• by Kate Kaye , April 2, 2004

Contextual keyword advertising provider Vibrant Media today announced the availability of its pay-for-performance IntelliTXT product, which it claims brings advertisers one step closer to the Web. While some contextual ad firms rely on reach and others on more refined relevancy as selling points, Vibrant Media is banking on the content proximity factor to propel IntelliTXT.

Unlike other contextual keyword ads that appear as separate ad placements, IntelliTXT ads run within Web content itself. The text ads appear directly within articles and other textual site content upon mouse-over of specially linked keywords.

Until now, the ads have been made available during a test period to advertisers and agencies including FCBi, IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., and Interpublic Group of Cos.' Universal McCann. IntelliTXT links, which are always green and underlined twice, have run primarily on technology sites. Now, content categories such as finance, auto, and travel will be widely available to advertisers through Overture's bidding system.

IntelliTXT ads run on 150 publisher sites including Consumer Review, Popular Mechanics PM Zone, and HTMLcenter, as well as through networks like BURST! Media, 24/7 Real Media, and Tribal Fusion.

"I was taken by the fact that you could integrate this right into the content," comments Jarvis Coffin, president and CEO of specialty content ad network BURST! Media. The network began selling IntelliTXT ads as a third-party partner in March. "It's not search. It's context on steroids," Coffin adds.

Autumn Martin, online media supervisor at Universal McCann Interactive, has run IntelliTXT ads on technology trade publication sites for Microsoft campaigns aimed at information technology decision makers. She claims that they result in a better cost-per-action than Google keyword search listings buys: "They're more relevant. I like the idea of being in the content." The agency plans to test IntelliTXT ads targeting the small business market next month.

Ever since Google took the lead on integrating keyword search ads with content, firms such as Overture, Sprinks, Kanoodle, and Quigo have made forays into the contextual keyword ad market. Still, whether contextual keyword advertising will reach its promised potential remains to be seen. Even those advertisers that regularly do search marketing have cited reasons such as high costs and lack of content relevancy to explain their hesitancy to add contextual keyword ads to the mix.

Vibrant Media CEO Doug Stevenson contends that, because they are placed outside of the actual content, other contextual keyword ad products get lumped in with ad formats that can be ignored by users. "They're still working outside of the article itself," he argues. "The challenge there is banner blindness." Because they are essentially part of the content, IntelliTXT ads are more likely to get noticed, he believes.

Stevenson suggests that current events news articles are generally not the most valuable places for contextually targeted ads. Instead, the firm is leveraging IntelliTXT's ability to monetize otherwise less profitable content areas such as user-generated product review sections and forums. Specific product names or other related keywords are often repeated throughout these types of sections. "There's an assumption that there are recurring words in that content that are relevant to advertisers," BURST!'s Coffin explains.

For example, a templates tutorial on tech resource site HTMLcenter features the keyword "Macromedia"--which, branded in green as an IntelliTXT link, prompts an ad for FreeOvernightShipping.com to appear near the user's cursor. To determine content relevancy, the IntelliTXT system spiders publisher sites and assigns an identifier to each page, attaching it to particular concepts and themes. The information is then stored in a database that matches those themes and pages to Overture's database.