October Brings New Wind To Ask.com Paid Search

Ask.com is hoping an update to the company's paid search program will give them a larger share of the paid search market. Beginning in October, IAC’s Ask.com search portal will revamp the paid search functions, and the company is also reconsidering their current PPC ad partnership with Google.

by Kristina Knight

Ask says the new version will go live, giving advertisers more control over the daily search budgets. There will be live tools to track ads and manage different campaigns from desktop spreadsheet functions. The new tools will also offer billable data in real time, according to reports from MediaPost.

Currently, Ask displays it’s own paid listings in the top three positions on search results and informational listing pages. In addition, the company displays pay-per-click ads powered by Google. These ads appear at the bottom of the results pages, below Ask’s home grown ads.

For online marketers, the changes spell more control. More control over how campaigns run, how campaigns are changed mid-stream to boost sales and how campaigns are targeted to consumers.

IAC CEO Barry Diller said in addition to the changes in Ask.com’s paid searches, the company is reconsidering the partnership with Google. He says Ask is considering dropping the Internet super-portal for possible partnerships with either Yahoo or MSN for non-Ask pay-per-click advertising.