MSNBC Launches AdReady: Expensive Local Online Ads

Want to buy ads on one of the web’s top properties that are locally targeted and easy for the unsophisticated buyer to make and launch?  MSNBC.com, ranked by Alexa the #6 most visited site on the web is enabling local advertisers to reach local users when they visit any of 8 channels the 300×250 or 728×90 ads will run on.

AdReady from MSNBC.com, supplies ready made the creatives, you simply drop in the text, phone, picture, background color and website address you want to go on the Flash enabled ad and voila you are done.  Reminds me of SpotRunner, one of my favorite tools of all time, but that is another post.

MSNBC then displays your ad only to visitors of the site that are from the geographic area you want.  So if you are serving the San Diego area, only those people coming to MSNBC’s properties from the San Diego area will be served your ads on the Channels you specify.  Totally targeted, except the list of cities by state is relatively few and you cannot target by zip code.

But at what cost?  $16.50 per CPM.  With a MINIMUM $50 daily spend, means that for your $50 you are getting 3,030 impressions shown.  This would be fine if you could say, I only want to be on the pages that have keywords related to real estate on them if I were a real estate agent buying the ads.  But alas, you only get the 8 channels, which includes:

- News
- Business
- Entertainment
- Health
- Politics
- Tech
- Today Show
- Travel

Expensive.  YES

Targeted.  SOMEWHAT

Telling your friends you have ads on MSNBC for your home market: PRICELESS

ROI:  Probably Not Worth It.