Kontera has recently announced the closing of a $15.5 million financing round, led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Carmel Ventures and Tenaya Capital. Today, we are glad to interview Kontera’s CEO and co-founder, Yoav Shaham, whom we want to ask more about this exciting news as well as Kontera’s continued growth.

Yoav, you have been pioneering this space for almost 10 years, has your vision for the technology and the company changed throughout this time?  And if so, how has it changed?

The original mission that we set for ourselves, to serve users by connecting the web’s information through an understanding of the true meaning of content and identifying user’s interests on any page, has not changed.

The technological approach and the algorithms that we use have gone through several major evolutions including growing from client to server solutions, and from business rules to more statistical analysis approaches to prediction of user intent.

Kontera has been profitable for some time, and growing very rapidly, why raise money now?

Yes, we’ve been asked this question a few times in recent weeks.  We certainly did not need the additional funds for survival. Not only were we profitable, we also had a nice amount of cash in the bank. However, we identified some significant emerging opportunities in the market, and we want to ensure that Kontera is a dominant player.  We believe that an injection of cash now allows us to make quicker and bigger moves in the marketplace, while maintaining our track-record of fiscally responsible operations.

Why did Sequoia Capital invest and lead such a large late-stage financing?

First of all I’m not exactly the best person to answer this question…  What I can say is that this is a great testimonial for us, from one of the best Venture Capital investors in the world. They happen to know the search and advertising space very well, and they are very familiar with Kontera.  Sequoia had a major stake in our company previously, but their recent investment is a clear indication of their confidence in how large this company can become. They did not need to lead this round, nor participate to the extent that they did. There were several external investors that wanted to come in, but Sequoia wanted to lead this round and to increase their stake, and we are honored by that validation.

What is your vision for growing the company? Do you anticipate any structural or organizational changes?

Growth always requisites some changes with it, it’s a function of maturity. In our case we’ve successfully managed transitions from 25 to 50 people, from 50 to 100, and from 100 to our current size. We are currently laying the foundational infrastructure required to run an organization of 250 and more people. I do not want to get into specifics, but can share that one of our highest priorities is to pursue excellence for the entire company.  We are investing significantly in our people, their growth, and in our management.  Historically we’ve been technologically, and engineering focused, with a smaller investment in market facing activities. Going forward we intend to increase our R&D ranks, and to significantly increase the sales, marketing, and services functions.

What are the implications to end users, and the more than 100 Million consumers who view Kontera’s technology in action each month?

As I mentioned earlier, our vision is to connect the Internet’s information dynamically to satisfy users’ current needs. Throughout the years we’ve continually improved the user experience, and the relevancy that we’re able to attain and deliver to consumers, today, is second to none.  Looking ahead, users will see even greater utility as we increase that relevancy, as we increase the types of in-text offerings, and as we grow the breadth of information that we are able to bring to each pageview.

Our related-content and Hybrid offerings deliver beneficial consumer information, and we intend to do more in the area of In-Text related content.  Also, within the advertising domain, we find that in many cases  consumers prefer In-text advertising to much of the” loud” advertising that currently dominates sites and often occupies more that 30% of publishers’ page real-estate.  Good in-text advertising can help users to better enjoy their internet experience.  With this funding we will be able to more quickly provide users with a better experience at each of our publishers’ sites, and a better internet experience overall.

What does this funding mean for Kontera’s Publishers and overall network?

The user benefits I just discussed will also accrue to our publishers, whose core mission is to create and maintain their user communities. More engaged and satisfied users equate to healthier operations for our publishers.  In addition, over time, Kontera’s publishers will be seeing new forms of engagement and related information for their audiences, and greater monetization opportunities for their content.

What does this funding mean for Kontera’s Advertisers?

