How does eMiniMalls compare with Google Adsense?

December 1, 2005

Stumble it!

Comparing the two contextual advertising programs

Chitika:
Age: A few months old

Adsense:
About 3 years old

Chitika:
Size: Small but growing fast

Adsense:
Size: Market leader though there are some rumours that it has been losing publishers to YPN and Chitika.

Chitika:
In beta and still improving

Adsense:
Out of beta a long time ago but still improving

Chitika:
Restrictions on entry: Low

Adsense:
Restrictions on entry: Low

Chitika:
Appearance: All ads have graphics, text, mouseover interactivity. Visitors can search from within the ad, see price comparisons and reviews without leaving the site

Adsense:
Mostly text ads. Some graphics ads available but they are static ads and only appear rarely

Chitika:
CTR: CTR is believed to be slightly lower than the CTR Adsense achieves in similar spots

Adsense:
CTR is marginally higher than Chitika

Chitika:
EPC: EPC is generally much higher than Adsense

Adsense:
Lower EPCs and SmartPricing trimming EPCs is quite common

Chitika:
eCPM: Effective earnings per thousand page views is higher (based on reports elsewhere and our own experiences)

Adsense:
Lower eCPM and lower total earnings despite the higher CTR.

Chitika:
Disclosure: Does not allow you to disclose very much about stats/earnings

Adsense:
Does not allow you to disclose very much about stats/earnings

Chitika:
TOS: Terms and Conditions: Medium/strict

Adsense:
Terms and Conditions: Strict

Chitika:
Contextual ads but ability to turn off context and specific a product, keyword, keywords, or a rotation of keywords/products

Adsense:
Contextual only. Does not allow you to specify keyword but you can mark a portion of text on the page that you want Google to base the ad-targeting on.

Chitika:
Search: A search facility built into the ad block

Adsense:
No search facility with the ad unit but you can use a Google search box elsewhere on the page.

Chitika:
Quantity of ads: There is no limit to the number of ads you can have on the page but they recommend no more than three

Adsense:
There is a maximum of three ads, one search box and one “Ad Links” per page

Chitika:
Code Modification: Several code modifications are allowed: to enable/disable search functions, to specify keywords, and various others

Adsense:
No code modification is allowed under any conditions.

Chitika:
Ad sizes: 10 of the most popular ad sizes are offered ranging from 728×90 to 180×150.

Adsense:
11 sizes offered in all, six of which take only text ads and not image ads

Chitika:
Colours: a 256 colour palette is offered for Border, Background, Title, and Text

Adsense:
a 256 colour palette is offered for Border, Background, Title, and Text and Background

Chitika:
Font control: Allows you to specify font, font options etc within the code.

Adsense:
You cannot change the font

Chitika:
Stats: Limited stats – shows you Date | Impressions | Clicks | Revenue. They have promised to add to this and offer more stats information in due course

Adsense:
Have refined their stats to provide a range of breakdowns – by channel, by date etc. Much better than Chitika stats for the moment

Chitika:
Referral program: Pays 10% of what your referred webmasters makes

Adsense:
New, Referal program, you earn $100 for each member that make $100 on their account, and you can referal Firefox/$1

Chitika & Adsense:
Payment terms: 30 days net

Chitika:
Payment: Paypal. Cheque/Check offered if amount is more than $50. Minimum payout $10

Adsense:
Options of cheque by post, check by FedEx but, crucially, can also pay by electronic funds transfer to most countries but not Paypal. Minimum payout $100 but will clear sub-$100 accounts at end of each year.

Chitika:
Chitika pays a fixed 60% of earnings to the publisher

Adsense:
Has a complex system called SmartPricing which discounts publisher income depending on what conversion rates their clicks generate. Google does not disclose the SmartPricing formula or how much is discounted from publishers’ income. It’s very much a matter of trusting them.