February 9, 2006

Amazon wants to offer contextual ads on an initial beta test.

Some had expected it and others didn't, but Amazon is to begin the beta testing where it will place contextual text ads on third-party published sites, very similar to those already delivered by Google and Yahoo on their Internet networks.

Some observers believed MSN Search would be the next major Internet power to deliver contextual text ads and share revenue in a network of many sites. Those people were wrong.

Amazon.com has jumped on the bandwagon well before MSN's forthcoming breakup with Overture, all in favor of its AdCenter service.

News about Amazon's contextual ad project broke when Website Publisher founder Chris Beasley blogged about being chatted up by the massive online retailer to take part in their test:

"They've been contacting select members of their associates programs, including myself, asking if we'd like to be beta testers. The way they want the beta test to work is to give you a special code for Amazon's Keywords Recommends banners (the banners that you feed a keyword to and they show related products) and have this special code then show these new ads 50% of the time".

"When I first heard about this I thought it'd be Amazon product listings displayed in an Adsense-like way and I figured it'd analyze your content for products to serve, but they'd be Amazon products. Turns out I was wrong and now they want their own contextual advertising network".

Beasley turned down Amazon's proposal, because it would mean having to dispense with his existing Google AdSense ads, which he cited as being "just too profitable for me."

The story quickly made the rounds online, and Amazon officially confirmed the existence of the program with the ClickZ news site:

"We believe that by working with a third-party to provide Associates with links to relevant Web sites, in addition to products on Amazon, that we can help them make more money from their sites," Andrew Herdener, an Amazon spokesperson, told ClickZ in an e-mail exchange.

"This will help us maintain long-term relationships with our Associates community that provides an important source of traffic to Amazon sites."

Beasley's example demonstrated the problem Amazon will encounter with established AdSense sites.

However, with so many new blogs being added each day, Amazon could try promoting its contextual ad program to new bloggers instead of trying to get existing Associates to ditch AdSense.

Source: Web Pro News

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