Do you know where your on line advertisements are going? Mongolia, Syria, Pakistan, or other places where you don't do business? Microsoft today announced Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions , a service that only delivers ads to respected Microsoft sites.
Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions offers advertisers the ability
to reach more than 465 million consumers each month across the MSN(R)
network and millions more through Windows Live(TM), Xbox Live(R) and Office
Online. Microsoft's advertising portfolio extends its reach across some of
Microsoft's latest releases such as Live Search and Live Local Search,
through relationships such as those with Facebook, and the acquisition of
in-game advertising pioneer Massive Inc.
Click fraud and unwanted clicks are a growing problem. BusinessWeek did a cover story on click fraud this week, which included this in depth story about Yahoo "Doing Business With a Controversial Partner".
Yahoo recycles ads to Oemji even though several leading Internet security firms claim the site's owner also distributes software that can deceive and annoy computer users. Yahoo's own correspondence with Oemji's parent, Oemtec Ltd., confirms that the on line giant knows about the controversy. Yet Yahoo continues to send ads to Oemji that advertisers and on line experts allege result in dubious clicks and inflated bills.
One frustrated advertiser is MostChoice.com. Chief Executive Martin Fleischmann says that, in the past year, Yahoo charged the on line financial-information provider an estimated $10,300 for 2,690 clicks from visitors to Oemji. Ninety percent of the clicks came from such places as Mongolia, Vietnam, and Honduras, where MostChoice does no business. Only eight clicks, less than 0.3%, turned into sales, compared with 30% or more from clicks on ads on Yahoo's own Web site.
On-line advertising is very cost effective and trackable if done correctly with top tier sites. When your ads get syndicated out to an advertising network all bets are off. The percentage of invalid clicks on advertising network sites is much higher than on search engines or tier one content sites. Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions is a great choice for high quality exposure.
