MSearchGroove

In-Brief: An in-depth look at MCN’s ad network based on an exclusive briefing with the company.  The offer could very well raise the ante in mobile advertising.

It certainly looks that way if you examine the latest news from Mobile Content Networks (MCN), a provider of mobile search management solutions. It has taken the wraps off allwords, a mobile ad network that literally allows content providers and advertisers to purchase all the keywords in a particular category - such as music, games or shopping - rather than try to guess the individual keywords that will clinch the deal. The concept is more than an intriguing idea; it has actually been in place at Yahoo Mobile Japan, a content portal MSN announced just over a month ago, where it has yielded astounding results, including click-through rates of between 20 to 30 percent.

I caught up with Stephen Burke, MCN SVP Marketing, today to find out more about ad network and explore the new models and revenue streams it potentially enables. Before we can begin to understand the benefits of this more all-inclusive approach, we need to be clear on the capabilities mix MCN brings to the table.

To be clear, MCN is a player in federated search and advertising, which means the company sends queries to a variety of content sources, and federates - or blends - the results, an approach that delivers a wide and welcome variety of search results to the user who submitted the query. (Of course, federated search goes far beyond this rather simplistic scenario, but a short description nonetheless ensures we’re all on the same page.) The MCN approach connects through what we’ll call “connectors” to the content providers’ databases to expose all the content contained therein for inclusion in the final search results. Because this approach is flexible, MCN can literally pick up on content as it happens, connecting with content metadata in the content providers’ database and bubbling it up to be federated (blended) in the final search results.

Put simply, MCN blends results from a variety of sources and presents those according to the business rules of the customer (a mobile operator, for example). This doesn’t only mean more and more relevant results; it also means the results are fresh. No broken links, no stale content, and - it would follow - no dissatisfactory user experience.

Today’s announcement is a milestone because MCN has now cleverly turned this model around and applied it to mobile advertising. (To my knowledge, this is the first such offer in this space.) Like the search side of the approach, MCN’s federated mobile ad network connects through its connectors to content provider databases to see into the content and play matchmaker between keywords and content. But rather than leave the content provider/advertiser to guess which keywords will pay off in the end, MCN enables the customer to purchase all the keywords in a popular vertical. Depending on the content channel, and the content provider/advertiser, allwords.net lets the advertiser purchase either on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis or a Pay-Per-Action (PPA) basis. MCN effectively manages the campaign from end-to-end.

As Stephen put it: Content providers/advertisers just pick a content category and name their monthly budget. Take the example of music and a user searching for Beyoncé ringtones. “MCN federates the search query to the CP’s [content provider’s] server, sees the music content that resides there and offers it up as advertising to match the original query.” Again, because the connectors can pick up on content as its metadata is added to the database, MCN more or less automatically delivers the freshest content as part of the pitch, an approach Stephen tells me impacts the click-through rate to create a virtuous cycle. “The content offer delivered as the advertising [triggered by the user’s search] is relevant and fresh. That’s a combination likely to trigger a high click-through rate, and this is what our customers are seeing judging by the rate of [advertising budget] renewals.”

I also happen to know the approach has its converts, including a European operator MCN is set to announce soon. (Makes sense since the increase in click-throughs to content providers ultimately pays off for the portal providers and mobile operators that provide the entry point to these destinations. Put another way, mobile operators can cash in on a new revenue opportunity associated with the sale of category-based keyword advertising.)

Read between the lines and MCN’s offer is about much more than helping advertisers get more bang for the buck. Because it allows companies to buy the keywords contained in a complete content category, it covers all the bases to create a much more level playing field for mobile search monetization. Small and mid-size content owners/advertisers who lack the manpower and patience to get involved in a game of chance, no longer have to guess the right keywords, they simply put up their monthly budget like the rest and are debited when a user clicks on the link. It’s also good news for Long Tail content owners/advertisers that might not otherwise have a chance alongside the major players that have paid huge amounts to lock-down certain keywords even though their offer might not be a perfect match.

The jury is out on whether a category buy is superior to a keyword bid. However, a model in which the best content wins potentially marks the start of a more democratic approach to search advertising. And getting more companies and advertisers on board is what this space desperately needs to cross the chasm and move into the bowling alley.

• Posted in
• Mobile Search, Mobile Music, Mobile Content, Mobile Advertising

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