Advertising in RSS Feeds

Copyright 2005 Sharon Housley

As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds,
their have been vibrant discussions as to whether
advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will
drive subscribers away. At the end of the day while it
appears that many are discussing the philosophical
approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to
examine the options available for inserting advertisements
in feeds. Ultimately the advertisements served are going to
determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The
ads served must be related to the content contained in the
feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are
relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the
volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will
succeed. Take a closer look at some of the ad serving
options currently available for RSS feeds.

Review of Current Options

Google AdSense for Feeds

Google's AdSense for Feeds offers contextually targeted
advertisements, with a wide selection of advertisers.
Google chooses not to divulge the percentage of revenue
that is shared with the publisher, so it is difficult if
not impossible to predict monthly revenue. The current
Google AdSense system for feeds is tied to blogs and does
not appear to be overly flexible.
http://www.google.com/adsense

Pheedo

Pheedo displays categorized advertisements rather than
contextual advertisements. The upside to this is that
Pheedo's advertisements can be used in conjunction with
Google AdSense or AdSense for feeds without violating
Google's contract. Pheedo works with the publisher to serve
advertisements from similar or related categories
associated with the feeds contents.

Pheedo's system allows for advanced ad filtering, giving
publishers control over keyword ad filtering, specific ad
filtering or url filtering. Pheedo's system also allows
publishers to sell ads to existing advertisers whom they
already have a relationship. The revenue split is 50% and
feeds can be a sponsored flat rate advertisement or a
pay-per-click advertisement, where the publisher is only
paid if the advertisement is clicked. http://www.pheedo.com

Kanoodle for Feeds

Kanoodles systems for providing advertisements for feeds is
similar to Google's but they do not have the breadth of
advertisers that Google boasts. Advertisements are served
based on topics, not to keywords. Kanoodle shares 50% of
the revenue generated from the advertisements with the
publisher serving the ad. http://www.kanoodle.com

Evaluating Options

When evaluating feed ad serving solutions consider the
following:

1. Ad Relevance

In order to generate revenue from RSS advertisements or for
an advertising campaign to succeed using RSS as a channel.
It is absolutely critical that the advertisements served in
the feed contain related content, the more related the
content the higher the likelihood that the advertisements
will be of interest to the reader and clicked. Also the
closer the content relates to the feeds theme the higher
the likelihood the reader will have genuine interest in the
product or service being advertised.

2. Ad Ratio

Publishers need to retain control over the frequency of
advertisements. Readers will become frustrated with feeds
that are heavily laden with advertisements and genuine
content. The advertiser is happy as they are reaching a
targeted audience the publisher is happy because their
advertisement is being clicked and generating revenue.

3. Clearly Denoted as Ads

The debate over editorial control and advertisements rage
on. It is generally considered proper net etiquette for
publishers to clearly mark advertisements to distinguish
them from editorial web content. When selecting a RSS
advertising partner consider the context in which the
advertisements are displayed. Does it blend with the feed
or site, while still being clearly marked sponsored
material? Or does the content blend so well that it appear
as a product or service endorsement from the publisher?
Credibility and reputation online matter, and the
segregation of advertisements and ensuring they are
properly denoted as such will go a long way to enhance
credibility with readers.

Clearly as RSS increases in popularity publishers are
looking for ways to monetize their content. RSS in
advertising is a logical step, and striking a balance
between quality, consistent content and occasional related
advertisements will lead to the success of advertising in
RSS feeds. If the balance is not found, publishers may be
forced to move to a subscription RSS feed model.


About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for
FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating,
editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition
Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev
http://www.feedfordev.com an RSS component for developers.