2. Adsense has several products under its belt and some
are obviously more popular than others. Web publishers
have been discussing and comparing adsense products
such as referrals and contextual advertising in popular
forums such as Digitalpoint. Apparently, referral
products and even Google search does not appear as
popular as contextual ads. Why is that so?
3. Publishers only benefit from contextual advertising
when visitors click on the ads on the web page. In many
instances, in order to achieve that, ads are optimized to
blend in nicely with the look and feel of the web pages.
When done right, these ads look like relevant links on
the site and if visitors are interested in what is being
advertised, they will click on the ads. Contextual ads are
simple to implement and ads will show on the site
within minutes of copying and pasting some simple
Javascript code.
4. In contrast, it is not easy to generate the same amount
of revenue using other adsense products such as Google
search and referrals. Like contextual ads, implementing
Google search involves copying and pasting some code.
However, unlike contextual ads, publishers do not
benefit when searches are
5. being made. Each search returns a set of relevant results
and if there are ads for those keywords, they will appear
as sponsored results at the top of the page. The
publisher only earns when the visitor clicks on one of
those sponsored ads. So let's recap. The visitor has to
key in some keywords, click on the search submit
button, wait for the results to load, and IF he or she
clicks on an ad, the publisher earns some money.
Compare that to contextual ads, where the visitor simply
have to make a simple click and the money is credited to
the publisher's account.
6. It is even more difficult to convert visitors to revenue
using Adsense referral products, although each
conversion generally pays more. For example, refer a
publisher to the Google Adsense program and if the
publisher makes $100 within 180 days, another $100 will
be credited to the publisher who sent the referral. That
means the visitor has to visit a site, somehow locate the
Adsense referral button, click on it, read more about the
program, sign up and wait for approval. Upon approval,
the publisher will have to implement the products and
make $100 within 180 days. If not, whoever sent
8. Here's another example. The Adsense program pays a
referral fee if a visitor clicks on a button or link,
download and successfully install the Firefox browser.
The publisher's job, will then be trying to convince the
visitor that Firefox is good for him or her, and send the
visitor to the download page. If the visitor downloads
the 5.33MB file and successfully install the browser, the
publisher gets up to a dollar. Needless to say, it is indeed
much tougher for the publisher to earn that dollar,
compared to contextual ads.
9. So where does that leave publishers? Publishers want to
promote the Firefox browser but what if they don't have
any software/webmaster related sites that will convert
nicely? So let's say a publisher have a site about dogs.
He or she could put a download link on the site that says
"We recommend searching more about dogs using the
Google toolbar". The publisher don't get paid for the
download but when the installer uses the toolbar to
make a search and click on an ad, the account gets
credited with money. The concept behind it is similar to
Google search, just that it's on a toolbar. Google could
come up with a web-based control panel (likely within
adsense login) for publishers to generate
10. the download. In the market, there are already web-based
control panel tools that allows users to customize
and generate brandable toolbars for download.
Therefore, this idea could definitely become a profitable
possibility for publishers and would be a dream come
true for many!
11. Still, there remains one small nagging problem.
Implementing such a product will mean that Google will
have to share search revenues with publishers. Of the
reported $1.098 billion dollars generated from Google
owned sites in the final quarter of 2005, how much is
Google willing to share?
