Miva Consolidates Ads with Monetization Center

Pay-per-click ad network Miva is consolidating its search ads, contextual text ads and in-line text ads under a single management console.

Dubbed Miva Monetization Center (MC), the self-service console allows publishers to set up and manage all three of its ad products in one place. Previously, the InLine ads, launched in September, were not available to publishers in a self-service console but were managed by Miva on a site-by-site basis.

Miva InLine mimics other controversial inline ad offerings like Vibrant Media’s IntelliTXT, which show a contextually targeted text ad triggered by keywords within a site’s editorial content. When a user mouses over a specially underlined link, a floating ad appears with paid links and links to related articles on a publisher’s site.

Publishers can choose the pages MIVA InLine is active on and specify the actual sections of content they want crawled and underlined. Ads can be triggered based on keywords the publisher chooses, or based on keywords determined by Miva’s crawl of the publisher’s site.

Advertisers have less control, since InLine ads are included as part of all ad buys, and advertisers are not able to opt out of having their ads displayed in those units.

Miva MC also manages Miva’s Content Ads, which are contextually targeted pay-per-click ads, and its Search Ads, which are triggered by keywords entered in a search box on the publisher’s site. All the ad units can be customized to match the look of a publisher’s site, with both IAB-standard ad units and custom units available.

“We allow publishers to monetize more inventory without increasing pageviews,” Chrysi Philalithes, VP of global marketing and communications at Miva Media, told ClickZ.

Miva MC is also home to Miva’s publisher reporting tools, with daily, monthly, quarterly or annual reports available. MIVA MC partners can also see the exact share of revenue they generate from the ads on their site, a feature that is often requested of larger competitors like Google, which is not as transparent with its revenue-sharing numbers.

Revenue share percentages will vary by publisher, based on factors that include average click-through rate, as well as other quality-control standards, Philalithes said.