12 replies to this topic

[skiguide]

Just announced today, though you could sort of see it coming. after LookSmart's cut from MSN, Sprinks probably had the next largest distribution network.

Press release here:
PRIMEDIA’s ABOUT LINKS WITH GOOGLE FOR TARGETED ADVERTISING

Google and About.com In Four-Year Revenue Sharing and Distribution Agreement;
Google Acquires Sprinks Unit

New York, NY – October 24, 2003 - PRIMEDIA Inc. (NYSE: PRM), the leading targeted media company, announced today that it has reached a search and contextual advertising agreement with Google Inc. that includes a four-year distribution and revenue sharing agreement for PRIMEDIA’s About.com as well as the sale of its Sprinks unit to Google. Sprinks is the pay per click advertising network which serves About.com and numerous third party distribution partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.

As part of the deal, Google will become the exclusive provider of contextually targeted and search advertising across About.com, the Web’s largest content site, and most of PRIMEDIA’s Consumer Media and Magazines Group (“CMMG”) websites. The deal extends the reach of Google’s base of more than 150,000 advertisers to the targeted audiences served by About.com’s 450 topic-specific Guide Sites that cover more than 10,000 topics and the CMMG 127 targeted magazine-related sites.

“Combined, the CMMG properties and About.com are among the largest providers of original content on the Internet today,” said Dean Nelson, Chairman of PRIMEDIA. “Google’s targeted advertising is a perfect match to our portfolio of high-quality content and large special interest audiences. Google’s advertisers will benefit from this extended reach across a broad range of enthusiast-centric properties and on About.com’s 450 Guide Sites and our users will benefit from relevant advertising.”

“We realized early that contextual advertising had great potential across the Internet and on our content sites in particular. We partnered with Google because their vast base of advertisers will allow us to accelerate the benefits of contextual advertising across our Internet sites and enable us to more effectively monetize our website traffic than we could with Sprinks alone,” said Mr. Nelson

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[Cygnus]

This is wonderful news for all of us somehow involved with About.com sites...

Cygnus

[Alan Perkins]

Does this mean the end of popups on about.com?

[Cygnus]

Ha ha Alan, that was my first thought too. Additionally, it means better advertising for those of us that run edited guide sites or results.about.com sites...and better advertising means higher revenues.

Cygnus

[Jill]

Would be cool if Google demanded the no pop up rule as part of the deal!

[skiguide]

Actually, yes, it does. I can confirm that About.com is going "to stop running Sprunders, pop-ups, and anything like Gator that autoinstalls, begs you to change your clock, or asks you if you want to install software. But pop-under units will continue to run for now. "

timing's still unknown.
FYI - a "SPRUNDER" is one of those oversized whole-page popup that displays occaisionally when you request an About page.

[Matt B]

Actually, yes, it does. I can confirm that About.com is going "to stop running Sprunders, pop-ups, and anything like Gator that autoinstalls, begs you to change your clock, or asks you if you want to install software.

Now THAT's big news!

[Cygnus]

The sites on results.about.com are already showing Google Adwords instead of Sprinks.

Cygnus

[SEOCub]

So what happens to the Sprinks account and the balance in it? Gets transferred to AdWords? What if you don't have an AdWords account? Do they refund this money? Or are they mixing ContentSprinks ads with AdWords?

[skiguide]

Yea, most of the About.com sites were switched to adwords over the weekend, other Sprinks distribution partners are supposed to follow this week.

SEOCub, to answer your question about what's gonna happen to current Sprinks advertisers if they aren't already adwords people, I honestly don't know.

I find it pretty unusual that Google didn't get an immediate communication out to current Sprinks advertisers about that very thing - and went ahead and changed it without any indications. It's not something I expected from Google's customer service, they are usually right on top of those things. I don't think they should have pushed the changes so quickly without having done that.

[Jill]

Thanks for the up-to-date info, Elisabeth!

Jill

[Alan Perkins]

Yes, good info thanks.

[skiguide]

FINALLY, a communication from Google:

We are pleased to announce that Sprinks has been acquired by Google™. We are excited to offer you the many benefits of Google AdWords™, an advertising program enabling you to quickly and easily create text ads that appear on Google.com as well as across Google's extensive network of search and content sites including AOL®. Google AdWords provides the ability to target your ads by country in U.S. and international markets as well as by region within the U.S. And with Google's free conversion tracking tool, you can track how many ad clicks convert to purchase, sign-ups, page views, and leads to measure your ROI and make smarter online advertising decisions.

You may continue to access your Sprinks account and adjust your bids for the next 30-40 days, but certain aspects of Sprinks' service will no longer be available effective today:

- Manually adding money to accounts
- Creating new accounts
- Automatically adding money to accounts with the AutoReplenish feature
- Editing listings
- Receiving triggered emails

We understand how important it is for you to continue driving traffic to your site. For Sprinks advertisers who already have a Google AdWords account, simply increase your daily budget in your AdWords account to transition your Sprinks spending to AdWords. For advertisers who do not have a Google AdWords account, you can get your ads up and running within 15 minutes. If you have specific questions about how to set up your AdWords account, feel free to contact adwords-support@google.com.

Check your inbox in the next day or so for our special SprinksWire detailing additional information about this exciting transition to Google AdWords. In the meantime, if you have questions about your Sprinks account, please contact Sprinks Customer Care at support@sprinks.com.