Paid Links are Easy, Cross-Media Still a Hard Sell

may 13, 2004  04:22 pm
Two forms of online advertising -- one very hot today, the other a little cold -- were central in online publishers' minds Wednesday at the Interactive Media Conference & Trade Show sponsored by E&P and Mediaweek magazines. Paid links, which have accounted for much of the growth in online advertising revenues, will remain hot, according to Patrick Keane, head of advertising sales strategy for Google, one of the leaders in this space. He said that while only 5% of Web pages are search pages, consumers actually are making buying decisions just about everywhere on the Web -- as they randomly surf, read news, or conduct research. "We want to help publishers get a piece of that," said Keane, referring to Google's ongoing contextual ad partnerships with publishers.