Chitika is an ad agency with a twist - its ad format is the so-called eMiniMall, which is an ad piece that contains a picture of a product being sold and a tabbed information pane that contains the description of the product in one tab and prices for the product with the links to the online merchants in the "Best Deals" tab. A visitor can switch between the tabs on the ad without the hosting page being reloaded.
The ad format is certainly unique and folks at Chitika have made it highly customizable. The ad can be generated to fit all major ad sizes, such as leaderboards or skyscrapers - there are, like, fifteen different size options. All visual aspects of the ad can be tweaked - all colors, borders, etc. You can specify keywords that Chitika will use to find products that fit them best; there is even a product Category Hint feature that allows you to specify a preferred product category to be shown to your visitors first. This can be done for each ad unit (a separate Javascript code gets generated every time - sort of like in Google AdSense) - thus, if you wanted to, you could put different-targeted eMiniMalls code on different pages of your site.
The payout rate is more than simple: 22 cents for each click-through.
The admin interface is clean and intuitive - mousing over the tabs for reports, ad code, referral program, account and support results in sub-categories being displayed right below the tab and clicking on them takes you exactly to the function listed on the tab. Reporting is accurate and easy to understand. Their support page has a knowledge base that is pretty helpful in providing ideas on how to use their ads and has solutions for the most common problems.
Now - about that other side of the coin. In our opinion, the eMiniMall ad is so straightforward that virtually nobody who is not interested in a product displayed would want to click on it. Also, the amount of information provided in each ad (remember the tabs with the description and best price list?) is usually sufficient for a person to satisfy whatever fleeting curiosity he might have towards the product without him clicking on the ad. However, careful tweaking of the target keywords and product categories displayed may actually result in a higher click-throughs for sites that occupy niche content areas.
Overall, Chitika is a pretty innovative ad network that can easily serve as a default for your primary ad campaigns and in some instances may even be profitable enough to serve as your primary revenue-generating network. See by yourself if it makes a good fit for your site.
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