Monetise Blog Search With PredictAd
If you’ve used the search engine on Connected Internet in the last 24 hours you might have spotted a cool new auto-complete feature.
This comes courtesy of PredictAd and I installed the feature in under 5 mins. The service works by adding related searches automatically to search queries, as well as adding contextual ads below to the suggested terms. The service also claims to profile the search patterns on each site over time to deliver more relevant ads.
The beauty of the system is that not only will PredictAd help to further monetise your site, it will hopefully increase the number of searches that your users conduct on the site by suggesting similar searches. Results are still displayed using your existing search engine, so any existing deals you may have aren’t impacted. Also, because the pre-search menu only appears when a user types in a query, site owners don’t have to worry about yet another ad scheme taking up valuable space on the page.
Adding PredictAd to my site was very simple. All I had to do was add some code to my header file and to the body and the results appeared automatically. There were a few customisation options that I could have chosen, but I was happy with the default format.
Two revenue share amounts are paid. 50% is paid for network ads and 80% for ads that are ordered on your particular domain. The 50% is a bit stingy I feel when compared to other networks, but I’m sure bigger publishers will be able to negotiate a higher amount. There’s a decent referral scheme though, where 10% of all lifetime advertising revenues is paid to the referring site.
I’d definitely recommend giving PredictAd a try on your site. The ads are so unobtrusive that I can’t see why anyone would object to them, and the search auto-suggest feature is a worthwhile addition in its own right. If you want to quickly see what PredictAd would look like on your site then check out the demo on the homepage.



Comment by Tony on 10 December 2007:
Adsense changed their T&Cs - as long as look different you can run other contextual schemes
Comment by Mad Dozza on 10 December 2007:
If it’s contextual ads, should it be used alongside adsense? I thought this was against the adsense TOS.
Comment by Dan on 8 December 2007:
danm
i have tried it on static html and it does work!
Comment by Everton on 8 December 2007:
@Doc
I don’t think it will
Comment by Doc on 8 December 2007:
Hmmm… I wonder if this can be used on static html?
Comment by Dylan on 7 December 2007:
Wow, I love this….the idea of of having unintrusive ad space is awesome!!!
Comment by Everton on 7 December 2007:
@Dshe
I seem to be having the same problem. I will ask my account manager - I’ll let you know what he says
Comment by Dshe on 7 December 2007:
I have set min CPC at $0.40 (default), but the actual earnings only gives 2 or 3 cents per click
How about yours Everton?