Retargeted ads increase the relevant ad inventory on parked domains.
Over the past 6-12 months I’ve notice a sharp increase in the number of Google Adsense ads I see that are retargeted. Instead of being related to the topic of the page I’m viewing, the ads are for a site I previously visited.
The same thing is happening with parked domain names. Retargeted ads are starting to pop up on them more and more.
Here’s an example of a parked page I landed on today. The red blocks represent retargeted ads.
(This particular domain is parked with the hosted Google Adsense for Domains program, which is being shut down.)
You can see that four of the ads have nothing to do with the topic of the domain. They’re all targeted to me based on sites I’ve visited in the past.
This will help increase domain parking revenue, especially on domains that have low click values. Why show penny click ads when you can show higher value ads targeted to the user?
But be warned. There’s also a downside to retargeted ads on parked domain names. It makes it easier for trademark holders to complain that ads on your parked domain are infringing their trademarks.
Don’t believe me? Ask the owner of AlamoClub.com.
lassy says
Been around for years, nothing new.
FX says
this is not new. Google made an announcement about it a year or 2 ago. Search for doubleclick ad retargeting. I dont think anyone can say their google revenue has shot up. However i will admit that it does help to a smaller degree.
rob sequin says
I’ve been noticing that for a while but most notably days after I visited Progressive Insurance to get a quote.
Just about every website I visit now has Progressive ads.
So, they are spending BIG TIME on adwords or adwords is scanning my cookies and serving up the highest paying advertiser.
Kind of scary, especially if you have multiple users on one computer with other users seeing ads for your cookies.
Andrew Allemann says
Rob – married people certainly shouldn’t look at any divorce attorney sites or dating sites
Francois says
There is also some perdition:
Most of the times I visit the store, I buy and after for a pair of weeks I am seeing Google ads promoting the store and inviting me to buy the product I already purchased.
They should certainly also add some tagging to disable re-targeting when the sale has been completed.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Francois – I agree. It would be good for advertisers, too.
GarotoK says
It also can have the opposite effect of turning you off.
I visited the Volusion.com site and now they show ads like crazy to me. I emptied my cache and cookies and for some reason it still has not gone away.
It’s been around for some time, maybe two years. Parked.com used to have some retargetting code in their parked pages for Chango. Chango.com is a retargeting company.
Joe Ray says
They have been doing this for about a year and is seems strange to me, If I search for a lawyer in New York I may land on a page with Google ads displaying ads for lawyer in south Florida were I live. If I wanted a Florida lawyer I would have searched for one so I find the ads useless.
Timm says
I’ve noticed this phenomena occasionally in the past, but it has gotten out of control recently. Now all I see are .CO ads, even on websites that have absolutely nothing to do with domains. I’m one of those rare birds who actually enjoys looking at Google ads on pages I visit, just to see what’s out there that is related to the content I’m reading. But now that every ad is showing the same thing ad nauseum, I’m starting to ignore the ads like most people do. Hasn’t Google ever heard of the saying, “Too much of a good thing”? By trying to become more relevant, Google has actually accomplished the opposite.