"WidgetBucks" are launched for online merchants

Forget about email shopping messages, paid search or even local search ads. Seattle-based Mpire is betting on WidgetBucks to increase revenue for online merchants.

by Kristina Knight

Here is how the portable ad units work: publishers - merchants, bloggers or other content publishers - host the Flash-based applications on their own sites while Mpire's "MerchSense" ad platform serves up the ads for the widgets.

"It detects and analyzes the content of your website or blog to determine what product offers are most relevant to your audience. MerchSense evaluates your editorial information daily, so, as your content changes, WidgetBucks will dynamically offer the highest-yielding products," was written on the website.

The widgets can host coupons for specific stores or can be simple banner-type ads and are contextually targeted to the content on the website. The platform uses a CPM model and Mpire splits the revenue with publisher sites.

"The MerchSense contextual algorithm delivers a higher CPM because it's smart about what shopping products are on the page and users are more likely to click," said Matt Hulett, president and CEO of Mpire.

And don't worry about random ads for a plumber or lawyer showing up on a shopping website. WidgetBucks will only take ads for specific products and those ads will be targeted to the content already on a website. In that way users on the website will be more interested in clicking through to the products and hopefully will convert to buy the product from there.