Google Advertising Tools, 2nd Edition

CPC Vendors Compared

Google’s AdSense program is, of course, the largest of the contextual CPC ad programs, with features aimed at both large and small web publishers.

Note

See Part II for a lot more information about AdSense. In this chapter, these programs are considered from the viewpoint of a web publisher wanting to host ads. They could, of course, also be considered from the opposite viewpoint: that is to say, an advertiser wishing to place an ad.

If you are a large web publisher, you may wish to investigate the major competitors to Google’s AdSense: DoubleClick and Yahoo! Publisher Network. At the time of this writing, DoubleClick is only open to publishers with hundreds of thousands of impressions per day, and the Yahoo! program is in invitational beta (and also for larger publishers).

While Google’s AdSense program works astonishingly well for many smaller publishers, there are some reasons publishers might like to investigate working with one of AdSense’s smaller competitors:

• You’d like more control over the ads that appear on your site, perhaps even to the extent of approving each ad before it can be served on your web pages.

• Your site features content that is not acceptable to Google, such as adult content.

• You’d like to understand exactly what advertisers are paying for the ads and exactly how much commission is being deducted; maybe you’d like to approve some ads only if the price is right.

• You want to make sure you have a viable alternative to Google in case something goes ...