New Contextual Ad Platform Gives Retailers Better Content Monetization

Coming up soon: a contextual ad platform from FAST that allows retailers to monetize content and serve advertisers without using third-party services.

Enterprise search firm FAST announced the launch of AdMomentum, a platform that allows publishers to manage and serve their own ads bypassing Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other third-party contextual advertising networks.

FAST believes this service can be a “revenue engine” for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) and vertical search sites (VSEs), which are not well served by current contextual ad networks. FAST VP and GM, Media Solutions Perry Solomon believes SMEs need a “revenue engine” rather than a search engine to thrive in today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, and this platform will help provide more revenue.

Soloman said AdMomentum was developed in cooperation with leading online media companies, retailers and telecommunications service providers for the purpose of integrating existing content management systems and site search systems.

This platform can give retailers and wholesalers a more profitable and flexible alternative to third-party contextual advertising services. The product has been proven in trials and in production. AdMomentum will be available to retailers and other SMEs in Q1 2007.

“There’s no question that search technology and performance advertising have dramatically transformed the world of publishing, but for many publishers the transformation has not paid off as well as it should,” said John M. Lervik, CEO of FAST. “Publishers want to maintain control of their revenue, serving their advertisers and audiences more effectively, and this has been difficult to do with third-party platforms. With FAST AdMomentum, we give that control and independence back to publishers – enabling them for the first time to fully monetize their assets without having to share revenues or risk customer disintermediation.”

Contextual search advertising continues to increase revenues for Google, Yahoo and other third-party contextual advertising networks. Publishers, however, have been unable to capitalize on contextual ads. AdMomentum was developed to allow publishers to reap a larger share of the paid search revenue by providing the infrastructure for them to manage and monetize their online content.

Publishers to Capitalize on Content

Because publishers know their content, audiences and advertiser needs best, AdMomentum will enable them to use that knowledge to increase ad revenues. This ad platform meets the specific needs of retailers and wholesalers by allowing them to capitalize on their content, stemming the tide of ad dollars going out to third-party providers.

Among other features, AdMomentum offers customers the ability to sell locally and nationally, a self-service environment for their advertisers, and multiple ranking algorithms and innovative customer interfaces to better match the needs of both their audiences and advertisers.

Source: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070205005488&newsLang=en