MSN ready to challenge Google on contextual ads
Following the pilot launches of MSN’s demographic-sensitive AdCenter service in September, the web portal is now talking up a direct challenge to Google’s AdSense contextual advertising program.
In the New York Times, Yusuf Mehdi, a Microsoft Vice President, said Microsoft’s program would have greater appeal to advertisers. “We know we have to compete hard for our business,” he said. “And we think we will offer advertisers better value because of the superior information we have about our audience.”
Microsoft’s entry into this business is getting an unusually warm reception from the advertising agencies that specialize in search marketing. “They definitely have a market because they have the traffic,” said Danny Sullivan, the editor of the Web publication Search Engine Watch, of MSN’s search business. “Search marketers can’t seem to get enough traffic. I don’t know anyone who is not going to try MSN.”
Jensense, a blog that specializes in contextual advertising, says : “Because MSN AdCenter will feature options of target ads to particular demographics, including age and gender, this could allow publishers greater flexibility in what ads they show. For instance, I have a few sites targeting female audiences… if I could include this information in the MSN contextual ad platform, these sites could be given higher priority to showing ads that advertisers are targeting female audiences.
The NYT article reports that MSN will phase in the system in the United States, using its own ads on some pages and ads sold by Yahoo on others, starting in October. The company hopes to replace the Yahoo ads entirely by next spring.
