What are RSS Feed Ads?

RSS Feed Ads

RSS is a Web content syndication format. Its name is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication.

RSS is a dialect of XML. All RSS files must conform to the XML 1.0 specification, as published on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) website.

At the top level, a RSS document is a <rss> element, with a mandatory attribute called version, that specifies the version of RSS that the document conforms to. Subordinate to the <rss> element is a single <channel> element, which contains information about the channel (meta data) and its contents.

Advertising in RSS Feeds
As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds, their have been vibrant discussions as to whether advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will drive subscribers away. At the end of the day while it appears that many are discussing the philosophical approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to examine the options available for inserting advertisements in feeds.

Ultimately the advertisements served are going to determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The ads served must be related to the content contained in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will succeed.

When evaluating feed ad serving solutions consider the following:

Ad Relevance
In order to generate revenue from RSS advertisements or for an advertising campaign to succeed using RSS as a channel, it is absolutely critical that the advertisements served in the feed contain related content to your website. The more related the content the higher the likelihood that the advertisements will be of interest to the reader and clicked on. Also the closer the content relates to the feeds theme, the higher the likelihood the reader will have genuine interest in the product or service being advertised.

Ad Ratio
Publishers need to retain control over the frequency of advertisements. Readers will become frustrated with feeds that are heavily laden with advertisements and genuine content.

Clearly Denoted as Ads
It is generally considered proper net etiquette for publishers to clearly mark advertisements to distinguish them from editorial web content. When selecting a RSS advertising partner, consider the context in which the advertisements are displayed. Does it blend with the feed or site, while still being clearly marked sponsored material?

Clearly as RSS increases in popularity, publishers are looking for ways to monetize their content. RSS in advertising is a logical step, and striking a balance between quality, consistent content and occasional related advertisements will lead to the success of advertising in RSS feeds.