Internet Marketing 101: The Case for Semantic Advertising

As with contextual advertising, the content of a webpage is matched to the content of an ad, but with semantic advertising the actual meaning of the content on a webpage is also taken into account. Semantic advertising analyzes not just the words in sections of content but the meaning and sentiment of those words. Then, ads are matched based on the semantics of the content, hopefully for a better match and a deeper engagement with the consumer.

"The function of semantic advertising technology is to semantically analyze every web page in order to properly understand and classify the meaning of a web page and accordingly ensure that the web page contains the most appropriate advertising. Semantic advertising increases the chance that the viewer will click-thru because only advertising relevant to what they are viewing, and therefore their interests, should be displayed," is written about semantic advertising at Wikipedia.

Peer39 is one semantic ad firm which matches ads with analyzed content. The SemanticMatch platform helps publishers find a better fit between content and ads while SemanticProtect helps to detect content that could be potentially harmful to the brand and gives publishers options for dealing with the potential problem.

"[Targeting] has never been more important. Economic difficulties aside, ad prices have dropped because advertisers are not seeing results. Any publisher who wants to command premium rates must demonstrate that they can justify the fee by getting ads in front of the right consumers," said Amiad Solomon, CEO of Peer39. "In a perfect world, advertisers should of course research the destination for their ads. But even this labor-intensive approach cannot protect a brand from content that is uncomplimentary to a brand, such as disasters and adult material, nor from negative sentiment or bad keyword matches. Without a better technology, there is no foolproof approach."

One trend that Solomon is beginning to see is more development of the Semantic Web, which could make things simpler for publishers and for advertisers alike. As more content is analyzed it becomes easier to match ads to content, helping to better engage the consumer base. Solomon expects, as the recession ends, to see even more development of semantic portals as well as more spending from consumers and businesses online.

"The end of the recession will mark the start of a new phase of Internet technology. Most likely, semantics will be a defining aspect of this event. There will also be resurgence in business on the Web, which will drive ad spending as well as investments by publishers in more effective ad technology, such as that provided by semantics," said Solomon.

Tags: online advertising, Peer39, semantic advertising, semantics, targeting advertising contextual advertising