Contextual Search
Contextual search is advertisement in the form of text and image ads within the content of a site.
Other names this goes by are:
- Content marketing
- Content network
- Contextual search
Where can you find contextual advertisements?
Within the content of websites, you may have seen sections on a site called “Ads powered by…..” These are the contextual ads on a site
Where do these ads come from?
The ads are targeted based on the theme of a particular web page and the overall website. e.g. If the site is talking about healthy food, then the ads that will appear will also be about healthy food.
The ads themselves are powered from the Pay Per Click network which is based on relevancy. Assuming that the website owner has themed each page correctly and the advertiser has set up their Pay Per Click account correctly then it should all work very well.
Do they have to be text based?
No, you can drop in Display Advertising, video ads and interactive ads too.
What is contextual search used for?
To put it simply, getting your name out there. Since you can potentially target thousands websites, you can get your brand name and or message out to millions of potential customers/clients.
Contextual search, like Pay Per Click, is an excellent method to support your advertising in other areas. e.g. if you are running advertising in newspapers, magazines, TV, radio etc then using contextual search to support your other media will help drive higher relevancy and more interactions with your business.