A Look from the Publisher’s Point of View

When advertising agencies discovered the Internet they gave the new medium’s ads different names: digital advertising, online advertising, interactive and combinations of these and a few other words. But whatever the name, the first references and discussions involving the new advertising arena always came from the advertiser’s point of view – how can the advertising budget be allocated online? Only later on, the completing angle of the publishers got attention as well – why and how should websites place ads? In other words, first, there were services like Google Adwords and Yahoo Sponsored Search – the advertiser solutions – and only afterward came services like Google Adsense and Yahoo Content Match – the publisher solutions.

With In Text Advertising it was the other way around. The technology was initially embraced as a strong tool to monetize content on top of display ads – meaning, that the publisher’s point of view preceded the advertiser’s angle. The newly formed bubbles presented to viewers advertisements that were meant to be either responses to search queries or part of a contextual advertising display. There were no online advertising budgets allocated for in-text ads. In terms of the evolution process, first came the publishers who were looking for monetizing solutions, and only later the advertisers joined in, wishing to target in-text ads separately and use creative content which was different than their other ad formats.

When analyzing this method of advertising, I intend following the same path – first, analyze in text advertising as the hidden treasure it is for website publishers, a website monetization tool. And then, only as a secondary subject, discuss in text advertising as a solution for advertisers, an advertising channel.

* In case you wonder… the image is from Chicago’s Millenium Park, where the wonderful Bean has recently inspired me to think about point of views in general and this post specifically. If you still haven’t visited – it’s highly recommended.