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MerchSense Makes Sense for Higher Yield

Behind the scenes at WidgetBucks we’ve been working to improve MerchSense, our contextual algorithm. One way we’re doing this is by implementing YieldSense(tm), which is technology that automatically generates the highest possible yield for publisher ad placements, and we’re nearly ready to publish the first phase of these improvements. Starting as early as this weekend or Monday, U.S. and Canada visitors on sites that are running MerchSense will begin seeing short-duration display advertising running before WidgetBucks’ traditional shopping widgets. This hybrid CPM display ad/PPC shopping widget combination is intended to help improve effective CPM (eCPM), while maintaining a great e-commerce experience through our widgets. Here is a summary of what is being announced:

• Display ads will begin running before WidgetBucks’ shopping widgets — the duration and advertisers will be dynamic to best optimize for the eCPM of your individual site
• Only U.S. and Canada visitors on sites running MerchSense will see the hybrid CPM display ad/PPC shopping widget (non-U.S. and Canada traffic continues to pay on a CPM basis)
• Display ads are site-category specific and include major corporations as advertisers
• Revenue earned through the display ads will appear within publishers’ MyWidgets pages, and be included in the roll-up and pie-chart displays, as well as the “CPM Ads” tab
• Only widgets configured for MerchSense will initially be able to take advantage of this automated yield optimization
• As a reminder, MerchSense works best with product-specific sites and blogs rather than sites covering affiliate tools or online money making

One final note about display advertising: according to a JP Morgan report released in January, online display advertising is expected to jump 20 percent to $8.6 billion this year.

GigaOm: Companies Can Make Money From Widget Ads

Influential tech blog GigaOm included WidgetBucks in an article this week about the state of ad widgets. Journalist Stacey Higginbotham writes:

“Brand and comparison advertising done through ad-focused widgets is emerging as a viable way of using the ubiquitous applications” and “WidgetBucks is one such widget-creation/ad network company making money with this approach.” She also indicates that where this “leaves startups such as RockYou and Slide, which develop entertainment widgets, and the ad networks that cater to those applications, is still unclear.”

This piece supports the recent post of our CEO Matt Hulett, who talks about 2008 as the Year of the Ad Widget.

Read the rest of the GigaOm article here.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Updated MyWidgets Page Now Live!

Publishers logging-in to check their WidgetBucks earnings will now see some new additions to their MyWidgets page. This was originally mentioned in a post January 28. Here is a summary of the updates:

• A “roll-up” summary view of Widget/PPC and CPM revenue and impressions, including their pie chart equivalents. The totals are a reflection of the date range selected.
• Column totals for all relevant columns in the Widgets and CPM tab views
• The default date range upon login will be set to “This Month.” This eliminates the need for publishers to adjust the date range during each visit, while still giving flexibility to manually select dates.
• A “notes” feature will be added (along with a corresponding entry field in the New/Edit Widget pages). For each widget, we are providing publishers with the ability to add internal notes that won’t appear on the widget itself. For instance, a publisher can note a particular ad position (i.e. “right sidebar above About Me”) or any info on recent adjustments (i.e. “changed to blue 1/28/07″) in order to better keep track of their changes. Site visitors will still see the main widget “Name” assigned by the publisher.

providers has now been resolved, and we updated both MyWidgets and MyBucks pages to reflect earnings for that day. Payments sent next week will include earnings for the entire month, including Dec. 31st.