Deliver Targeted Traffic with Contextual Advertising

While similar in presentation and implementation to the "Sponsored Results" found on Yahoo! Search Marketing (previously Overture) and Google Adwords, contextual advertising is fundamentally different in the way it is distributed to Internet users. Conventional search advertising appears when users actively search for specific terms using search engines and portals; contextual ads passively appear on content-based websites across the entire web.

Other forms of advertising are distributed similarly to contextual advertising, most notably are banner ads.  Both are distributed across the web on content sites, rather than on traditional search portals.  This is where their similarity ends.  Banner ads are an effective use of advertising, but contextual ads have several advantages over traditional banners.

Banners are generally graphics intensive, requiring a staff to maintain and update images to attract the attention of potential buyers.  And though graphic advertising tends to stand out more on a page, text-based ads have proven to be better received by visitors and generate higher click-though rates of these visitors.  The advantage that can be seen here is that a well written contextual ad explains the product or service more clearly than a graphics-based ad may.

Another advantage of contextual advertising is in their placement.  Banner ads are usually placed either site-by-site, requiring human intervention to build relationships between the two sites, or through the use of “ad farms”, where you submit your ads to a group and then receive reciprocal ads on your site.  The latter of these generally does not put your product or service on sites with a strong association to your business, while the former can be time consuming to manage

Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords have taken advantage of their already strong keyword search network, and have applied these concepts into a content network.  Your contextual advertising campaigns can be designed in parallel with your keyword campaigns, and then be distributed to participating relevant sites across the Web.  This is done automatically based on site matching and relevancy algorithms so your content shows the “right” pages simply and easy to manage.

Contextual ads allow you to expand your audience by allowing sites to locate you on similar sites they are viewing, despite not finding you via traditional keyword searching.  These ads not only help round out a full search marketing campaign, but are in fact essential in driving relevant traffic to your site.