What will they monetize next?
Adobe and Yahoo today announced a new service that will allow marketers to place ads in Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF).
Currently available in beta version, the opt-in service is designed to create a new revenue stream for publishers by opening up their PDFs to Yahoo’s advertising network.
The clickable, text-based ads are paired with contextually relevant PDF content, “creating opportunities for publishers to build new businesses around unique content that previously was just given away or not available to a mass online audience,” Adobe Senior Vice President Ron Tarkoff said in a statement.
There is no cost for publishers to submit PDF documents to the network, the companies said. Content providers receive a portion of the revenue from each ad click; the remainder is split between Yahoo and Adobe.
To enter the program, publishers upload their PDF content to Yahoo’s network so the ads can be placed before the documents are distributed. The ads appear in the margins of a PDF document so they do not block the content.
The ads only appear when the document is viewed in Adobe’s Reader or Acrobat programs.
Publishers will be able to track the performance and reach of their ads through Yahoo’s network using the same metrics as with traditional Web ads.
Participating publishers currently include Pearson’s Education, Reed Elsevier and IDG InfoWorld.