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The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Context lite

6 comments on Context lite

Context lite
: Wonk commends to our reading Nate Elliott’s column that calls Google’s AdSense program a “house of cards:”

AdSense is a house of cards, built on a foundation that forces advertisers to overpay for contextual ads. If Google allowed separate bids, it would risk losing revenue on multiple fronts: from the lower bids, the loss of distribution, and the loss of revenue share. The company bet it could keep prices high and revenue shares low as it built this program. But with smart advertisers turning off their AdSense ads, it’s time for Google to give advertisers what they want.

Google must create a separate marketplace for bidding on AdSense ads. Contextual advertising will be a very large business. At appropriate prices it can be a very effective advertising tool. Forcing advertisers to pay inflated prices can only stunt the business’s growth and hurt Google’s reputation as a fair and friendly company. Creating a separate marketplace would probably also force Google to reveal the revenue share it offers publishers. An added measure of transparency would surely be welcome.

Google can’t — and shouldn’t — do it all. Others will — and should — do what Elliott wants.

Google is the last mass medium. It deals in big numbers. It is forever hungry for inventory. It is essentially shallow. Whether you are buying an ad on a search term or on a term that happens in (cont)text, you’re essentially buying a coincidence. What you really want to buy is a relationship.

6 responses to “Context lite”

  1. Andy Freeman Avatar
    Andy Freeman

    Advertisers may want to buy a relationship with me, but do I want a relationship with them?
    Hmm – how much are they paying me? (They were planning to pay me, right?)

  2. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    If AdSense was as viable as they say, then all we would’ve needed pre-internet would have been NYT/Chi Trib etc classified ads, and not bothered with all that TV/print/radio/magazine nonesense.
    From a marketing perspective, everything about AdSense stinks: “This is the solution. Take it or leave it.” Yeah, right. My client’s ad budget is $100 million next year. Like I don’t have other alternatives. As if.
    And of course, what they’re not saying is the other search engines that may replace it. Not to mention other ad platforms like Blogads.com whiuch I believe deliver far better branding… So Google is the best we got. But for how long?

  3. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    Andy, to answer your question- Advertisers may want a relationship with you, and you can say yay or nay. But don’t underestimate your competition’s willingness to say “yay” before you do.
    Yes, I’m sure some bloggers like to fantasize that we will all rise up and refuse Madison Avenue’s “dirty” money en masse, banishing advertising to commercial oblivion as a new democratic, ad-free medium replaces TV as the primary locus for the nation’s soul. I’ll believe it when I see it.
    It took TV 30 years to become a sophisticated advertising medium. I’m guessing the blogosphere will take 5-10. By “sophisticated” I mean, “able to sell mundane products like toothpaste of soap to tens of millions of people” as opposed to “‘Bush Sucks’ T-shirts to a few thousand”.
    The blogosphere is in an extremely infantile, sophomoric stage right now. To assume that will remain so indefinitely is unrealistic.

  4. Andy Freeman Avatar
    Andy Freeman

    I’m not anti-advertising. I LIKE advertising.
    However, I’m confused by this “relationship” stuff.

  5. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    Andy, go here:
    http://www.gapingvoid.com/entry.php?id=531
    The “relationship stuff” means the rapport between brand and consumer is more two-way. The consumer sees his input and opinion as getting ever more influential in evolving the brand character. Now of course that’s easier with a brand like Apple iPods than say, Crest Toothpaste. However with technology the opportunities for Crest are much greater than say, 10-20 years ago.

  6. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    “What you really want to buy is a relationship.”
    That’s exactly what internet ads are about, Jeff.
    When I buy a $30 blogad on say, janegalt.net, it’s becasue I want her readers coming over to my website and checking it out. I want as many janegalt readers as possible reading my site (even 10% would be great) because, as a human being, I think highly of jane galt and her readers.
    This desire of “connection” I have… well, Proctor & Gamble have it, too. Only because the numbers they have to deal in are so comparitively vast, the connection is vastly diluted. Can blogs and technology lessen the dilution? Even if you lessen it a few percentage points, we’re talking millions of dollars.