10 Comments

Contextual Marketing meets Affiliate Marketing: Think Partnership Acquires Contextual Marketing Company

Nov 17, 2005
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Looks like Kowabunga and Primary Ads scored a coup today when their parent company, Think Partnership, bought a majority stake of Crystal Semantics for $1.4 million cash and stock worth $153,000. Crystal Semantics is a contextual relevancy web technology that could be applied to affiliate marketing. Think about AdSense’s contextual algorithm applied to traditional affiliate marketing — and we all know AdSense is just an affiliate program anyway. In this world, publishers could just pull some code from an affiliate network and then, just let the context matching engine determine what offer to run from the affiliate network. I suspect, this could take a piece of AdSense’s real estate back to affiliate marketing if done correctly.

Of course, I’m just speculating here, since all ThinkPartnership said to ClickZ is the technology can be put to “service for Think’s WebSourced unit and perhaps its Primary Ads and KowaBunga! affiliate marketing subsidiaries.”

I’ve been wondering why have the CPA networks along with the big three affiliate networks (CJ, LinkShare, and Performics) have not explored this route. Perhaps they are and just not talking about it. In any event, this could open up a whole new way for publishers and advertisers to drive revenue through the affiliate channel if it works.

About Beth Kirsch

You can find Beth on Twitter @bethkirsch

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing + Contextual Advertising
  • Bryce

    I have been waiting for two years to see how CJ and the other networks would respond to Adsense taking a lot of the online marketing prime eyeball space.

    This new plan might actually do it.

  • http://www.jangro.com Scott Jangro

    Do we forget CJ Evolution?

    That was CJ's foray into a "contextual" product. It actually wasn't contextual, but tried to serve relevent text ads based on performance instead.

    It launched in beta, but never made it. Timing couldn't have been worse. During the peak of the mass Adsense crack addiction, they could barely get the time of day. Maybe it's time to try again.

    google it. "cj evolution".

  • Beth Kirsch

    Scott,

    I did not forget that, but it was not contextual, it was driven by performance. There was no contextual marketing involved.

    "This is from the orginal CJ press release.

    CJ Evolution is a new online advertising model that bases ad placement on objective measures of how the ad performs. Distributing text ads across a network of high-quality publisher Web sites, CJ Evolution utilizes proprietary optimization technology that rewards top-performing ads by increasing their exposure while eliminating under-performing ads."

    That said, I do think that ValueClick and DoubleClick must have something up their sleeve. :-)

    Cheers,

    Beth

  • http://www.molanderassoc.com Jeff Molander

    Lex Sisney is somewhere right now smoking a big cigar and thinking to himself, "you fools… affiliate marketing IS contextual marketing."

    This deal shines a big spotlight on affiliate marketing's big lie (one that I helped spread for a few years, I admit).

    That is: it's about the right product, right place, right time and on pure performance. In reality, contextual relevancy plays a role 15% of the time (and I'm being generous!) at sites that provide review-based content. Each day, pay-per-click ads and (gasp!) CPM takes a toll on that already low number.

    Affiliate marketing, today, for the majority of advertisers is summed up in one word: search.

  • http://ww.affiliatetip.com Shawn Collins

    Have we collectively forgotten the big splash from CJ's EnContext at Affiliate Force 2000: http://www.webpronews.com/archives/020900.html#ap…

  • http://www.affiliatetip.com Shawn Collins

    > Affiliate marketing, today, for the majority of advertisers is summed up in one word: search.

    Pretty broad statement – care to back that up?

  • Beth Kirsch

    Haha Shawn, you are correct. I spaced that.

    This is what I liked the most from from that link

    "Unlike software-based affiliate auditing companies BeFree (NASDAQ:BFRE) and ICG (NASDAQ: ICGE) holding company LinkShare, Commission Junction is a web-based application services provider that tracks e-commerce activity in real-time without installing any software and pays affiliate content providers a single, aggregate check each month."

    Trip down memory lane….isn't it :-)
    "

  • http://www.molanderassoc.com Jeff Molander

    Hi, Shawn:

    I back that up with every affiliate program I've ever peered into, bar none. I'll also toss in every consulting project I've worked on for 3 years now. The #1 concern is the intersection of affiliates and one's own search campaigns.

    Also, a quick read of the affiliate section on the recent Marketing Sherpa Search Benchmarking guide makes it clear. There is no other strategy as important to affiliates. The primary and overwhelming worry among affiliates? Being able to control the pace of change within search. We're talking numbers over 80%.

    Another example:

    http://www.thoughtshapers.com/index.php/a-deeper-…

    Jeff

  • http://www.affiliatetip.com Shawn Collins

    > I back that up with every affiliate program I've ever peered into, bar none.

    Exactly – that's a limited landscape.

    > Also, a quick read of the affiliate section on the recent Marketing Sherpa Search Benchmarking guide makes it clear.

    What is clear here is that the people responding were affiliates using search. Every question in the survey was based on the use of search, so affiliates not engaging in search would not logically bother to take the survey.

    You stated that "Affiliate marketing, today, for the majority of advertisers is summed up in one word: search."

    But you backed up it with a chart where CJ indicates ~ 40% are using search and for Be Free it's ~ 30%.

    In what statistical bizarro world do those numbers reflect a majority?

    Additionally, the chart you cite was published prior to January 6, 2005, when Google AdWords changed their policy for affiliates where they will only display one ad per search query for affiliates and parent companies sharing the same URL.

    I would submit that this policy has an impact on the distribution of business models for affiliates (i.e. less affiliates relying on search).

  • http://www.molanderassoc.com Jeff Molander

    Hi, Shawn. I don't think I'm out of line by suggesting that something is widely accepted as being true based on my own, limited experiences. I'm not all knowing and I trust readers can figure that out for themselves. That stated, I consider my experiences to be significant otherwise I'd not lean on them.

    As for what I said: I said that affiliate marketing is summed up, by most of the advertisers I have ever come in contact with, as being increasingly search-driven. I didn't say that a majority of affiliate marketing is search. There's a difference. That stated, I am willing to say something that you'll probably disagree with but that's okay. That is: It seems clear that affiliates rely more on search tactics (inside CJ's network) than any other form of affiliate strategy. CJ's data proves it and I've had discussions with network executives at other companies that reflect similar patterns for many years now. Search is getting bigger, not smaller, and affiliate networks have been, and still are, in the thick of it.

    In fact, Performics was acquired as a search company. I just read an announcement that Heidi Messer was named to a Board position at another firm and Linkshare was referred to as a search marketing company.

    It's my opinion, friend, and it's shared by some respected peers. It appears that you disagree and you're entitled to do so.