An Introduction to In-text Advertising
Companies like Vibrant Media, Infolinks, and Kontera have popularized a special form of online advertising known as in-text ads.
In-text ads, as the name implies, appear dynamically within the text content of a web page. Thus, they can increase monetization potential of a website, without taking up any extra space within the web page. In this article, let’s see more about in-text advertising.
Contextual vs. In-text Advertising
Contextual ads are those blocks of links placed typically on the sidebar or on the top of the content of a web page. They thus take up some amount of space within the page. On the other hand, the in-text ads are incorporated into the text of the page and hence don’t need any more space.
In-text ads are dynamically generated. When a user visits a page, specific phrases on the page are converted into links, with the help of a piece of JavaScript code called from the server of the in-text ad provider. Nevertheless, these dynamically generated links are not visible as anchor elements in the source code of the page and are hence not recorded by search engines. Therefore, these links impart no SEO benefits to the respective advertisers.
When users hover over these dynamic links, they will see small pop-up boxes within the current browser window (above the text). They show a tiny description of the advertised product, with a button to visit the product page. A click on such a button can earn the publisher a percentage of the CPC. Some pop-ups may also display videos or images. These pop-ups disappear when users move to other parts of the page.
Both contextual ads and in-text ads are contextually targeted, which means, the ads displayed depend on the content on the page and search queries used to find it. They are both pay-per-click ads, which means, advertiser pays for a click and a specific percentage from this payment is paid to the publisher of the content.
Advantages and Disadvantages of In-text Ads
In-text ads have many advantages over their contenders, contextual text ads, banner ads, full page ads, and others.
- In-text ads don’t need any extra space on a website.
- Implementation is very easy as it requires embedding a snippet of JavaScript code only once for the entire website (usually above the </body> tag).
- Most of the providers help you configure the looks of these links to correspond to those in your website. So, you can make them look like natural links, which can guarantee a higher CTR (Click Through Rate).
- The configuration of the ads can be done through a centralized system, which makes it a lot easier. In case of contextual ads, you need to edit settings for each block you use, and there may be several blocks.
- They can effectively increase the total monetization potential of a website, though may be inferior in terms of CPC. This is mainly because the in-text ads don’t need any extra space.
However, there are quite a few disadvantages as well to in-text advertising.
- Intrusion to content: The links are dynamically embedded to content, so you need to limit the number of such links. Otherwise, the content may get messy with lots of links.
- Slow loading: Though the in-text links are displayed after the entire page has loaded, they may sometimes be unresponsive. This is because many in-text ad providers use video ads and image ads, which are all syndicated from a common server. This may cause bad user experience.
- Monetization potential: Though in-text ads have a lot of advantages, the number of advertisers and the CPC (Cost Per Click) are still relatively low. So, in-text campaigns can provide less money than contextual ad campaigns.
In-text Ad Providers
There are several online advertising providers who provide in-text ads to publishers. Here are the main three of them.
Vibrant Media: Vibrant Media is perhaps the pioneer of in-text advertising. The dynamic links, when hovered over, generate small pop-ups within the browser window, displaying a short description of the product/service advertised. Sometimes, it may include videos or pictures. In order to be a publisher for Vibrant Media, a site should have minimum of 500,000 page views in a month, besides other conditions.
Infolinks: This service is getting more and more popular in in-text ad arena. The service is more streamlined and easy to understand to most publishers. Also, there is no page view requirement to join Infolinks. The ads are typically small pop-up boxes with description of the advertised product and a button to visit the product page.
Kontera: Kontera also provides in-text ads, which look like those of Infolinks and Vibrant. But these ads are rather slow-loading than the others. Kontera also places no page view requirements to the publishers who can join.
It is advised that you enable ads from only one provider on a website at a time. You may try changing the providers to see which gives more benefits.
Conclusion
In-text ads, requiring no extra space, are a great way to augment the money you get from your website now. With great traffic, the earnings can be pretty substantial. With the technology developing, more and more advertisers will be interested in in-text advertising. This rising competition can bring about higher pay per click rates for publishers.
Here is an alternative view of in text advertising, do you find it intrusive?

