Adsense for Feeds, huge revenue potential for Google?

23. Apr 2007 | 7 Comments

I was pondering today whilst looking at my feed subscribers & thinking that most of my regular readers would all read the blog from within their feed reader since I have the full feed turned on.

I’ve signed up to a few feed advertising services but have been fairly disappointed with Inventory.

I couldn’t really figure out why Adsense hadn’t adapted into this vertical yet, especially with feed readers becoming more & more popular. But wait! Low & behold it’s currently in beta testing. However it’s also full.

But the main issue I have with this, is that most feed subscribers will rarely click on Adsense ads anyway so why would they click on them in your feed posts?

Feedburner Ads avoid this problem by using a CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions) model which pay on every feed impression received. Such a model favours blogs that post often.

How do you feel about Advertising in Feeds?

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7 Comments on "Adsense for Feeds, huge revenue potential for Google?"

Runa 24. Apr 2007, 3:53 am

Does Feedburner Ads have a good revenue per 1000 feed impressions?

Garrett 24. Apr 2007, 3:54 am

I use MyYahoo, so I wouldn’t see the ads. In general, I’d guess that your readers are typically advanced internet users and wouldn’t click too many feed ads. I’ve got a bad case of banner blindness as well, but hey if you can make a few $$ off the CPMs it sounds like a worthy test.

Jon Symons 24. Apr 2007, 11:17 am

It has been in “beta” and “full” for a long time (well over a year). I can remember seeing them when they first came out and they sucked so fiercely that I’m sure Google has secretly scrapped them.
They were images made to look like regular AdSense. You couldn’t customize the colors or anything, and the click through rates that beta testers reported were dismal.
I have Text-Link-Ads in my feeds now and it brings in a few bucks a month.
In general I feel that RSS feed advertising is a bit of a lost cause. An interesting stat that I read Feedburner put out the other day: the number of click throughs on full feeds vs. partial feeds was almost the same. So maybe it is best to think of feeds a part of the net that pulls in traffic to your site, and focus on monetizing the site.

Stuart 24. Apr 2007, 4:38 pm

I’ve seen anywhere up to $8cpm for some ads. I’m in the process of testing feedburner out at the mo

moneymaker 24. Apr 2007, 5:50 pm

feedburners ad network is by invitation only right? ive signed up and emailed them a long time ago and never received any reply..

Vince Cordic 04. May 2007, 5:17 am

I think contextual ads in feeds *can* work, but only if they are very well targeted and integrated nicely.

Even advanced internet users will click on an ad if it truly interests them.

CPM ads seem like the way to go for the time being, but if Google is able to better target RSS feed ads, then I could see them making alot more money than basic CPM ads.

tanya 05. May 2007, 2:04 am

I’ve clicked on a few ads in feeds, but only when the ads were related to the topic of the blog. Otherwise I totally ignore them.