In order to better understand in text advertising, some technological background is required. I’m not going to dive into the code structure here; in fact, I’m not the right person to attempt that… but I do think that some basic clarification could help when considering this method. Also, the leading in text ads networks utilize different technology and the following analysis may be helpful in choosing the right partner for you.

The Magic a Little JavaScript Does

When you integrate in text ads on your website, all you’re required to do is insert a little piece of JavaScript code. This invisible code, when run by a browser, calls upon a bigger script to run on your website and identify your website to the in text ads provider.

The first job for this code is to analyze the content of the page and determine if it’s suitable for in text ads. Sometimes, if there’s not enough text or if the text is not suitable for advertising, the process will stop right there and no ads will be placed. If the page is suitable, the code will then analyze the page’s content and identify the terms which get the highest score balancing the contextual relevancy and the potential for advertising. The top terms will be highlighted as double underline links and will serve as hooks for advertisements.

As explained before, if a user is interested to learn more about a highlighted hook, he can hover over it with the mouse and a bubble would appear with a relevant ad inside. The code’s brain here is asked to match the ad to the reader and to the term in order to maximize the chances for a click. If a click was made, the code now needs to send the reader to the advertiser’s landing page and monitor behavior in order to charge the advertiser and credit the website publisher for the ad’s current price.

All this magic begins with that little piece of JavaScript code, but of course it requires a robust and smart system behind it. This system has several key differentiators among the leading in text ads providers.

Timing of the Load

When the JavaScript is loaded and the bigger code is called into action, the browser has some work to do. Therefore, the timing of the load is important. If this work is done in parallel with the loading of the page, it may slow down the loading of the actual content of the page. Such slowdown may result in visitors getting frustrated and leaving before the page completes its loading. The natural conclusion is that it’s important to make sure that the script that you’re using only runs after your page has completed to load the main content.

These days, with the numerous types of widgets and other scripts that run on a page, there’s another timing factor to consider – the timing of the in-text script among other scripts. The best example would be the common Google Analytics script, which runs in order to count the visitors and monitor their behavior on your website. Since the Google Analytics code may take some time as well, if you place the in-text script after it, the ads may appear a little later. The same goes for other widgets. It’s up to you as a publisher to determine which code should run first. My recommendation is to place the in-text JavaScript just after the actual page’s content, but before other scripts that are not money oriented.

Dynamic In Text Ad Placement

The most challenging aspect of in text advertising is matching the best ad to the visitor and the hook. This process of ad placement requires analyzing many factors, including the context of the page, the content category of the website, the known characteristics of the user, the highlighted term within the hook, and the available advertising campaigns at that specific moment. Since the Web is very dynamic, some of these factors may change every minute or even within a given minute. Most important, available ads and their prices are mostly handled through open markets and they change all the time.

Some in text ads providers do not use dynamic ad placement. I won’t point them out, but it’s quite easy to check if the selected hooks and the shown ads change when you hit refresh. Ad networks that have a relatively old technology may find it difficult to dynamically match the ads, and they actually place the ads beforehand, without maximizing the revenue potential. In fact, some of them even choose the hooks for highlighting manually, and therefore would not deal well with dynamic content found in blogs, forums and news websites.

Automation Level and Organizational Structure

From my own experience with Infolinks, we’ve put atomization as a top priority. The smarter the algorithm and the more automated the in text ads placing process is, the higher is the effective CPM for the website publisher. There are two reasons for that. First, automated processes are more sensitive to changes in the market and to dynamic content; they simply get better results. Second, automated processes allowed us to manage the system with minimal staff, focusing our human resources on customer service. When the highlighted hooks require manual content analysis, the organizational structure would have higher costs that will limit the organization’s ability to share most of the revenues with the publisher.

Again, this is from my own personal experience, and I’m sure other networks are striving to do the same. When we set up our system to require minimal manual intervention, we’ve actually saved costs and enabled our organization to offer higher revenue share to our publishers. This is a good example for technology differences that have an immediate influence on the publishers.