Advertisers are looking for good return on investment for their advertising dollars. This may translate into more effective branding campaigns for some, or more effective direct-response campaigns for others. In either case, we’ll be able to deliver greater returns and greater performance for advertisers. The ways that this happens is first through our work on greater relevancy and user experience as discussed above, and second through greater engagement within our existing ad units and through creation of new innovative advertising units.

Where do you foresee taking the technology and products from here?

I don’t want to discuss our plans in too much detail, but there are a few headlines that I can probably share. The first is our on-going refinements to the relevancy engine. This is an analog to the R&D work that you see the search-engine vendors perform. This type of low-level algorithmic work does not produce many bells and whistles because the work is largely done on the back end. However, this is really the heart of the solution and improvements here create greater satisfaction for users and much greater financial results for advertisers and publishers.  In addition you will see us offer greater flexibility and configurability, and customization ability for the various publishers and advertisers with whom we work. The last area to mention is the ever-growing set of tools that we provide to advertisers and publishers for utilizing our In-Text advertising and related content solutions.

The web team at Kontera is proud to announce our spectacular updated website. The site has a new look, but of course same trusty location: www.kontera.com

Kontera.com’s redesign brings simple navigation, interface, and a vivid depiction of our In-Text product offerings.
The timing of the new site couldn’t be better as Kontera’s network is growing and we’ve recently scored an additional round of funding.

If you don’t have time to browse the site in its entirety, don’t miss:

• Products Page- See Kontera’s ad layers and comparative matrix of ad units
• Resource Section- find plugins for quickly implementing Kontera ads on your CMS/ blogging platform
• Careers page- We have lots of new positions opening, and we are always on the look-out for talented new people. If you qualify for any of the positions listed, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Let us know what you think about our new look

In regards to advertising on a page, some say less is more, while others say taking it to the max is the only way to go.  The one thing that everyone agrees on is that you should diversify your monetization methods in an effort to maximize your website’s return.

Since every site’s build is different in design, content, length/number of pages, employed monetization strategies, as well as in user feedback, finding the proper ratios of page content to ad real-estate is unique to each site.   We wanted to take the opportunity to remind you of ways to groom your site for making the most of Kontera In-Text.

If you’re employing multiple advertising methods on your pages, it is important to make sure that advertising is evenly distributed throughout the entirety of the page. Kontera offers tools to specify areas of a page where ContentLink ads should or shouldn’t be placed by telling our Java Script which text is eligible for generating links.

For example, if you have a dominant series of banner ads next to a brief section of text, you may want to avoid generating ContentLinks in that section by using Filter Tags.  Similarly if you have a text–based menu bar on the top of your page, and a large section of text below, you definitely want to use a Zone Tag to instruct Kontera to only scan in article.  As you probably know, Adsense and Kontera are a great combination, but be sure to maximize the effect of both, by spreading the ads throughout your pages.

Furthermore, upon publisher’s request, our Support Team will gladly make adjustments to link density which is essentially the number of links per 1000 words on a page.  Test to discover the optimal number of ads for your pages, once you do you’ll be sure improve both your users’ experience and your ads performance.

Exciting news on the front of Kontera publisher payment!

We already offer multiple payment methods to suit your preference.  Now, we’re glad to announce that if you’re using Domestic ACH as your payment method, pay-day will come even sooner. You can receive payment at $75 and cash-in on your Kontera earnings quicker and more often!

The change recently went into effect and can be utilized by publishers who qualify for Domestic ACH payment.

If you are a current Kontera publisher who meets these criteria, we invite you to benefit from this new $75 payout:

1. Login to your Kontera Publisher Center account.
2. Select the “My Account” tab and then follow the “Payment Method” Link.
3. Select the “Domestic ACH” option from the payment method dropdown menu and hit the “Update” button.
4. Please submit all updates to your account’s tax and payout info by the 15th of the month for changes to take effect on  the upcoming payout cycle. Any updates submitted after that date will only be applicable during the next payout cycle.

This change is just one of many to come as we continue to bring you the best  In-Text advertising experience.

