I found this nugget in Paul’s Google Reader Shared Items feed: “Get Satisfaction Launches Socialized Ad Policy“.
As previously documented here, we like what Get Satisfaction does, and even though ads usually put me right into a coma, my curiosity about how ads could be “smart” (from Paul’s note in Reader) overcame me.
Turns out it is a pretty interesting way to do ads. From the announcement:
Here’s the way our new ads work: If you’re logged in to Get Satisfaction, you won’t see them. If you’re curious, they are text ads, of the familiar Google-based type. Contextual. Low-key. Simple.
Who will see them? People who come to us from a Google search. People who don’t have a Get Satisfaction account. People who are, as they say, “just browsing”.
This sounds like a good idea. I’m accustomed to ignoring ads, but I know people pay attention to them because: a) loads of people say they’re annoying and b) they don’t go away, which means someone is clicking on them.
Google famously uses its algorithm to show ads that are related to your keyword searches (in search) or mail (in GMail). For the most part, it seems pretty successful, but in some cases, it fails. Miserably. I know that one’s not Google, but you get the picture. I know a woman who quit using GMail because Google served her ads about hunting. True story.
So, what do you think about Get Satisfaction’s ad strategy? I wonder if they plan to entice people to register to make the ads disappear.
