usually fairly subjective things; advertisers can appeal to readers who want commercial solutions related to the content.
Seems the OV spokesman is talking with his nose in the air, hoping that publishing and advertising should only be for the well-heeled... a blogger should up and bite his leg...
Blogs are badly maligned. They vary in quality as do any form of publishing. I follow some blogs that i see as some of the best content sites on the web. And for web advertising a click through is a click through, and in adsense's case its targeted.
At least Overture lets you opt-out your entire account instead of campaign by campaign.
More important, it's based on the flawed assumption that targeted text ads will work better on large corporate partner sites than on niche sites.
AdSense takes one of the fundamental concepts of the Web (namely, that the Web is a collection of pages, not sites) and uses technology to match the ad to the user's interests. Overture's Content Match doesn't do that. Maybe it will eventually, if Overture can follow Google's lead by integrating its FAST and AltaVista search technology into the Content Match program. But for now, Content Match is clearly a step behind AdSense.
example
people search for "widget holders" but I craft the ad for "widget holders for specific situations" which helps tremendously
...I guess I have to desagree withyou on the above statement...The very big mayority of people is going to search for "widget holders" even if they are really looking for "wideget holders for specific situations" so it does NOT help so tremendously but it makes you lose in lots of potential customers (when, if they are genuine anyway :-) )
In fact, unfortunately, the above approach in many cases only works in the theory and never on real life. By doing this you can convert a very much searched for keyword string in one that will not bring you a handful of searchers for a whole month period
I've been using their search box for 18 months. They say they pay quarterly and 45 days after the end of the quarter. Of the six payments I have received, I have never received one on time. Equally, I have never received one until I emailed them requesting payment. It comes across to this webmaster that Overture has a business plan that says do not pay affiliates on time and unless they ask for it.
