Google Gains Traction in Display-Ad Push
Google Inc. (GOOG) is signing up marketers to use its latest display-advertising technology, pressuring rival Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and advancing the search giant’s effort to change the way ads are sold across the Internet.
Display ads, the eye-catching banner ads that appear atop and alongside most Web sites, have been under pressure as marketers question their effectiveness. Spending on banner ads fell 2.3 percent last year to $4.77 billion, according to eMarketer.
Google is championing a new stock market-like system for buying display ads. Using its exchange, ad buyers and sellers are matched to ad spaces in a real-time auction, allowing ad buyers to tailor where their ad appears based on the type of viewer they want to reach–and how much to pay for the space–on the fly.
