Ask.com Plans Entry Into PPC Market

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Ask.com has announced it is entering the PPC market with contextual ads. The first ads will go online in late May. The ads will appear at first only on IAC-owned websites – Match.com, Ticketmaster, Evite, and Citysearch, as well as the countless other less popular IAC sites.

Unlike AdSense, Ask.com promises more flexibility for publishers. The fourth largest search engine plans to allow publishers the ability to tweak ads in order to optimize ad relevance and page yield. Advertisers will be able to post separate bids for contextual ads and block sites from displaying their ads. IAC is hoping its program will be more flexible that Google AdSense.

It remains to be seen how Ask.com’s PPC advertising will affect the marketplace but judging by how Ask has performed since dropping Jeeves, it does look a little promising. The question is can it give Google a run for its money over the long haul?