Contextual Advertising 101

Its coming up to 10 years the length I've been involved in online advertising, and below is a good overview which I've snipped on contextual ads. I'm most interested in contextual ads (ala gmail) when applied in a self-service manner to RSS feeds. I don't believe thats available publicly and listening to the Chris Pirillo podcast of adbrite founder, he said there was more demand for advertising in podcasting than in RSS. Interesting.. anyway over to Randy Schwartz who "breaks down contextual advertising into four types: search-based contextual; channel-based contextual; Behaviorally-Based Contextual; and In-Line Advertising.

1. Search-based Contextual
This type if exemplified by Google's AdSense program. The more specific the verbiage, the more likely you can control the focus of your ad environment.

2. Channel-Based Contextual
This type of advertising is similar to the ad networks created by Kanoodle and Valueclick. Keyword lists are largely irrelevant as the network will target channels and sub-channels that greatly diminish the precision of your customer profile or targeting intent. Finally, to further diversify their services, the channel-based contextual players are offering add-on premiums like geo-targeting, pay-per-call, occasionally even day-parting.

3. Behaviorally-Based Contextual
Here, the network veers away from the background content and builds user-based profiles based on a user's behavior across a network. This technology, offered by players like Tacoda and Blue Lithium, will typically leverage inventories across a narrow network of premiere publishers using their technology for in-house profiling and ad-sales.

4. In-Line Advertising
This is one of the most often maligned forms of contextual advertising and often the most intrusive. In-line advertising is developed by companies like Vibrant Media and a lot of advertisers are reluctant to work with these roll-over ads on the presumption that users are still unfamiliar and taken off-guard by the ads that arise as they innocently scroll over content. You may or may not include the Claria-types of download applications within this category

Knowing the differences across contextual ad types can help marketers more effectively leverage this medium for their campaigns, and quite possibly deal with the exponential increase in sales calls you'll receive from players which seem to be popping up every hour..."