Targeted Advertising Explained

What is Targeted Advertising ?

Targeted advertising is a very simple no risk, no cost way for webmasters to easily monetise their website. Most websites now have targeted advertising of some description, with the most common being Google AdSense. These ads take many forms. 

The least obtrusive of these is a small link box placed on your anywhere on your website.  When a user clicks on one of these links they are taken to a page with sponsored advertisers ads. If they then click one of the ads, the webmaster receives a payment for that click. The larger advertising boxes can display anything from one to five ads. An option to display image ads is also available.

Why would I want to use Targeted Advertising ?

Targeted Advertising is one of the most cost effective means for a webmaster to monetise their website with little or no effort. Once the ads are set up, there is nothing more to do than check your account balance and wait for the commissions to start rolling in. Most targeted ads can be customised to look like they are a natural part of your website.

It is very easy to implement in your site. You simply sign up for an account, set up and customise your ad delivery then copy and paste the code that is generated for you into the pages of your website. You can even track which group of ads are performing the best.

How does Targeted Advertising work to monetise my website ?

Companies such as Google send out spiders on the web. These spiders read your content. Google then send ads to your site according to the keywords that the spider picks up from your site. this makes it far more likely for your visitors to click on the ads as they are already looking for that kind of product.

For more information or to sign up for a Google AdSense account click the button.
Makes good sense to me.

What other companies have targeted advertising ?

Google is the easiest to start with, but you may like to consider Yahoo! or the MSN network as well. There are other companies available but I currently only recommend these three.