Pros & Cons of AdSense Interest-Based Advertising
Google recently announced interest-based advertising as a new feature for AdSense. They also announced that publishers would need to change their privacy policies – and anything that invokes a change to a privacy policy will be sure to get the critics out.
But from a more technical standpoint, what does this mean for publishers, advertisers and consumers?
The Cons
- Google will hold more information about you. This is a con, if you care about it or believe that Google is aspiring to build an evil empire. Despite this, the information probably won’t relate to you – and what I mean by relate is Google won’t be able to identify you individually; you are just a cookie to them. I am rating this a con overall because it rarely translate into positive publicity when it comes to Google and privacy.
- If Google is monitoring for interests, what happens to niche products? It’s possible that interest based advertising could overcomplicate advertising on an overall basis.
- Interest based advertising, if not implemented well, could actually lower CTR by undermining advertisements that would relate well to the content of the page.
- For publishers and advertisers, this generally means more money in their pocket.
- For consumers, there could be privacy concerns.
The Pros
- If interest based advertising is implemented well, it would likely increase CTR on large community websites where AdSense doesn’t usually perform so well.
- Statistically knowing that someone is consistently visiting websites that are known for a negative stance on abortion could prevent advertisements such as those for the morning after pill, or birth control.
- When you receive visitors via search traffic, and the visitor doesn’t find what they’re looking for because the page simply didn’t relate very well, the advertisement targeting could be consideribly more accurate resulting in a higher CTR.
- By keeping a profile of a visitor to AdSense enriched websites, Google can profile which ads they are most likely to click – which ads perform well, and which don’t. Any statistics that help Google develop an advertising network that performs well, could be a benefit to everyone.
- For publishers with blogs that aren’t very specific in their content and often display PSAs, interest based advertising could be a big plus.
What are your thoughts?