IT Infrastructure

Another example for technology differences is hidden within the IT infrastructure. Anyone who’s worked for a Web related company knows that sometimes the IT costs – that is, the prices of computers, servers, and network – climb so high, that they become a major factor in the company’s finances. Placing in text ads dynamically requires real-time analysis of content and real-time matching of ads in rapidly changing market conditions. If the system is not built taking IT infrastructure into consideration, then the IT costs can make it impossible for the company to share most of the revenues with its publishers.

In Text Ads may Look the Same

While in text ads may appear to work as magic with a little piece of code, it turns out that there’s a lot of work behind it. Also, while most in text ads may appear to work similarly, there are major differences among in text ads network and understanding them may help you choose the right partner for you. If you’re looking for deeper insights into the technological process, drop me a line and I will try to do get you an answer from someone from our own tech team; and if you need more help in understanding the business implications of these technological differences, well, I might even try answering you myself.

Definition: In Text Advertising is a method of advertising where advertisements are placed as hyperlinks within existing text.

[see also the Wikipedia definition for In Text Advertising]

This short definition encapsulates the whole concept in just a few words, but as it usually happens with short explanations, each of the words count and some further clarifications are required. First of all, it’s a method of advertising. There are many reasons to include hyperlinks within text online – in fact, that’s the essence of the Web – but here, we’re discussing a form of advertising where commercial interests direct the selection of links – it’s advertising. Second, the term “advertisements” – or ads for short – is important. There are other types of in-text placements that only add content and links to related content – these methods are not part of the advertising method, since they don’t include the placement of ads (that lead to advertising content). And third, the last part of the definition – “within existing text” – separates in-text advertising from other types of contextual advertising. While contextual ads can relate to the text but appear next to the text (like Google Adsense), and paid-for content can lead to writing text which is in fact an advertisement, in-text ads are placed inside content which was created independently and separately from the advertising.

In Text or In Line?

The market has spoken – In Text Advertising is the chosen term. However, in its early days, this method was also called In Line Advertising, and even in one word Inline. This name is less accurate and also, it simply didn’t spread enough before “In Text” was coined and adopted.

There is still a question about the hyphen. Just as we all send emails to one another, and have stopped using e-mail, I believe In-Text will evolve into Intext (or at least InText to begin with), mainly because it’s quite difficult to read it without the hyphen (the mind looks for other words to follow the word In). For now, capitalizing helps reading, so the choice is between in-text and In Text.

Captain Hooks

Once an existing text is subject to in-text advertising, it is scanned, analyzed, and then hyperlinks are added within the text highlighting specific words or sentences. Each of these highlights is called a hook. Why? I prefer believing that hooks are like anchors for the most relevant advertising and have the potential of giving the reader the most valuable ads; and since the term Anchor already had a different use (anchors represent a target location for an internal hyperlink), another marine term was adopted. However, a more reasonable and easy to remember explanation could be that the links are there to try and lure readers to advertisements, just like hooks lure fish. You choose. As long as you call them hooks as well, so we’re all on the same page.

The number of hooks per a certain volume of text is an important factor, and so is the length of each hook; but before we go there, let’s start with the fact that most hooks are formatted with double-underline… read on please.

Double Underline Links

The most common method of highlighting the links for in-text ads is with a double underline. This simple design was not in use as a symbol anywhere else online, and as such, it sent a clear message to any website’s visitors – these links are special, not regular. At first, they may have attracted attention and therefore helped generate ad clicks. But soon thereafter, they became acknowledged as an accepted symbol, clearly stating to the world: this link leads to an advertisement.

As I wrote under Interruption Advertising vs. Permission Marketing, letting readers know that the hyperlinks are in fact a method of advertising is important for the success of the ads and for the overall website user experience. An informed reader is less interrupted by the double underline links while reading, and only chooses to check them out when he has genuine interest in the advertisement. This means that the visitor is giving active permission to be exposed to the advertiser’s content, the best possible start for both sides. Using other underline formats, like single underline, which are also used for other types of hyperlinks, confuses readers. Although this can lead to short time increase in clicks, it will lead to longer term dissatisfaction of both the website’s visitors and the advertisers. And then comes the hover…

Mouse Hover

Your website’s visitor reads an article, recognizes a term with double underline as an ad about a term which he’s interested in, and wants to know a little more – what can he do? He simply hovers with the mouse over the link – sometimes referred to as a mouseover – and a bubble appears with an advertisement inside. He looks at the ad… if he’s interested, he can click on it and go directly to the advertiser’s landing   page. If he’s not interested, he moves the mouse away and the bubble disappears.

