Ask.com and IAC are launching a Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network rival contextual advertising product which will become another revenue generation option for publishers.
One major difference between Ask.com’s contextual ads and those of Google and Yahoo is that Ask.com will be letting publishers customize the font, layout and graphics which are served within the ad. Currently Google does not let publishers change the font themselves and YPN fonts are static. In essence, publishers should see a higher yield in reader action on these ads because of the customization features.
Publishers will also have the option of running higher paying advertisements which may yield a lower click thru rate, or more relevant ads which should attract more clicks, but less cost per click revenue (think YPN vs. Google AdSense).
The contextual product is integrated into the Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL) platform and allows ASL advertisers to seamlessly extend their pay per click advertising campaigns to content pages. Ask.com says that the ASL contextual product provides superior performance for publishers of technology, telecommunications, travel, automotive, real estate and finance content.
First, the ASL contextual advertising network will launch with sites from IAC’s portfolio of brands including Match.com, Ticketmaster, Evite and Citysearch (reaching over 34 million unique users each month) – then the Ask.com contextual ads will be expanded to publisher sites.
“IAC Advertising Solutions already operates the 3rd largest search advertising network. We’ve achieved this scale by providing innovative and flexible monetization solutions to more than 90 publishers. We are excited about this new offering and the expanded set of publishers that we’ll be able to serve through a content advertising network.” said James Speer , GM Search Marketing at IAC Advertising Solutions.
Contextual Advertising Features and Benefits
Increased Page Yield
* Higher revenues due to an established and growing advertiser base
* Improved relevance and higher yields than ROS /RON CPM ads
* Customizable yield thresholds to support page yield management
* Self-serve revenue reporting portal
* Revenue reporting across multiple channels and products
Enhanced Editorial Control
* Customization of ad look and feel (background color, font, layout, graphics)
* Customizable relevancy settings to meet user experience goals
* Editorial control of advertisers (competitive advertiser blocking)
* Editorial categorization of site pages is supported
Improved Integration Capabilities
* Contextual ad tags can be served via existing publisher ad servers (i.e. DFP, AdManager)
* Standardized ad tags promote quick and easy implementations with little or no maintenance
