24/7 Media, L90 Launch Niche Marketing Tools

Two online ad networks Tuesday unveiled new products aimed at smaller Web publishers and marketers.

Los Angeles-based L90 Tuesday rolled out its L90 Search product, which basically allows publishers to set up a private-label search engine on their site. L90 provides the tools and actually hosts the service for its publishers, who can then offer advertisers keyword-targeted ad inventory.

Furthermore, publishers using L90 Search can also link into the company’s Search Network. In a network configuration, L90 aggregates the keyword-targeted ads across all the sites using L90 Search.

The upshot is that surfers receive ads attached to keywords not necessarily sold by the site using the search engine — boosting exposure for advertisers and revenue for the publishers on whose sites the ads appear.

“For smaller to mid-level sites, the L90 Search Network generates a larger volume of keywords which is necessary to attract the larger marketing dollars,” said L90 president and chief executive John Bohan. “The power of a network provides sites of all sizes with a tremendous targeted keyword inventory to work with.”

“L90 Search makes sense for Web publishers, as they add a useful function to the Web site and multiple revenue streams, while marketers can target their most valuable audiences with product information,” he added.

Meanwhile, New York-based 24/7 Media is offering a new product that also appeals to a smaller audience. Its Grouped Promotional Solution Sweepstakes enables marketers to share the cost of a large grand prize with other companies, while running separate branded sweepstakes.

In other words, marketers can tap into the drawing power of a large incentive while splitting prize and operational costs with other Web marketers — useful for smaller companies interested in collecting opt-in information, but that might not be able to afford prize payout, even on an annuitized basis.

Each participating company receives its own branded registration page and retains its captured opt-in information, 24/7 Media said.

“24/7 Media’s strength lies in its ability to offer advertisers interactive marketing capabilities that help attract, retain and grow customer relationships,” said Bryan Heathman, president of 24/7 Media’s promotions division.

The company Tuesday also unveiled a new Web-banner “Scratch ‘N’ Win” game, similar to ads designed by and running on MSN. The Java-based “Scratch ‘N’ Win” product enables advertisers to offer an instant-win game, in which users mouse over an image to reveal that either the user has won a promotion, discount, or special offer, or ad.