This active hover is a demonstration of interest by the reader – a very important aspect of this type of advertising, where permission is stronger than interruption, and all parties involved – the reader, the website’s publisher, and the advertiser – should be happier with it. Despite the exposure to the ad’s content, in most cases the business model is based on clicks, so the advertiser pays the website’s publisher only upon a click on the ad (and not for the hover). I will discuss business models later on. For now, I wanted to linger just a little longer over the heart of it all, the bubble.

A Bubble, not a Popup

In Text Advertising uses bubbles. Informative little cartoon-like bubbles, in which the ads are placed with relevance to the highlighted term. There are different types of technology to create the bubbles, but in all cases, a bubble is not a “Popup”. Why? Well, the bubbles are part of the existing web page and they do not send the user to a different location. Also, another strong proof, is that the all mighty popup filters don’t block the bubbles. The most important differentiator is that they are user generated – through the mouse hover, and when the interest is gone, the user can easily make them disappear by moving the mouse away, no clicks required.

So, what is In Text Advertising?

In Text Advertising is a method of advertising where advertisements are placed as hyperlinks within existing text. In other words, it’s those double underline links with the bubbles, that advertisers choose because the leads they get actually chose to get exposed to the ads before clicking, and website publishers love for making them a lot of money with minimal interruption to their user experience.

I plan writing more about the advantages of In Text, tips on improving the integration, secrets of getting it better and much more. Thanks for reading.

When adding more and more display ads on a website and making them larger, animated and jumpy – not to mention covering the entire content with full page ads – we’re only pushing the no-longer-working traditional interruption advertising. Excessive rich media ads work poorly for the advertiser, and since they annoy the website’s visitors, they are eventually bad for the website publisher as well.

For a short while, in-text ads were also considered interruptive. The double underline links appear within the text and are very difficult to avoid, so at first, we deemed them intrusive. But this was a mistake. A double underline link is a subtle hint to a reader telling him that if he’s interested, there’s paid-for content concerning the highlighted term. That’s it. Very delicate, without consuming any of the reader’s time or fighting with the actual text over the reader’s attention. Compared to an animated banner, or to any other form of advertising, it’s the least intrusive form of advertising. And then, only if the reader actively shows interest in the advertising content and takes action in form of an intent hover with the mouse, a bubble appears with an advertisement inside it. Again, the ad only shows up after the reader signaled that he’s interested in learning more about a product or a service. This is permission advertising at its best, and it gets even better.

After the bubble appears, the reader views the advertising content and makes a choice – make the bubble disappear by moving the mouse away and continue reading, or click on the ad and follow it to the advertiser’s landing page. This choice is the second time permission is granted for advertising – turns out that in-text ads are in fact a form of double-permission marketing, with only minimal interruption.

For the advertiser, who pays only for actual clicks, the visitors are all users who actively chose to get exposed to the advertising content. They were seeking further information and they gave their permission – twice! – to spend time with the advertiser, which is best possible start for such a relationship. When advertising works well for the advertiser, the website publisher is also happy, because the advertiser is willing to pay accordingly. In addition, the publisher has managed to limit the interruption to his visitors and therefore improve the chances for them coming back.

As long as the hint for the advertising is clear and the ad only shows up for the interested reader, in-text advertising leans heavily towards the right side of the fight between interruption advertising and permission marketing. It could be very tempting to modify in-text ads to formats that mislead potential readers into clicking without understanding that they are about to be exposed to ads. For the short term, this can increase click rates. But on the longer term, it will move the ads to the other side of this delicate balance, towards interruption, not permission. There are much better ways. To increase clicks, conversions and revenues, the algorithm needs to be improved and the integration should be optimized… there’s a lot to it. I intend sharing my experience with you, if you just give me your kind permission.

We’ve seen it before – from a medium where ads are not allowed, to organizations who protest against the appearance of first ads, and on to the understanding that advertising helps reduce the costs of media access to the general public, and therefore should be embraced under reasonable restrictions. From absence, through protest, to legitimacy – advertising penetrates all media.

