As an Internet behemoth with properties that get visited a zillion times a day, life battling spammers must be pretty tough for Google. Sure, they invent new technologies to try and stop these jokers. But like parasites, they quickly adapt and come up with new methods to manipulate the system. And when it gets bad enough, it’s now clear that Google is willing to throw technology out the window and simply sue the bastards.
As they’ve announced on the Google Blog today, the search giant is taking a group of rogue pharmacies to court in order to stop them from continually bombarding Google’s ad ecosystem with their spam. As Google notes, in this case, it’s not just that the spammers are annoying users, they’re potentially tricking people and offering products that “can be dangerous without the right prescription.” So Google felt as if they had to act. → Read More
Google has (finally) released its revenue share breakdown for AdSense.
Publishers apparently earn a 68% revenue share worldwide, meaning Google pays 68% of the revenue that they collect from advertisers. Since launching AdSense for Content in 2003, this revenue share has never changed. For Search, partners see a 51% revenue share for the search ads that appear through their site. → Read More
If you’re reading this, you clearly use the Internet. And if you use the Internet, you clearly know Google AdSense. It’s pretty much everywhere (even on this site in places). But as much as Google would like you to believe they are serving up ads that users want to click on because they are relevant, these are still ads, and most people do not want to click on them. OneRiot’s new product, RiotWise, has an interesting spin on relevant ads.
You see, RiotWise’s ads are only ads in the sense that someone is paying to place them in a certain highlighted position on the page. But in fact, all of these “ads” are content. And I don’t mean content like the homepage of a website, I mean stories/posts/articles about a particular topic. Just as with Google, these are served up via keywords being searched for. But unlike Google, advertisers aren’t bidding on keywords. Instead, content producers strike a deal with OneRiot to place their content in an emphasized (but clearly labeled) place in their realtime feed. → Read More
In what looks to be an effort to be the one overall ad network that rules them all, Google sent out an email to AdSense publishers today letting them know that they would soon be opening up their accounts to allow for third-party ad networks to display ads as well. The catch is that it will only be open to third party ad networks that Google deems worthy of certification.
Right now, if you run AdSense on your site, you are seeing ads come in from advertisers who bid on certain keywords using Google’s AdWords product. But with the new more open system, if there is a better offer from one of these Google-certified third-party networks, Google says it will run those ads instead. You’ll be able to partially control these third party ad networks from within AdSense. For example, if you don’t like a certain network, you can block it. Or you can black all third-party ad networks entirely — obviously, Google would be just fine with that. → Read More
Google is moving into the mobile ad market with AdSense for mobile apps. Over the past few months, Google has been testing both text and graphical ads with ten mobile app developers, including Shazam and Urbanspoon. Today it is opening the private beta to more developers who meet certain criteria.
These are contextual ads for iPhone and Android apps. To qualify for the public beta, the apps must be free and generate at least 100,000 pageviews per day. The program is only for iPhone or Android apps. Developers must be ready to go live with the ads in four weeks and participate for three months. → Read More
Google AdSense is eliminating its video units feature, which allows publishers to show YouTube content and video ads on their pages. Google says that by the end of April, the feature will be fully eliminated for existing AdSense clients and that new clients of the revenue sharing ad program will no longer be given the option to place video ads on their pages through the program. Publishers can still display video content on their pages by pulling embed codes directly from YouTube.
Unsurprisingly, Google says it eliminated the video ads because of poor performance. It is difficult to figure out a sustainable ad model for video, which is why pre-rolls remain more common. But the problem with video ads may not be the ad unit itself but but the underlying content. Brand advertisers don’t want their names associated with random words spoken in videos. You simply cannot efficiently and consistently target ads based on three words in a video. For instance, if someone is watching a clip of “Snakes on a Plane,” it’s probably not the best place to put a travel ad. And search marketers can find better places to put contextual ads. → Read More
Not content to leave Tom Cruise alone in a self promotional Adwords Campaign, the American Government is buying Adwords units in defense of American Foreign Policy. The ad (pictured right) reads “Peace & Security, Creating security through improved relations and cooperation” and links through to a page on America.gov with a motto of “Telling America’s Story.” The page includes stories on Syria and Nuclear Reactors, Terrorists and other Bush Administration foreign policy news. It’s not clear whether this ad is being displayed within the United States itself, or simply to the rest of the world. Tax payer money well spent, or waste of money propaganda via Adsense units? You can be the judge. → Read More
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