The Seattle slew may become the Singapore slingers as Microsoft announces its first paid-search ad program. The program, unveiled in Singapore, allows advertisers to peek at MSN searcher behavior as keyword usage. It could prove quite useful to Microsoft and should provide them with yet another source of revenue.
The program requires a one-time fee of S$10 or $5.97 in the U.S. and then bids start on key words with a minimum bid of S$.10, with a payment going for each click. Ad placement is figured by bid price, click-through rates and user profiles.
Eva Balan, the international marketing manager for MSN adCenter spoke from Singapore on Tuesday. She said they are aiming at the small and medium sized business and MSN plans on seminars and workshops to help educate those businesses on how to make the most of their program.
This program will operate much like similar programs in that a budget can be set by the advertisers and they’ll be able to profile their users’ habits with regard to key words. Right now, age and gender can be gleaned from the information available but MSN says more information will eventually be available.
Even though Singapore is the first country online with MSN’s Keyword software, it won’t be the last. MSN has plans to open a program in France in October and there will be others.
Industry insiders say the market as much as $9.9 bill in 2008
John Stith is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
