In a new blog posting, Microsoft has outlined new deals with AOL and AppNexus. With this move, “Bing will power search and search advertising across the AOL portfolio of sites”.
Bing has been steadily growing in market share over the last few years. Now with some 20 percent of search traffic, organic growth and deals like these will allow it to become competitive with the “other” big search engine. Microsoft feels that this deal validates the quality of Bing results and the performance of the Bing Ads marketplace.
In addition to the search partnership, AOL will supply all “display formats” or ad content including mobile and video, for the Microsoft portfolio. This will apply in nine markets (Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States). Microsoft will shut down its own ad display business, affecting some 1,200 jobs.
This union will create a “powerhouse media offering” with a “remarkable set of differentiated assets”. AOL owns many websites including: Huffington Post, Engadget, Adap.tv and TechCrunch. The ability to introduce one selling motion on all of these sites allows them to deliver more scale of premium inventory and target audiences across display, video and mobile with a consistent experience.
The AppNexus partnership means they become Microsoft’s exclusive provider of programmatic technology. They will also become a sales partner in 10 more markets (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland).