This pattern was the same with when ads first appeared in newspapers, then with TV, then with the web, and it has also happened all over again with each new method of advertising in each of the media types. Whenever a new type of advertising appeared, it had to go through the same cycle – from early interest, through protests, and on to recognition and legitimacy. Instead of looking back deep into history books, the best example can be found by flipping back just a few pages: the introduction of ads on the email service from Google.

In its early days, Gmail was available by invitation only and when the ads showed up, the early adopters actually liked the idea of a free service financed by the exposure to ads (before that, except for maybe Hotmail, we had to pay for most good email services – remember that?). When Gmail started to spread, suddenly the ads surrounding the emails became the target of privacy organizations and concerned citizens. The new Big Brother is reading our personal correspondence! And then, a short few years later, it became the standard. The advertising within the email service from Google has become legitimate and millions of people and businesses use Gmail worldwide, enjoying a good free service sponsored by ads.

In Text Advertising is not different than other forms of advertising and it’s going through the same cycle. At first, as a new and exciting method, it was the talk of the day. The online leaders looked into it and the online giants Goolge, Microsoft and Yahoo all made early attempts with the technology. Then, it was shortly deemed intrusive. The same type of people who were once against ads on TV and then on Gmail found the new form of ads as “too much” because it rode on parts of the website’s content. If you keep reading, I will discuss the advantages of in text ads and show how in fact they are the least intrusive, but, as any new advertising method, in text advertising had to take some heat. And then, the protesting calmed down, and during 2008 and early 2009, in text ads became legitimate. From absence, through protest, to legitimacy – in text advertising now penetrates more and more websites.

CNN published an article (Feb 6^th, 2009) about in-text advertising, calling it the “one bright spot in online advertising”, where I picked up an example to the penetration of advertising:

“It’s hard to imagine a news site like the New York Times (nytimes.com) signing on (to in-text ads) without some uproar from readers and staff. Then again, the newspaper recently decided to sell ads on its front page to attract more revenue. And that, too, was once unthinkable.”

And indeed, many other websites are already displaying in-text ads. Here are a few examples: Fox News, MSNBC, iVillage, JPost, BookRags, and eHow. Not convinced yet? Here are some more: esnips, The Hollywood Gossip, Ask The Builder, Money Control, Answer Bag, and so many more (by the way, I used examples of websites who have in-text ads from different providers, not only from my own work place).

By now, I can roughly estimate that over 100,000 websites have tried in text ads, including major websites with substantial traffic. This significant number means that most surfers have seen by now such an ad somewhere. It also means that in each vertical content category, at least a few sites have implemented in text ads, sowing the seeds of legitimacy that spreads on quickly.

On the other hand, despite being a large number, when looking at 100,000 websites out of over 150 million websites worldwide, it is still only a fraction. Take this fact, add the legitimacy factor, and multiple with the crazy fast growth rate, and boom – you get the phenomenal potential of in text advertising. I bet you that the Internet giants will join this party soon. In text advertising is on the verge of being everywhere online.

But, in my opinion, this battle can’t go on forever. Exaggerated reach media annoys visitors, who in turn, look for alternative sources of information. Only very few of them will chose to pay a subscription to avoid ads, while with the growing competition, most will simply move on to another site. With growing concerns about having too many ads, serious online publishers choose very carefully which types of ads to put on their sites. And then, when the ads quite down and show reduced efforts to grab attention, the readers actually give them less attention, and consequently – revenues from advertising drops.

The solution is right there, in the middle of your website. Look carefully… there’s a hidden treasure in your website. The content of the website can serve as a layer for placing subtle ads. Now, I’m not referring to selling your writing skills – and your soul – and writing false reviews in disguise of objective opinions while getting paid for them. That’s a different story. I’m talking about in-text advertising.

When used correctly, in-text ads appear as double-underline links within the content of a website. They do not interfere with the flow of reading and they do not fight over the reader’s attention. The site’s visitors know that these links lead to ads, but they do not distract them. Only when such a link interests the reader, she can hover over the link with the mouse. Then, a bubble will appear with a relevant ad inside. If interested, the visitor can click on the ad and continue to the advertiser’s landing page. If she’s not interested, she simply moves the mouse away and continues reading.

