The Basics of Contextual Advertising

Contextual advertising targets advertisements to web users based on the content the user is viewing. The basics of contextual advertising are simple. An automated system, instead of real people, selects the ads that will be displayed to the user. If, for example, the user views a web page focused on classical music, the user may see ads promoting classical concert tickets or classical music CDs and downloads. Contextual advertisements tend to be more targeted than regular ads. Users see ads based on the topic in which they are interested at that particular moment. Thus, contextual ads are more likely to generate revenue for the website displaying the ads as well as for the product or company the ad is promoting.

Contextual advertising is displayed within web pages or alongside search engine results. When a person visits a page within a website, the contextual advertising system scans the content for specific words or combination of words, called keywords. The system then shows ads based on the specific content the user is viewing at the time. Search engines also display contextual advertising alongside search results. For instance, if a user searches for camcorders, advertisements for stores that sell specific types of camcorders may appear alongside the search results. The search engine user may also see ads for books about camcorders.

Many companies provide contextual advertising systems. Google’s AdSense displays advertisements on participating websites in its network. Google scans the content of the web pages for keywords, then displays relevant advertisements based on those keywords. Yahoo and Microsoft offer similar contextual advertising technology for their search engines and network of websites. The primary benefit of contextual advertisements is relevance. Beyond targeting ads to specific content, contextual ads take users to specific landing pages. A landing page is the web page a user visits upon clicking a contextual ad. Landing pages are designed to be highly targeted to the content of the contextual ad. The end result is that the user often finds exactly the information or product he or she was seeking.