Last week, we wrote about Digg testing a new kind of ad that allowed sponsors to find previously submitted Digg content and and wrap it in their own ad unit. The first such ad just went live for everyone this morning. And it seems like a really great idea.
Since I wasn’t able to see the ads before, I wondered if the actual Digg content portion of the ad would link back to the sponsor or to the actual story. Not only does it link back to the story’s permalink page, but it routes it through a DoubleClick referral. So yes, Digg is keeping track of all of these clicks (though I’m told that right now the ads are on a CPM basis), while users are being sent to content that quite likely do actually want to go to. Win-win.
As you can see in the first such ad, for the new Warner Brothers film Where The Wild Things Are, the movie studio picked three previously popular stories on Digg about the movie. Each already had several hundred diggs before the studio wrapped it in the ad unit. One of Digg’s weaknesses is that once a story is off the main homepage, the likelihood that anyone is ever going to see it again goes way, way down. But this is a way for Digg to surface older content, while giving them a huge incentive to do so: Advertiser money.
Naturally, the ad unit also features a big graphic for the film as well. Clicking on this area goes to the movie’s website, just as you’d expect from a normal online ad.
While Google has made billions off of its contextual text link ads, overall advertising on the Internet remains a tough nut for many sites to crack. The simple fact is that some of the Google search result sponsored links aside, many users probably don’t really want to click on advertisements, and only do either by accident, or when they’re tricked (into thinking it’s content, or a game, or that they can win something free, or whatever). That Digg has figured out a way to get paid for what its users already click on, is very interesting.
To be clear, these ads are not the same as the sponsored Digg Ads that appear in the stream of stories. Those feature content that sponsors place for users to vote on. These new ads feature content that has already been submitted to the site by other users, not the sponsor.
The next question is, what happens if Digg strikes some deals to place these types of ads on other sites? Would users click on them, recognizing the Digg branding and realizing that they might actually like to see that content? Would advertisers still pay for that on a massive scale? That could be a billion dollar question.
Update: We were just told that for right now these ads are on a CPM basis, while the other Digg ads are CPC. Still, with Digg (by way of DoubleClick) keeping track of these clicks, they could very easily flip the switch and do CPC, assuming the advertisers played along with it, of course.
I’m still unsure that the Digg branding is relevant outside of those who already view Digg. The advertising may work on Digg.com but I’m unsure if it will elsewhere.
‘or that they can wine something free’ I think you meant win?
yep thx.
I pretty much stopped using Digg when I realized I was accidentally clicking on sponsored ads every other time I visited. I think they went a bit far in the implementation.
Showing me ads is one thing, tricking me to click on them is another.
I know the ads mentioned in this article are different than the sponsored ads, hopefully they will be successful enough for Digg to change the way the other ads work. We’ll see.
I totally agree with that. There are pages where usability is just aweful. I’m using Propeller instead although it’s not as big as Digg of course.
Personally I switched to Reddit. They have a killer iPhone app too.
I totally concur with Alex, Digg’s brand is simply not strong (trustworthy) enough to demand a market share, or any part of Google’s billion dollar war-chest in the contextual advertising arena.
Reminds me a lot of Facebook ads. Basically, Digg and Facebook are getting paid to increase their pageviews. Brilliant.
That does seem like a really smart play. Advertisers would love to draw attention to stories on Digg that put their products or services in a good light, but they don’t want to risk their reputation by astroturfing. This way they can do the same thing but it seems more legitimate in the users mind since its clear that its an advertisement.
Pretty clever idea…anyone have any statistics on how often Digg users are going back to read old content? In order for this to work, Digg users have to be accessing old content regularly.
I had digg open in the background somewhere and that stupid where the wild things are ad pop’d up..and I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from now I know .. never going back to Digg after that …..
should have said *audio
A good move on Digg’s part.
Well, if you happen to run a news site, for example (like, say Topix or TechCrunch) you could make use of this in a couple of ways.
The coolest thing that occurs to me would be that you could run the Digg stuff on *your own content* with Digg selling the ad unit.
The affiliate publication runs the same form factor on their own site & content, with Digg acting as an ad network. e.g. Digg sells an ad to Microsoft, and then comes to Techcrunch with MSFT’s blessing to run on the MSFT Techcrunch content a la what they are doing on Digg already.
Digg sells and TC fulfills, driving more pageviews internally to TC, in a way that is good for everyone.
Time to talk to Matt Van Horn or Bob Buch I suppose
Good to see that Digg has an advertising model that is working for them.
This is definitely an interesting move from digg.
CPM is a huge difference to CPC, and as long as they are paid CPM, the deal isn’t special at all.
With this deal, Digg isn’t getting paid to increase its pagetraffic, like this article suggests.
It’s simply boring CPM.
I like their approach, I also noticed this and if Digg were to introduce these branded Ads outside of the site I would interact with them and I’m sure others would as well!
I agree with the view about whether this would be relevant to those outside of Digg but I feel it will attract interest if done correctly and on the right topic. Movies and artists are the obvious choice due to their existing fanbase!
Nice idea
I would love to know how profitable this is… Looks like you have to contact digg to find out any advertising costs.
let the dollars rain
I like Digg’s new advertising features. The sponsored links I’ve seen so far are actually worth clicking – much more interesting than banner ads.
It’d be nice if the correction into the washingtonpost too:
http://www.wash...9101602693.html
The old version of the article got linked to from Digg.
It doesn’t look like digg is being an honest broker with their ads. Try refreshing and seeing how steady the vote count is for their ads.