We regularly experiment with different advertising programs to see what generates revenue for our authors while either adding value for readers or at least not interfering with their enjoyment of the blog’s content.
One recent experiment on our WP-MU blogs has been the inclusion of Kontera ContentLink ads. It was extremely easy to insert their javascript into our templates, so we decided to give it a try. Kontera’s script uses an algorithm to match ads with the content of the page - like AdSense, but the Kontera ads are hover-links on words in the body of the page, so they don’t take up additional real estate. If you haven’t seen them, they’re a bit like Snapshots, except that they don’t do anything useful.
Supposedly, ContentLinks give “in-text relevance,” so if the user clicks an ad, it’s because it’s so relevant and interesting that it caught their attention just as an organic link added by the author would. However, we’ve found this not to be the case. Consider this recent example from BigLeagueBlog.net, our flagship sports blog by veteran sportswriter Bud L. Ellis:
While it’s entirely possible that they could have Cardinals sportswear at this site, the ad seems to give the impression that they just bought a keyword and made no attempt to customize the ad to match it.
I realize that all ad systems serve irrelevant ads from time to time, but ads like this have been the rule rather than the exception, and it’s particularly bad when the ad isn’t just sitting there in a space reserved for ads, but is part of the body text of the blog. Readers rightly expect more relevance from links of this type. I couldn’t figure out why the ads were so bad - almost always generic terms linking to a shopping comparison site of some type - until we signed up to be an advertiser.
When I contacted Kontera about placing ads on their system, I was expecting a CPC keyword system like AdWords. Instead, I was told that, for a minimum investment apply card credit ukecommerce accept credit card,accept credit card,accept account card credit merchant processingamerica bank card creditbank card city credit national,national city bank secured credit cardbad card credit credit secured,bad card credit credit people securedcard credit fraud reportmonogram credit card bankhsbc credit card philippinecard credit pal pay pluscitibank credit card onlinecard credit download free generatoramerican express black credit cardbank card credit georgia monogramunsecured visa credit cardcitibank credit card application status,citibank credit card applicationinstant online approval credit cardpolyphonic ringtones for sony ericssonfree ringtones for motorola cell phone,motorola ringtones,info motorola remember ringtonesctu free ringtones,free ctu ringtonesdownload free cingular ringtonesdownload free ringtones verizonnextel ringtones programnextel ringtones makernokia polyphonic ringtones,nokia 3560 polyphonic ringtones,6560 nokia polyphonic ringtones1100 free nokia ringtonesfree motorola bollywood ringtones,bollywood free ringtones,free latest bollywood ringtonesfree real ringtones for alltelbanana phone ringtones,free banana phone ringtonesfree ringtones creator softwarenextel phone software for ringtones,nextel ringtones software,nextel i860 ringtones softwaredownload free lg ringtonesi730 info motorola remember ringtones,info motorola remember ringtones,info motorola mp3 remember ringtonesfree mobile phone ringtones tdownload metro pcs ringtonesfree jamster ringtones,free info jamster remember ringtones,free ringtones from jamstere315 motorola ringtonesmotorola ringtones composermetro pcs phone ringtonesalltel free music ringtonesfree mp3 ringtones suncomdownload free nokia ringtonesdownload free hindi ringtones650 mp3 ringtones treodownload free metro pcs ringtonesdownload free mobile ringtones tcingular free phone ringtonesdownload ringtones for all nokia phone,download nokia ringtones,download info nokia remember ringtonesdownload free ringtones for motorola v3,download free motorola v60 ringtones,download free motorola ringtonescricket free ringtonesfree real music ringtones of $5,000, I could buy a range of keywords and their team would create a custom campaign for me.
Now, I understand that it’s normal in the advertising business to have dedicated account managers and create custom campaigns for large customers, and to ignore smaller would-be advertisers - they’re just not worth it. However, in the cost-per-click ad game, the money is in long-tail ads; in other words, if you price the little guys out of the market, you effectively eliminate any possibility of serving relevant ads for 99% of keywords.
There are several reasons big campaigns don’t work for contextual advertising:
- Only big advertisers promoting a swath of products can afford to create a campaign
- There’s no way to tweak and fine-tune the campaign the way you can with AdWords - only your account rep can do this
- It’s not cost-effective to place ads for smaller products or services
- People blog about specifics, not generalities, so contextual ads need to be specific
As a result, Kontera is chock-full of ads for shopping.com and other big sites, with very few ads that lead to a relevant landing page. As a niche blog network, Kontera’s lack of sharply targeted ads makes it useless for the WebbleYou Blog Network.
We asked to have the generic, irrelevant advertisers removed from our publisher account. We named about three, and this request was honored, but we were disappointed to find that they were replaced by other equally broad, equally irrelevant ads. It seems that there are no well-targeted ads in their system.
Kontera might work well for electronics blogs, but even so, I don’t want an ad reading “iPod - find the best deals on ipod at shopping.com.” These ads are insulting to our readers, so we’re eliminating them.
What has your experience with Kontera been like?
