Lat49 Lets You Monetize Your Maps
Got a map based real estate site? Vancouver-based lat49 lets you monetize that asset with its geo-targeted advertising network.
It’s pretty simple really, as a publisher you simply sign up to join their network, incorporate their API and then begin earning ad revenue passively. Think of it like Google Adsense for maps.
It raises the possibility for brokerages (many of whom have invested heavily in map-based real estate search tools) to develop an alternative source of revenue and offset some of those costs, by being able to bring advertising directly to their maps.
What would make this offering a real winner, would be the option to offer premium map-based ad space to ancillary service providers, vendors and even local merchants. The key aspect would be to be able to control who and what advertisements would appear on your site.
In addition, Lat49 also give real estate companies (even individual brokers or agents) a unique opportunity to create regionally-based branding campaigns across multiple web properties by embedding ads at a local or even hyperlocal level.
Lat49 gives advertiser several IAB approved sizes including a 728×90 Leaderboard, a 300×250 Medium Rectangle, and a 468×60 Full Banner ad.
Sites currently using this technology include Hotpads in the US and HomeZilla (see Neighborhood Search Comes Back) in Canada.
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Glaen | Nov 10, 2008 | Reply
How is this better than adsense for maps?
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/reference.html#GAdsManager
Joel Burslem | Nov 10, 2008 | Reply
@Galen - I’m going to say this is a little better, since Google Ads just shows up as a pin on the map. Lat49 let’s you float a brand/logo on the map.
That said, easy-peasy for Google to put a spike in this idea.
Traci | Nov 10, 2008 | Reply
@Galen Higher CPMs and more control.
ChiLyn | Nov 12, 2008 | Reply
@Galen — It is more like Billboard advertising with the ability to have interactive and engaging ads that can reach from branding to hyper-local. The ads can be placed either on the map itself or off the map, and they change as the user moves and zooms around, always staying relevant to the area the user is looking at and the type of site they are on.
@Joel — migh not be as easy as you think as lat49 seems to have several patents pending — they are also not a direct threat to google, but can complementary to google-style ads.
Tom | Nov 18, 2008 | Reply
Any thoughts on using these on a large broker site’s maps? Do you think it would turn off home seekers and make them bounce out? It would be great to monetize our maps, but I don’t want to do it at the expense of losing prospects.