Gmail Sponsorship Program -GSP

All of us have our own email accounts and most likely it would be Gmail, right? Although there are plenty of other email service providers such as Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. that are available, many people prefer Gmail because it is not only has a smart interface, but is also free and offers unlimited online storage for all your e-mails.

Known to be Google’s approach to email and chat, Gmail is also well known for the contextual advertisements that are placed next to your emails. Most likely, the topic of these ads would be related to the topics that you had previously searched for in your search engines. So, Google is keeping an eye on your online activity, keeping a track of what pages you frequently visit. Accordingly, ads that are relevant to these searches are placed right next to your emails and guess who is making money from this? None other than the websites that you visit!

These ads may also be seen on Google Earth and Google Maps. These ads may be extremely textual or appear with images as well. For instance, suppose you clicked a search for a kayaking website. So, if you search for ‘vacations’ later on, then you might see an ad for a vacation destination where you can kayak. In another case, you may have read allot of information about cameras or photography.

Then in Gmail, you might see ads that are related to a deal from a local camera store, etc. While these ads have constantly been changing the way they pop-up on the screen, last year the ads in Gmail were very much similar to allot of regular emails in the Promotions tab. However, they were not part of Gmail, but were a part of an extension (ongoing beta) that is known as Gmail Sponsorship Program. 

Many users may in fact confuse the three different types of ads that are displayed/appear in Gmail. However, Google often adds a small price tag icon besides the top and bottom Gmail Sponsorship Promotions ads, in an effort to differentiate them from AdSense ads.

It has to be remembered that all three of the ads that are shown (of the Gmail Sponsorship Promotions ads) will always be for a single advertiser. While the bottom and top Sponsored Promotion ads will be identical, the square shaped ad on the right hand side will include the logo of the advertiser or any other thumbnail image.

Beneath this ad on the right is the ‘More Promotions’ tab (link) that leads to a list of other advertisers who are also participating in the Gmail Sponsored Promotions beta. Those ads which are placed below this tab on the right rail are known as Google Ad      Sense ads.

Adsense ‘text’ ads usually direct the user to the landing page, whereas for all the Gmail Sponsored ads (even including those in the Promotions tab) open like an email message. For example, a Gmail Sponsored Promotions page for an advertisement for Vistaprint would look like this:

These ads are priced on a cost-per-click basis and the advertisers will only be charged for the first ad that is clicked upon. They will not be charged for the actions that are taken for any promotional messages.