Tired of browsing through streaming video sites just to hear the latest hit songs or an obscure beat?  Often music searches on the web end in a tragic stream of low quality, choppy, disastrous renditions of your favorite jams.  The music search is over as Kontera is glad to present our May Publisher of the Month: musicremedy.com.

MusicRemedy is an extensive source of information completely music-centric, of course.  The site includes everything a music lover could look for including news, songs, pictures, videos, a forum and much more.  MusicRemedy.com allows users to listen to full songs, watch full videos, and have other multi-media experiences completely free of charge.  This is a fantastic way to help potential music buyers decide what they like the best or just get introduced to tracks they wouldn’t otherwise hear.

One thing that MusicRemedy.com has done to set itself apart from other music sites is include a section dedicated to contests.  This section features opportunities for users to win great prizes by answering music trivia questions.  Some of the questions take some major digging in order to find answers, but are proven well worth the search as prizes like music memorabilia, autographed CD’s, and gift sets are given away regularly.

As part of Kontera’s Publisher of the Month series, we had a chance to interview Jermy Leeuwis MSc of MusicRemedy.com to gather insight on this truly “note-worthy” online music destination.

What inspired you to start Musicremedy.com?

My passion for music, to keep it short. Like most people, I too have been listening to music for all my life. I am not a great singer nor dancer but I enjoy listening to (new) music. Listening, watching, reading and writing about music became my passion. Combine music and some computer-skills, you have a music website titled “MusicRemedy”.

Dedicated music fans are sometimes known to be vocal and opinionated, and with the idea of Web 2.0 at full reign, what have you done to provide an outlet for user-input on Musicremedy.com?

There are different kinds of being ‘dedicated’ to music. The dedicated music fans, MusicRemedy targets at, want to be info- and entertained without being too ‘Mr. Know-It-All’. This means that they want to have fun through reading, commenting, listening and watching their favorite music.

What strategies do you employ to create such a great balance of content ranging from well-known artists as well as independent and non-label-affiliated musicians?

It is quite simple: “Let your visitors be the judge.” This means that MusicRemedy features new music everyday whether it is independent or famous. Naturally, a selection has been made of the finest so visitors will listen to the latest and the best. This way the visitor does not have to search hours for new songs but uses his time wisely to listen to great music on MusicRemedy.

Musicremedy.com covers a wide range of music content, based on your users’ feedback, who are the current top five artists?  What do they have in common if anything?

Naturally, Hip-Hop and R&B are doing very well the last few years but rock is still rocking . Anyway, here goes: Eminem, Keyshia Cole, Lady Gaga, Kid Cudi, Elliott Yamin.
All five have in common that the music genres ‘Hip-Hop’ and ‘R&B’ have become popular. These songs can be categorized as Hip-Hop or R&B but also as pop songs. I know there are quite a few people who will disagree but the facts show otherwise.

When did you start monetizing Musicremedy.com and what role does In-Text advertising play in your overall monetization strategy?

Musicremedy started over ten years ago and grew over the years to a loveable music site. About nine years a few companies were interested in advertising, while we were trying to make the site bigger and better. At some point the site’s development and maintenance requires some costs and so the site had to make a few bucks.

After a few years new sorts of advertisements appeared on the internet (ie., in-text, video, etc…). In all business activities you need to stay focus and innovate. So we did. In-Text has been around a few years but not as heavily targeted as nowadays. I assume this is because a lot of blogs use them.

The main advantage of Kontera In-Text is that it is not annoying like popups and visitors can choose whether to view and/or click. This combined with quality content, will give you better earnings without lowering other earnings.

In what direction do you see your site moving in the coming year?  Are there specific sections of your site that you are working to develop further?

There are quite a lot of movements coming up. First, a fresh new design we have been working on for over a year. Afterwards very interesting functions will be added for even more information about artists and naturally, more interaction for our visitors. Sorry but I can not tell you more because it is highly classified .

