MSN launches mobile display ads

Add another platform to the MSN network, a network trying to capture a larger part of the online advertising market. The company has launched both text and display ads for US mobile users.

by Kristina Knight

Users are allowed to access their Hotmail accounts, search for news and information and can instant message from the platform. For advertisers the platform offers text and banner ads which will appear on all five pages - sports, news, entertainment, weather and money - of the MSN mobile portal. The ads are sold on a CPM basis.

As of now video ads are not an option for marketers.

This is the most recent in a series of mobile moves made in 2007 that MSN hopes will make their platform more viable for users and advertisers. In May MSN purchased ScreenTonic to power their mobile advertising system; later that month the company purchased aQuantive.

In a recent report Opus Research estimated that mobile advertising will grow to more than $5 billion in 2012. In 2007 mobile ads are expected to bring in just over $105 million. So far much of the advertising on mobiles has been via television sources, either promoting a program or pointing users toward a television website to get news, weather or sports information. However with more users logging on to surf the web via mobile devices, the adspace is also changing.

Marketers from nearly every business type are beginning to see the validity of mobile marketing.