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MivaMail set to deliver PPC ads in e-mails – why are some screaming “Spamming”?

Dec 8, 2005
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The announcement seems to be stirring up a hornet’s nest and raising questions on whether allowing for advertising within e-mails is legitimate ie. amounting to spamming the recipients. Really? I’m sure my fellow marketers will have their thoughts on this; personally, I am in favor.


MIVA (known to many as (eSpotting or FindWhat) has announced a new advertising service called MivaMail that will offer pay-per-click (PPC) ads in e-mails. According to the company announcement, the service “will install PPC ads in standard HTML e-mails such as daily news bulletins, invoices, bills and company circulars”.

While the complete details of the program are still unclear, particularly regarding the criteria that will be used to display the ads, I believe this was only a logical extension to the syndication of PPC ads available currently. Users of Gmail already see ads in their peripheral vision. Messages sent using Hotmail and Yahoo carry some promotional message at the bottom of the messages, as do e-mails from other web-based e-mail providers. Moreover, conceptually MivaMail does not seem any different from say, banner advertising in a newsletter, except that the ads to be displayed are determined when the user opens the e-mail, not at the point of dispatch (I’m not sure what factors are being taken into account to determine the relevance of ads displayed). So, why should “spamming” be an issue?

In fact, I think it presents a wonderful opportunity for marketers, who can now manage to get their message straight in somebody’s e-mail inbox. From an affiliate marketer’s standpoint, this is great, because it seems that we rely on search far too much. It is therefore not a coincidence that one of MivaMail’s earliest advertisers is AffiliateFuture, an affiliate network.

MivaMail of course will be wary of the threat from the Google AdSense program. Currently, publishers are not allowed to add in the AdSense codes with their e-mail marketing vehicles such as newsletters. If Google were to allow that sometime in the future, the AdSense distribution network could probably nip MivaMail in the bud. Will that happen?

One way or the other, I would welcome the opportunity to have the additional marketing opportunity (and in the case of AdSense, the revenue opportunity as well!).

Filed under: Contextual Advertising
  • http://www.thoughtshapers.com Jeff Molander

    Fascinating, Ben. As I see it, this is another example of humans in general being overly-saturated. Any announcement of "new ads here" generates a reaction. Mix in e-mail and whammo.

    To be honest, I was mildly annoyed yesterday myself as I passed through a turn-style on a Chicago subway. Did you know that the turnstyle bar itself is now for sale in my fine city? They are now wrapped and sealed with ads for… uhmmm… damn, some financial services company.

    See – it made an impression but what kind of impression?

    Can you imagine selling that space? "X hundred thousand per day impressions" yada-yada-yada.

    As I'm passing through a turnstyle? Really? Anything is a valid media buy these days — anything.

    Word of mouth or product placement anyone?