Google RSS Feed Ads

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Google RSS Feed Ads

Google is testing Google RSS Feed ads, a new variation of its AdSense program for publishers that allows sites to display text or image ads related to their content and get paid by the click.

In fact, Google just launched this as a "trial" version of their AdSense program that allows publishers to send a text or banner advertisement alongside syndicated content using Really Simple Syndication (RSS) or Atom (Google's adopted format).

In case you've been under a rock or just not technically inclined, RSS is an open standard for content syndication that enables people to access news headlines and other information such as blogs online using a RSS reader. Though RSS is a promising technology, publishers have yet to profit from it. Advertising is widely thought to be the answer. Companies including Kanoodle and Yahoo are testing similar ad services for feeds.

This gives another reason for publishers to start publishing their content via RSS, especially since it is so easy to do and will provide them with an additional source of revenues. With the ease of RSS deployment, I bet we will see a flood of new publishers setting up RSS feeds of their content to generate additional AdSense clicks. It's only a matter of time. My bet is sooner rather than later.

In fact, I just happened to notice the new Google RSS advertisements in my Engadget RSS feed today. Here's a partial screenshot of Engadget's RSS Ads showing up in my RSS Reader: (the RSS ad is at the bottom of each Engadget blog post)
Google RSS Ads
So what does this mean for us RSS fans? Has the last bastion of the Internet free from advertisements now been invaded and corrupted?

Well, if you look at the ad in the screenshot, it is perfectly visible, but I think it is relatively unobstrusive. So this should satisfy most RSS subscribers and it should
satisfy the advertisers as well.

But what is the really important fact is that while RSS advertising is nothing new, the fact that Google automatically provides advertisements is a major breakthrough. Before sales reps had to sell advertisements to be placed in RSS feeds. Further, these ads had to be sold for each RSS feed and they had expiration dates, etc. Well, no longer! You can now leverage the power and ubiquity of Google to help pool advertisers.

Like the Adsense program, I assume Google is leveraging keyword bidding algorithms to determine which advertisements display in a particular RSS feed. Further, I'm betting Google parses the RSS feed to figure out the title of each blog post (via <title> tag
in the RSS feed) and then post a SPECIFIC ad for each post. Google could also perhaps give the title more "weight" than the article content (via the <description> tag in the RSS feed). Or it could be a free for all. Whoever bids the highest on a particular keyword within that blog entry gets the ad first.

Unlike traditional Google Adsense, which figures out which particular ads to display for a single particular page and displays the bidder's ads in order of their bidding (highest to lowest). Conversely, I believe Google RSS Ads figures out which highest bidding ad to display specifically according to each section within the RSS feed. So if you talk about Disney in one blog post, you will see the top bidding Disney ad at the bottom of that entry, and if you talk about Yankees in another blog post you will see the top bidding Yankees ad at the bottom of that post. Again, both the Disney ad and the Yankee ad will be the #1 keyword bidders for their respective blog post. So you get the maximum earnings per click! Google has done it again. Just wait till Google's revenues come out in the 4th quarter which will surprise the analysts yet again due to this new Google RSS advertising revenue! Don't say I didn't warn you!

I know what you are thinking. "So how do I sign up for Google RSS Feed Ads?". The answer is you have to wait. Google is only picking select Adsense advertisers. Maybe they'll follow the viral Google GMail model and make you have to get an "invite" in order to join the elite Google RSS Feed crew! LOL!



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