Brier Dudley's Blog

Brier Dudley offers a critical look at technology and business issues affecting the Northwest.

August 26, 2008 12:31 PM

Cashback payola: Microsoft top display advertiser in June

Comscore just reported that Microsoft was the top online display advertiser in June. I wonder how long the company can spend its way to the top of the charts.

Comscore said the company's 5.5 billion display ad views in June were "due in large part to its promotional campaign for Windows Live Search, including ads for Windows Live Search Club games and the new Windows Live Search cashback program."

Cashback has already given Microsoft's search traffic a boost since it debuted in May.

June's display ad views put Microsoft ahead of University of Phoenix, with 4.7 billion ads viewed, and Experian, with 4 billion views for sites such as LowerMybills.com and FreeCreditReport.com.

Another local took fourth place - Classmates.com, whose parent company had 3.9 million ad views.

Among display ad publishers, Fox Interactive was the biggest property in June with 52.3 billion ad views served (mostly on MySpace) or 15.9 percent market share, Comscore reported. Yahoo's network was second with 10.5 percent share, followed by AOL's 5.8 percent, Microsoft's 4.7 percent and Google's 1.5 percent share.

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