Commentary

Digg This: What If Google Paid Search Ads Were Socially Driven?

Matt Williams

Google may have invented the paid search format, but in 2010 that format continues to evolve. At Digg, paid search ads continue to become contextually and community driven. The ability to add a social twist to pay per click (PPC) ads puts a new spin on two proven search advertising models. Imagine paid search ads began appearing in the line listing of Google's organic search engine results.

What relevance would Google require if three ads per page were allowed to mix and mingle in the organic listing? As search engine results pulls in the underpinning of the social connections across the Internet will we see three paid search ads intermingled in the search engine page results?

Advertisers create story versions of their messages through Digg ads that fall into line with search listings on the site, Digg CEO Matt Williams tells MediaPost. "The community voice in a community driven Web site is extremely important," he says.

Users digg ads, which tells the advertisers their likes and dislikes. It cost the advertiser less when dug by a user and more when it's buried in the results. It tells the advertisers what works and what doesn't and when the message resonates and when it doesn't.

It cost the advertiser more money for the ad when it's buried because it's not placed as frequent. Sometimes the ads don't serve out all its impressions. If the advertiser wants to achieve the impressions or click-throughs they need to increase their bid amount, so it costs them more for the same real estate for an ad that's dugg. When an ad is dug, dig gives the advertiser additional free impressions on top of what they receive, so it cost them less.

Digg's contextually community drive ads have become more than 60% of the company's revenue, compared with a few months ago at 40%. The company recently launched a diggable display ad, putting a dig button below the ad, taking a cue from Facebook. Digg users also can take the ads viral, sharing it in the "my news" feed, sharing it with friends. Impressions for advertisers are free when they turn viral because they become shared content.

Yes, Digg dropped more than 37% of its staff in October, lost its chief revenue officer Chas Edwards, and Kevin Rose stepped aside allowing Williams to turnaround the company. Williams downsized the company from 67 to 42 people. And although a touch decision, the former Amazon executive is determined to put the company back in the black by mid-year 2011.

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