Not surprisingly, many businesses use Google’s AdSense platform to make money. It has given many publishers a tried-and-true monetization model to fall back on, so they can focus on the editorial side of the business.
For Google AdSense users, does it meet your expectations? Let us know why or why not.
Although Google has been very successful with its AdSense platform, it is known for targeting, primarily, large publishers. For this reason, Lijit Networks is aiming to provide an alternative to AdSense and reach out, specifically, to mid-sized publishers.
The company has provided publishers with audience engagement and analytics tools since 2006, but it added a monetization feature earlier this year. Since Q4 2010, transactions on the advertising platform have grown 74 percent. Lijit also recently closed a $10 million round of financing in order to expand its platform and compete directly with Google.
Todd Vernon, the CEO and founder of Lijit, told us that publishers, especially in the mid-sized marketplace, tell them that Google isn’t performing to its users’ expectations.
“What we hear, time and time again, is, ‘when there’s something wrong, I can’t get a hold of Google… they only provide me error messages… I can’t actually talk to a human,'” he said.
Because Lijit is reaching out to a niche market, it believes it can take on the advertising giant.
“At the end of the day, they’re [Google] vulnerable in this area,” pointed out Vernon. “Google’s not known for customer service,” he added.
As for how Lijit plans to take on this endeavor, Vernon said, “We just want to have more relationships with more publishers in niche content areas that we know how to monetize that others probably won’t do as good a job with.”
Do you think Lijit can successfully take on Google?
