Keyword advertising

Keyword advertising is a form of online advertising in which an advertiser pays to have an advertisement appear in the results listing when a person uses a particular phrase to search the Web, typically by employing a search engine. The particular phrase is composed of one or more keyterms that is linked to one or more advertisements. The most common form or keyword advertising, focused on payment methods, is pay per click (PPC), with other forms being cost per action (CPA) or cost per mille (CPM).

The first documented attempt at keyword advertising was 1996, by the search company OpenText, just a few years after the first attempt at banner advertisements. However, the project was soon abandoned. In 1998, GoTo.com launched a keyword advertising model that was commercially successful, with a patent on the concept issued in 1998. Reportedly, Yahoo! attempted something similar around this time also. In 1996, Chip Royce, head of online marketing for InterZine Productions of Boca Raton, Florida, approached Yahoo!'s sales agent (Flycast Communications) suggesting ads around keyword results to provide a more effective, targeted advertising within Yahoo!'s search results. Yahoo! obliged placing targeted ad banners when the keyword "Golf" was searched by Yahoo! users. Yahoo! later turned this opportunity into a formal marketing program for its entire customer base and promoted this in a July 1996 article in the now defunct 'Internet Week' magazine. .

Google AdWords is the most well-known keyword advertising platform. Google displays search ads specifically targeted to the word(s) typed into a search box on the results page, and these keyword cause targeted ads also appear on content sites based on Google's system's interpretation of the subject matter on each page of the site. This is known as contextual advertising. Other search engines offering keyword advertising include Yahoo! Search Marketing, Bing Ads, and Looksmart, along with many others.

A less common type of keyword advertising hyper-links individual words within the text of a page to small pop-ups displayed by mouseover. Advertising of this type is offered by Kontera, Vibrant Media, and LinkWorth. Kontera's version is named ContentLink, Vibrant Media's version is called IntelliTXT and LinkWorth's version is called LinkWords. They refer to their product as in-text placement. Advertisers choosing to test this type will want to exercise moderation to increase Internet user acceptance.

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