Microsoft Promotes Live Search in a Big Way

Search engine underdog tries to make a big splash with ad campaign.

Microsoft ads were in front of 126 million unique Internet users with a total 5.5 billion ad views in June, more than any other display advertiser, according to data released by comScore. It had 1.7 percent share of all display ads.

Microsoft display ads primarily comprised of campaigns for Windows Live Search including ads for Windows Live Search Club games and Windows Live Search cashback program. “In other months Microsoft hasn’t been as high, certainly not in the top advertiser [spot],” said Andrew Lipsman, senior analyst at comScore.

Of the top five search engines, Microsoft had 9.2 percent of the market share in July, down by 0.3 percent from June according to another comScore report. Microsoft’s search engine trails Google (61.5 percent) and Yahoo (20.9 percent).

On the display advertising front, consistently top-ranked advertisers are Experian and Netflix, which came in third and ninth, respectively, in June, according to comScore. Experian pulled in close to 4 million display ad views, and Netflix had 3.1 million views.

Among publishers — whose ranks typically do not fluctuate as much as advertisers’ — Fox Interactive Media placed top for total display ad views with 52.3 million ad views. Yahoo followed with 34.7 million display ad views. “Yahoo and Fox Interactive may have been in different positions, but both have been in the top two,” said Lipsman. He said Yahoo and MySpace have “tons of ads.”

Top U.S. Display-Ad Publisher Sites, June 2008
Publisher site Display-Ad Views (m) Share of Display Ads (%) Advertising-Exposed Unique Visitors (000)
Total Internet 329,828 100.0 180,571
Fox Interactive Media 52,288 15.9 83,571
Yahoo sites 34,675 10.5 130,680
AOL 19,004 5.8 96.512
Microsoft sites 15,485 4.7 87,667
Google sites 5,075 1.5 81,885
Facebook 3,650 1.1 30,723
eBay 3,512 1.1 52,238
Viacom Digital 3,114 0.9 36,382
Comcast.net 2,644 0.8 11,860
Glam Media 2,237 0.7 33,462
Note: views are U.S. home, work, and university locations.
Source: comScore, 2008

Top U.S. Online Display Advertisers, June 2008
Advertiser Display-Ad Views (m) Share of Display Ads (%) Advertising-Exposed Unique Visitors (000)
Total Internet 329,828 100 180,571
Microsoft 5,529 1.7 126,367
University of Phoenix 4,722 1.4 120,475
Experian Interactive 4,722 1.2 137,915
United Online 3,929 1.2 136,329
Verizon 3,818 1.2 130,839
AT&T 3,802 1.1 129,951
Vonage 3,368 1.0 132,964
Netflix 3,146 1.0 134,554
Ask Network 2,852 0.9 102,565
Note: views are U.S. home, work, and university locations.
Source: comScore, 2008

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