Bidvertiser Contextual PPC

Each week (or thereabouts) we plan to feature a new ppc alternative to Adsense and this week it’s Bidvertiser, which, assuming you’re actually viewing our website, can be seen in the right hand column of our home page, or just underneath the title of this post if reading it exclusively.

Bidvertiser Setup
Bidvertisers ads are contextual, so like Adsense, Bidvertiser dynamically determines the most appropriate ads for your site. In my book, this is a great way to protect advertisers and a good way to ensure readers (thats YOU), aren’t annoyed by intrusive, off topic content just because it happens to pay well. Initially, it took around 5 minutes for Bidvertiser to assess the content of my site and start serving contextually relevant ads - although right now, they seem to have reverted to the original, off topic content.. I’m hoping this changes soon, but take a look for yourself and see what you think.

Bidvertiser doesn’t appear to provide feed content either, so if you’re viewing in a reader or the like, sorry, but you’ll have to visit our site to see an example of what their ads look like. Now, down to the meat of it..

Bidvertiser Code
As expected Bidvertiser provides embeddable Javascript to facilitate ad retrieval, but centralizes layout definition at the ad server. Essentially, the Javascript acts as a placeholder which calls the ad script. Unlike Adsense, you dont have to update this code (ie modify your template or web page) every time you change ad parameters. In fact, you’ll probably notice the complete absence of configuration parameters in the Javascript. I found this a pleasant relief from the norm being able to change, colorize etc from the Bidvertiser interface rather than having to cut and paste with every change.

Bidvertiser Ad Units
Bidvertisers publishers interface allows selection and colorization of the ad units which are Adsensesque in layout, with the usual array of banners, skyscrapers, rectangles, and button formats.

Part of the Bidvertiser Publishers interface also provides for ‘Free Design’ which is a powerful feature affording not only the usual colorisation features, but sizing of the layout and font manipulation. Unfortunately it appears locked at just 2 cells (ad units) so it is a little restrictive. I decided to proceed with the ready rolled banner and vertical.

Bidvertiser Controls, Metrics & Reporting
In terms of campaign management, Bidvertisers controls are easy to use and well structured. Reporting is the usual impressions, clicks, revenue format with date filters, while a series of preformatted report views are available at a click. There is also a competitive ads interface, allowing you to designate the ads you don’t want appearing on your site. This is handy because it also reflects the highest bids per ad.

Bidvertiser Payouts
Although I dont yet have any metrics or payouts (I only just put the ads up), I did take a look at the current bids on a variety of topics. Many were at the 2c mark, but there were also some in the higher end at $3+ per click. Bidvertiser payouts are much Like Googles, in that you wait until the end of next month to receive this months revenue. The minimum payout for Bidvertiser is 10$ Paypal, or $50 by check.

Bidvertiser In Action
The ads will be featured on two sites, one being this site, obviously all about PPC and relatively difficult to convert, while the other, a niche product site is relatively easy to convert but with average traffic. Both sites are promoted exclusively through organic (unpaid) SE listings.

Bidvertiser Drawbacks
I don’t doubt there’s more than one, but the one that I noticed off the bat was the need to create distinct ads per site. Indeed the code is portable and might well work across multiple sites, but the TOS state that clicks originating from sites who’s ad code is not unique to that site will not be counted. Basically, you have to create distinct ad code per site, and that’s not good if you operate a network of hundreds of blogs.

Thats the Bidvertiser wrap right now, lets see how the ads perform over the next week. If you have questions please feel free to post comments..

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