In-text advertising involves serving up a small window with either an ad, related content, or related links (or a combination of these) when a Web page visitor mouses over a specially-hyperlinked word on a page. While normal hyperlinks might be blue with a single underline, for example, an in-text advertising link can be green with a double-underline.

Matching and the selection of in-text hyperlinked words is typically done by the in-text advertising network. The publisher simply embeds a snippet of code into the page, and the network serves up the hyperlinking and pop-up window code through Ajax.

Here are four current in-text ad networks:

• Kontera: Kontera’s ContentLinks product for publishers boasts high CTRs and allows publishers to earn incremental revenue on their existing inventory (we’ve been using it on HubPages for about 6 months, and have seen the revenue it earns clearly exceeds what it cannibalizes from other advertising on the page). It also allows a high degree of publisher control, allowing competitive and keyword filtering, control over the number of ads per page, the look of the pop-up window, etc.
• Snap: Snap’s SnapShots are a way for publishers to serve up related content (from Wikipedia, Flickr, and other trusted sources), but there are two ways a publisher can benefit additionally: through Snap Shares (getting impression shares for their site or favorite charities) or through the Gold Publishers program, restricted to larger English-language sites (250,000+ monthly  PVs) with predominantly U.S. traffic, and in certain verticals (Automotive, Business and Finance, Computing and Technology, Health, and Travel).
• Miva: Miva’s Inline Ads serve up pay-per-click (PPC) ads directly upon a user’s hover over the hyperlinked keywords. Similar to its competitors, it allows competitor blocking, and it also allows publishers to bypass its contextual matching keyword discovery functionality and directly select the keywords used to trigger ads.
• Vibrant Media: Vibrant offers two in-text advertising options: In-Text Ads and InterestADs. Both require at least 500,000 monthly vertical page views, in a long list of available categories (including health, business, computing and travel). In-Text Ads work similarly to its competitors, serving up advertising or advertising-supported content in a pop-up window; InterestADs integrate in-text hyperlinked keywords (with a box around them) with traditionally-placed standard IAB ad units

How do in-text ads perform? With the current state of the ad market, I wouldn’t dare hazard a guess on CPMs. However, Vibrant Media’s CEO Douglas Stevenson, in a December 2007 article stated 3% to 10% scroll over and click on in-text ads, depending on the category.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 9:40 am and is filed under Online Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.