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Contextual advertising (also calledcontextual targeting) is a form oftargeted digital advertising. Contextual advertising is also called "In-Text" advertising or "In-Context" technology. Contextual targeting involves the use of linguistic factors to control the placement of advertising material. The advertisements are selected and delivered by automated systems, taking into consideration the context of a user's search or browsing behavior.[1]
As advertisers and marketers increasingly prioritizebrand safety and suitability, contextual advertising has emerged as a crucial aspect of safeguarding brand reputation and value.[2] Contextual ads are commonly perceived as less irritating than traditional advertising, therefore influencing users more effectively. It reflects user interests, thus increasing the chance of receiving a response.[3]
A contextual advertising system scans the content of a website for specifickeywords and phrases and then displays advertisements based on those keywords.[4] For example, a user browsing a sports-related website sees advertisements for companies related to sports, such as sellers of sports memorabilia or tickets. Contextual advertising is also used bysearch engines to display advertisements on their search results pages based on the keywords in the user's query.
When a visitor does not click on an ad quickly enough (the minimum time a user must click on the ad), the ad automatically changes to the next relevant ad.
Google AdSense was the first major contextualadvertising network.[citation needed] Changes to the leading advertiserGoogle Chrome browser are set to widen the market of contextual advertisers online.[5] It works by providing webmasters withJavaScript code that, when inserted into webpages, displays relevant advertisements from the Google ad inventory. Relevance is calculated by a separateGooglebot that indexes the content of a webpage. Competitors use language-independent proximity pattern matchingalgorithms to increase matching accuracy.[6]
Media.net is the other major contextual ad network competing with Google AdSense.[7][8]