“In another big win for Microsoft’s ad network ambitions, the company will provide all contextual and paid search advertising on sites published by the Wall Street Journal Digital Network…”
New York — Microsoft Corp. continues its bid to topple Google and Yahoo by announcing on Tuesday it will become the new provider of contextual and paid search advertising to the “Wall Street Journal Digital Network,” which includes The Wall Street Journal Online, Barrons.com, MarketWatch, and AllThingsD.com, and other online properties operated by Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones and Co.
Under terms of the two-year agreement, Microsoft will displace Pulse 360, the company that previously ran contextual text listings. Wall Street Journal Digital Network properties, which include WSJ.com, Barrons.com and Marketwatch.com, had not previously provided search services.
“Microsoft will begin serving ads on the sites Feb. 1.”
“For Microsoft, that means the Beast of Redmond can add 20 million visitors per month to its advertising network.”
The move is the latest in a string of deals Microsoft has signed which includes expanding its ad-serving with popular online hangout, Facebook in October. The company also announced a deal with Viacom in December, which was valued at $500 million.
“This deal is a significant win for Microsoft for two key reasons,” said Brian McAndrews, senior vice president, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions at Microsoft.
“First, it makes the extended Microsoft advertising network the premier destination for advertisers interested in reaching financially minded users, as it complements our offering in this vertical through MSN Money and other syndication partners.
“Second, this deal is a strong indicator that we are gaining significant traction with our advertising platform. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network is one of the largest financial services publishers in a very dynamic vertical segment, and we are delighted to add it to our portfolio,” McAndrews added.
The network addition supports Microsoft’s ongoing courtship of advertisers and publishers in the money and finance vertical.
Earlier this month it signed a similar deal with Edgar Online, to which it is the exclusive provider of contextual and video advertising, which dropped Google AdSense. Under that agreement, Edgar also agreed to provide SEC filing documents and other content to MSN Money.
“Along the same lines, Microsoft is providing ads for CNBC.com, MSN Money and other money-oriented sites in Microsoft’s advertising syndication network.”
“We are very much focused on the financial services sector,” said Jon Tinter, Microsoft’s general manager for strategy and business development. “We think it continues to speak to the momentum Microsoft has in the marketplace in signing up premium Web publishers for our ad platform.”
Under the agreement, Microsoft will use technology from its Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group to place third-party, paid search listings on the Dow Jones Web sites. “Microsoft’s state-of-the-art advertising platform will enable us to dramatically improve our revenues,” said Gordon McLeod, president of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, in a statement.
Microsoft acquired much of its online advertising technology through its $6 billion buyout last year of aQuantive — the corporate parent of digital ad agency Avenue A-Razorfish.
“It is really about premium publishers,” said Tinter, differentiating Microsoft’s approach to Google’s more far-flung network strategy. “We think a publisher of the quality of The Wall Street Journal speaks to that.”
The WSJ Digital agreement will be implemented on February 1, replacing an existing contextual and search ads relationship the network has in place with Pulse 360, the companies said.
“We can package together inventory across that entire network,” said Tinter. “It is a more compelling solution. One of the key pieces of feedback we get when we talk to financial services advertisers is… they are looking for more inventory, a broader number of places to advertise on.”
Microsoft said it expects to start serving up ads on the Dow Jones sites starting next month. Both Microsoft and Dow Jones will presumably receive per-click payments from companies whose ads appear on WSJ.com and the other Web sites, though Microsoft did not provide specifics of the arrangement.
In building out its digital advertising business, Microsoft is hoping to close the gap with Google and Yahoo — both of which are currently well ahead of the software maker in terms of generating the search engine traffic that drives the bulk of online ad sales.
As of December, Google held 58.4% of U.S. search traffic; Yahoo commanded 22.9% of the market, while Microsoft controlled just 9.8%, according to market watcher comScore.
Tinter noted Microsoft is also aggressively pursuing the entertainment and social media verticals, as evidenced by the Viacom, Digg and Facebook relationships, but he added “financial services is a place where Microsoft traditionally has had a very strong relationship with advertisers.”