AOL has confirmed that it is indeed testing ads within AOL Mail, a move considered unusual because, while both Yahoo and MSN Hotmail run ads on their front email pages, AOL is a paid service and subscribers who pay generally expect the service to be ad-free, writes DM News (via MediaBuyerPlanner.)
The media company said that it has been testing banner ads at the bottom of the Read Mail screen for the past several weeks. Ads do not appear within emails, and are not targeted in such a way that they appear alongside relevant emails (as they do in Google's Gmail). Ads are served from AOL's general ad rotation, the company disclosed, but it declined to say how many advertisers are participating in the test.
At least one subscriber posting on an AOL message board is unhappy with the ads, writing, "I have flashing banner ads at the bottom of individual emails now, and they are incredibly annoying! They're like having spam inserted directly into my emails!"
AOL has seen substantial subscriber losses recently - losing 835,000 U.S. subscribers from Q4 2005 to Q1 2006 - as email subscribers switch to other, free email services. To combat the loss of revenue, it has been seeking new marketing and media partnerships.
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