PubCenter Offers Ad Revenue-Sharing

PubCenter, now in open beta, is a self-service program that pays publishers for advertisements that Microsoft places on their sites. The service fills a major gap in Microsoft’s online advertising offerings—Google and Yahoo have had similar programs in place for several years—and the delay could make it difficult for Microsoft to match its competitors’ payouts and draw publishers to the program.

Expanding Inventory for Contextual Ads

AdCenter Publisher launched in a private invitation-only beta in fall 2008. In Apr. 2009, Microsoft changed the name to PubCenter and opened the beta to any business registered in the United States.

The PubCenter service allows Web site owners—publishers in Microsoft’s online advertising terminology—to display small text advertisements from Microsoft’s AdCenter platform on their Web sites; Microsoft then splits any revenue from these ads with the Web site owner. Although any publisher can sign up for PubCenter, today it targets smaller publishers, such as bloggers, who don’t have the resources or traffic to sell more complicated types of advertisements, such as banner ads.