Microsoft sees ad-supported software 12/13/2005 -Keyword advertising taken one step further.
Keyword advertising has taken the online world by storm, linking advertisements to the actual searching of the online user. The grand giants of the online world, Google and Yahoo, have dominated this sector of advertising for the last four years. Now MSN, the online media wing of Microsoft have plans to take it one step further by linking the actual demographics, geographic location, and time of day of the user with their search terms. While being of interest predominantly to the B2C sector, for example a luxury car advertiser can ensure that only adults 25-55 searching the keyword "auto" for can see their ads and not waste money on paying for under 25s who would never buy their product, it also has implications for B2B marketers. For example it will be possible to say ensure your advert is only shown during working hours Monday-Friday, exclude students and States/countries where you don't have sales representation to help ensure that wastage from keyword campaigns are reduced.