Ok ok, if you insist. Our latest section “Upcoming Songs” is one of these new developments which is becoming more popular every minute. In the upcoming months this section will get more user-input. This section, and upcoming ones, are also available as RSS-feeds making it interesting for visitors to use on their blogs or personal sites.

The Kontera Publisher of the Month series kicked off in January of 2009. A publisher is selected from Kontera’s network each month and provides an insider’s perspective on what it takes to manage a successful site. To learn more visit the Publisher of the Month Category.

Language advances at the rate of technology, and that means f-a-s-t.  Anyone making a living online knows how crucial it is to keep up with the new terms and phrases that amass in the industry.

A few months ago we published a post containing glossary terms and metrics relevant to the online advertising industry in general and more specifically to Kontera.  We’ve received some warm responses for this post and so we’ve decided to expand, introducing additional terms to the list:

Campaign Related

Cost Per Click- The amount paid by an advertiser per each click on their ad.

Campaign Targeting- Gearing an advertising campaign to a particular demographic.

ROI – an acronym for Return on Investment.  In other words, the percentage of profit that an advertiser accrues from a marketing or advertising campaign

Technology Related

Semantic Analysis- Semantic analysis involves text mining, term/phrase extraction, page vector analysis, associations and and other parameters. Semantic analysis is used to determine the context of the page and respond with relevant advertising or related content.

Contextual Relevance- in the field of In-Text contextual advertising, this term refers to the strength of the connection between an underlined keyword and the advertisement paired with it.

Computational Linguistics- a field dealing with the statistical and/or rule-based modeling of natural language from a computational perspective.  Kontera’s contextual analysis technology is based on the principles of computational linguistics.

Industry Related

Interactive Advertising- the type of advertising that allows active participation from the user.  See Kontera’s interactive advertising.

Rich Media Ads- a term for advanced technology used in internet ads, such as streaming video, applets that allow user interaction, and special effects.

IAB- The Interactive Advertising Bureau. The IAB is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising.

References:

We put this list together using the following great resources:

Wikipedia

Yahoo Publisher Network Blog

IAB website

There’s a simple way to explain everything, even elaborate algorithms and systems…

Today we wanted to show a simple outline of user interaction with our ContentLink ads.  If you are entirely new to Kontera, we hope you will find this explanation especially helpful.

For those of you interested in learning about the principals behind our contextual analysis technology, visit our Contextual Advetising Technology page.

When undertaking an online advertising campaign, advertisers strive to engage users. Campaign goals vary from increasing brand awareness to introducing a product’s advantages while encouraging users to try it out. Meeting these goals in the highly competitive and fast paced online marketing sphere is a challenging task. Campaigns these days have to engage users by delivering the advertiser’s messaging in an innovative and compelling way.

Kontera’s In-text advertising is an ideal medium through which to meet this challenge.  ContentLink ads are placed where users’ attention is focused, within the text, while Kontera’s advanced technology, ensures maximum relevancy between the ads and the content in which they’re featured. ContentLink is a rich advertising tool which simultaneously provides added user-value and a particularly well targeted advertising campaign.

Below is an example of a rich media campaign recently launched:

With advanced contextual advertising technology and a variety of original and engaging ad formats Kontera’s ContentLink can assist every advertiser in meeting their branding and conversion goals with a user initiated advertising unit.

Read more about “Looking Outside the (Search) Box” in online advertising.

Within the constantly evolving online world, some norms are re-examined every time a new technology, beyond a certain size and scope of influence, is introduced. In other words, most new technologies undergo some period of “evaluation” by users, upon first emerging into the market; a period which could last from months to years.  If you recall the discussion around RSS earlier in the decade, quite a few site owners and bloggers at the time were concerned with their content being republished and read elsewhere, while their site does not gain the visits for the content.  It took some time before web publishers fully accepted the outweighing benefits of RSS, one being the fact that it enables a greater reach and thus a greater readership for their content.  The benefits that RSS afforded to users, proved to be an advantage to publishers as well.

