Where's The Surprise In Geo - Targeted RSS Ads?

According to ClickZ there were yelps of surprise when agencies and advertisers learnt that Adsense were running geo-targeted contextual ads. I'm surprised they were surprised to be honest! Surely there was an inevitability that contextual advertising would head this way.

Shuman Ghosemajumder business product manager at Google, told ClickZ News. "AdSense for feeds is part of the Google content network, so if an advertiser's campaign is opted into the content network, their ads are eligible to show in feeds," He further noted that the geo-targeting has been part of the AdSense for feeds distribution since its launch.

For those in the dark on Google's chronology in this field it goes something like this:

• 2003 - Geo-targeting option for ads run on Google's content network with the inroduction of regional targeting .
• April 2004 city-level and customized targeting.
• May 2005 AdSense for feeds, incorporates ads in site feeds together with sites in the content network.

Some facts about RSS ads

1. Advertisers are unable to solely target RSS ads locally. However, regionally targeted ads might appear in feeds and sites at some point.

2. Location of content and user of the feed partially determine where the ads appear although content more often than not takes precedence.

3. CTR is generally low with RSS Ads. (Jensense)