NKOTB = AJSL

Yep, the rumors are true. Over the last year, Ask Jeeves has been preparing to launch a new PPC product, and this week we formally announced the result of those efforts: Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings.

You may be familiar with Ask Jeeves previous pay-per-click advertising product, Premier Listings, which dated back to early 2002. While Premier Listings offered premium placement on Ask Jeeves, the product had a number of downsides which prevented it from scaling, including the fact that it offered only one listing per keyword and required a quarterly purchase commitment.

Our Premier Listings advertisers consistently asked for simpler tools as well as actionable information to allow larger campaigns to be setup and optimized. At the same time, they wanted standardization, allowing a shorter learning curve and more compatibility with other sponsored listing systems.

Enter Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings.

Leveraging an automated open-bidding system, Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings enables advertisers to more effectively purchase, manage and optimize campaigns on Ask Jeeves and our syndication network. This new product will open up advertising inventory on Ask Jeeves to a much broader base of search advertisers.

Some of the key benefits include:

• Premium placement on Ask Jeeves and its syndication network (only a 13% average audience duplication between Ask Jeeves and other major search engines)
• Low spend minimum that enables both large and small advertisers to purchase search advertising via a self-service system
• Increased visibility into campaign performance
• Advertisers can launch a new campaign in 1-2 hours

The system is available for existing Ask Jeeves customers with general availability slated for Aug 15.

In related news, we also announced the formation of IAC Advertising Solutions, a new division formed by the integration of IAC Partner Marketing (the advertising and integrated marketing solutions group of IAC) with AJinteractive (the advertising solutions and sales division of Ask Jeeves). IAC Advertising Solutions will provide a one-stop-shop for search, media and performance advertising products across the IAC network.

It’s been a long road and we’re very excited about these improvements. Let us know if you have questions about Ask Jeeves Sponsored Listings or any of the IAC Advertising Solutions products.

James Speer
Vice President of Marketing and Products for IAC Advertising Solutions