coverspace - streetsmart with web analytics

Back again with graphical ads and the ever-audible CRY FOR ATTENTION - answering a few questions .

First up: How do we determine which context and ad mesh well together?

Most Sites usually offer specific content - e.g. Sports: Yahoo! Sports , Sport1 or Kicker are all sports sites and thus offer sports-related content.

Users that are interested in sports will go to these sites for relevant content. If an ad is sports-related (e.g. bwin for sports-bets) it fits the Users content interest and is potentially relevant - the user will look at it/click on it etc. If the same ad would be placed on a Site that offers content about movies (Kino.de oder Yahoo! Movies) users are not as likely to the sports-ad relevant since they came to the site mainly to find content about movies. Thus it makes sense to place ads next to content that is from the same context.

Next: How is the ad then matched to and placed within the chosen context ?

Based on which content they offer sites are categorized (e.g. sports-sites, movies-sites). The same holds true for ads (e.g. bwin for sports-bets). These categories for ads and sites are reflected within the respective code. The matching of ads with context is based on this code that contains the category information.

Last: Which role does the advertiser play? Does the webmaster (= King of Content) have a say in this? Or the user , for that matter?

The advertiser decides which ad should be placed in which context. The webmaster does have a say in this as well but has to balance greed for money with relevancy issues that scare away the users - so it will be a trade-off…after all, the advertiser is paying. The user is both the most-seeked after and the least powerful player in this game. Not playing part in the actual decision-making she/he still votes by clicking/not clicking or - even worse - not returning to the site. Everybody looses when the user does not return…

Next week: Should the USER have a more powerful say in this game? Stay tuned…

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