Something similar has happened with In-Text Advertising. In-Text became widespread as its benefits became well known.  If we look back to earlier in the decade, In-Text Advertising was causing some controversy as some prominent websites, began to display ads and information, within their content.  As quoted on iMedia, “The problem that caused the controversy in In-Text Advertising had more to do with the medium in which it appeared than with the message.”  It was not so much an issue with the advertisement as with the new medium through which they were served.  In the case of Kontera’s In-Text, the benefits to advertisers and to publishers are well known. But as Kontera’s philosophy is three fold, we wanted to highlight the main benefit In-Text hold for users. Indeed, in the last few years, Kontera’s contextual advertising technology has proved its advantages to users by offering a distinct added value- access to highly relevant ads and information that is in sync with the most current interest and state of mind of the reader.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of In-Text lies in the fact that it suits today’s dynamic online mode of work. We are already a different type of online user than we were even 5 years ago.   We refer to the contemporary multi-tasking user.  We know all about the- multi tabbing, multi window, updating my Facebook while completing chart on excel- mode of work.  Considering this, it’s really not surprising that In-Text has earned its popularity over the past few years.  With the possibility of being in more than one place at a time, finding access to extended information while being engaged with content, Kontera’s In Text brings an added value to today’s online user.

By Mika Tal

Information- the more we have of it, the better? Sure, so long as we know how to use it.

This is the simple conclusion I came to in one of my ventures through Google Analytics.  With so much information around to explore, one has to know how to ask a question accurately.  Needless to say, narrowing down the mounds of information to a set of central parameters is an important step in learning how to utilize such an advanced tool to one’s benefit.

Today I’d like to suggest a few Google Analytics parameters that can aid you in optimizing the performance of your Kontera pay-per-click ads .  If you’re new to Google analytics, you may find this information especially useful. I’ve narrowed it down to 4:

• New vs. Returning visits- Returning visitors tend to generate a higher CTR for ContentLink® ads.  The reason for this is that visitors who return to your site are already familiar with the information you serve, and with the advantages of Kontera ads.  They are more trusting of ContentLinks and they tend to click the ads more often. For advice on how to get more of your site’s visitors to become returning visitors, consult this great post on entrepreneurs-journey.com

To find out your site’s ratio for New/ Returning Visitors- on your Analytics account, go to Visitors and then click New vs. Returning.

• Top Content Pages – To get the best results, it is recommended that you place your ContentLink tag on all your website’s pages.  However, if you choose to place ContentLinks on a few pages rather than all, make sure the pages you choose are ones that generate traffic.  I’m sure there’s no need to explain why traffic is important for making the most out of your ContentLink ads.

To find Top Content Pages on your Analytics account, go to Content then click Top Content.

• Top Search Engine Keywords- we have published a series of posts on how to maximize your ad earnings by optimizing your site’s content. Knowing which keywords bring the most search engine traffic to your site is important because these are likely to be the more popular keywords, often sought after by advertisers.  These keywords have better monetary potential.

Go to Traffic Sources and then click Search Engines.  Select a search engine and make sure you see the first option on the dimension field: “keyword”.  Google analytics enables you to see all keywords typed into any search engine for your selected date.

• Map Overlay – where are your users coming from?
  Kontera’s top earners are publishers whose sites  get over 55% US traffic.  The reason for this is that online advertisers invest much of their resources on traffic from the US.  While Kontera has partnerships with advertisers all over the world, the highest CPCs generated by your site originate from your US visitors.  An increase in US traffic has an immediate effect on earnings.

Use Analytics Map overlay to see exactly where on the globe your traffic is coming from.
Click Visitors then go to Map Overlay.

I hope you will find this information useful in making the most out of Kontera ContentLink ads  on your site!  If there’s anything I left out, or any additional tips you’d like to share please drop us a comment below.