If you haven’t read the About section, I must pause now for a quick remark – I work for Infolinks, a provider of in-text advertising. I am biased. However, I like to wake up each morning smiling when I go to work and as long as I can afford it, I wouldn’t work for something I don’t believe in. I chose to join the Infolinks team because I think this is the right way to go. So, here it is. I’m from the industry. But that’s the best place to gain professional experience, which I hope you can benefit from when reading along.

In-text advertising is a great source for monetizing a website. In text ads complete other types of advertising without affecting them. Relevant in text ads actually enrich the content with relevant ads that visitors find interesting. True, they are still ads and readers would prefer not having them, but the fact is that they generate revenues that help make the information free. This is something that visitors appreciate. Compared to jumping banners, in text ads are the least intrusive method of advertising, yet the high relevancy yield good conversion rates for advertisers – which means that the online publisher is well paid.

When ads started to appear in websites, some people were against it, but with time, we all preferred having the Internet free with ads, then not having it at all. With website revenues dropping, in text advertising could save the day. Noticing that hidden treasure in our websites and monetizing it in the right way will keep the information free and our readers happy. And look around, you see in text advertising more and more and in numerous websites. Finally, after several years, in text advertising now pays very well and has become a legitimate method of both advertising and monetizing.

Theoretically, the positive growth should have kept going. The disturbing economic downturn caused a general decrease in advertising budgets in general. But as part of the process, advertisers are seeking measurable and direct ways to communicate with their potential customers, and online advertising is the leading choice. Therefore, online advertising budgets are still there, that’s not the problem.

The reason that revenues from online ads drop is that the ads have disappeared from our websites. What? The ads have disappeared? Well, not literally, they are still there, but the visitors don’t see them anymore. Just as it happened with other media formats, people’s minds grew to screen the ads out of their sight, and therefore out of the (web)site.

And what have the online marketing industry done to regain the attention to the ads? We made the ads disturb the visitors and fight with the website’s content over the attention of the reader. Banners became animated, living video images walked into the frame, full page ads took over entirely. We replaced reach content with reach media.

But ads can’t win this battle over the minds of people. As readers, we learn how to focus our attention on what we’re looking for. And since it’s the content we’re interested in, not the jumping ads around it, we’ve evolved into human filters, reading content without noticing the ads. In a survey I ran with online readers about their acceptance of a certain type of ads, I added almost by mistake, answers that meant that there were no ads on the page. To my surprise, over 30% of the website’s visitors haven’t noticed the ads, and the single most chosen answer was: “What, there were ads on that page?”

Speaking with younger online dwellers, they describe how they automatically disregard the commercial frame that usually surrounds the content. In fact, they don’t even see it anymore.

While this behavior has not diminished revenues from online ads entirely – clearly, we still monetize our websites – it has a substantial effect on it. I intend to suggest that in addition to the continuous struggle of getting attention to the ads surrounding the text, we should also open our eyes to the potential of the content itself. There’s a hidden treasure in our websites.

The Internet was born free, has changed our way of life, and should stay pure and free of any capitalist interests… would you please stop? The Internet is a wonderful communication tool and a magnificent source of information, but it has costs. And in the real world, somebody needs to pay the bill.

When we find ways to monetize websites, we cover these costs, and by doing so – we help make more information readily available for the human kind. Now, isn’t that a nice thought to wake up with each morning?

Websites need to make money. This is the basic assumption for my work these days. There are three typical ways of making money from a website – charge visitors for usage, sell something to the visitors, and expose visitors to ads. From these three methods, only the third – placing online ads – keeps the information free to the world. A good reason to like it.

I know, I know. Exposure to advertisement has indirect costs and it blurs our delicate minds, but unless you’re ready to move to Mars, it’s already part of everything we do, the Internet included.

So, to wrap this argument up and start with the actual thing, when we place ads on a website, we pick up the bill for the website’s cost, and by doing so – give the visitors more free information and make the world a better place. But lately, the revenues from ads seem to shrink and many claim that they are not enough to justify free websites. Is that so?