Virurl Integrates RSS Into Its Sponsored Content Platform

Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha is a writer at TechCrunch, where he covers media, advertising, and random startups. Previously, he worked as a staff tech writer at Adweek, a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing.... → Learn More

Wednesday, December 26th, 2012
virurl-logo

Virurl has launched a new feature that it says will make it even easier for publishers to promote articles and videos through its platform.

The feature is called RSS Ads, and it offers another way to convert articles into advertising — when a new article gets posted to a publisher’s RSS feed, it automatically becomes an ad, which can then be promoted through the content widget displayed on Virurl’s partner sites, as well as through the social influencers who get paid to share Virurl content. In the press release announcing the new feature, co-founder and CEO Francisco Diaz-Mitoma said that it allows advertisers to “stay focused on what they do best — creating valuable content.” The company also argues that by allowing publishers to promote, more content, it will increase clickthrough rates.

In addition to RSS ads, Virurl is announcing that since it launched in 2011, it has been used to distribute 4 million stories, including 3 million in the last six months. Publishers who use Virurl to promote their content include Sports Illustrated, VICE, Funny Or Die, and StyleCaster.

There are, however, plenty of other companies offering to transform content into ads — earlier this month, for example, I wrote about the launch of OneSpot. Diaz-Mitoma told me via email that what sets Virurl apart is the completely customizability of its ad units.

“Virurl’s tools coupled with our high quality content network allows our publishers and advertisers to get as close as possible to the ‘native advertising’ unicorn,” he said.

The company raised $1.2 million in seed funding earlier this year.


Company: Virurl
Website: virurl.com
Launch Date: 2010
Funding: $1.2M

VIRURL distributes sponsored articles and videos around the web via popular websites and influential people. Our self-serve platform lets online media producers create native advertising campaigns in a matter of clicks. VIRURL ads are syndicated through our vast and growing network of website publishers and social media influencers, amplifying partner content to millions of highly engaged people.

→ Learn more
Tags: