SEARCH123 BRINGS COST-PER-CLICK MODEL TO BANNER ADS FOR FIRST TIME EVER, DELIVERING IMPRESSIONS FOR FREE - AND LETTING ADVERTISERS SET RATES

Innovative Offer Embraces Dynamic, Market Pricing, Ensures Risk-Free Online Advertising

LOS ANGELES (May 2, 2001) - Amid a growing industry lament aimed at CPM-based banner ads for their intrusiveness and lack of pull, Search123, the industry's first realtime cost-per-click (CPC) search engine, today introduced innovative CPC-based banner ads, which will deliver impressions free of charge while enabling advertisers to effectively set their own ad rates.

The company made the announcement at @d:tech Los Angeles 2001, at the Los Angeles Convention Center through May 4.

Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., Search123 (www.search123.com) is an auction-based search engine that provides qualified leads to online merchants who bid on keyword searches. Advertisers pay on a cost-per-click basis, allowing for better cost-control and real time management of advertising campaigns. Under Search123's unique banner program, the cost of the click is dynamic and set by advertisers, who bid on keywords.

"Impressions are worthless without a click-through," said James Beriker, CEO, Search123. "Our market-driven pricing method recognizes that reality and enables advertisers to set the price for click-throughs. While the online advertising establishment is moving to bigger and even more intrusive CPM banners -- in a misguided belief that bigger ads will cure anemic click-through rates -- we believe there's a better way to use banners, a way that actually works.

"CPM advertising is, frankly, a rip-off and advertisers are tired of being taken," Beriker said. "Why charge for impressions at all? Advertisers want qualified traffic -- consumers with credit cards, ready to buy."

In response to that frustration, Search123 is offering risk-free, cost-per-click banner ads, where advertisers pay only for click-throughs -- impressions are free. The banner program will augment Search123's core CPC search engine business.

"Nearly everyone recognizes that banner ads based on a cost-per-thousand model are simply ineffective in driving consumer traffic, and the days of brand building are gone for most online merchants," Beriker said. "Still, the real estate on Web pages remains available. By letting the market set the price for banner ad space on the cost-per-click model, we've found a way to make that space pay, for us and for our advertisers.

"Targeting is vital in advertising in the new e-economy," he added. "Our banner campaigns are offered on a targeted CPC basis, where the market sets the price and we get paid only on a click-through by a qualified lead. We have no right to establish the price of a click-through, even on a banner -- the click-through is worth only what an advertiser is willing to pay. By aligning our banner pricing with our listings, we achieve as close to a `pure' relationship between cost and value as is possible in online advertising."

How It Works

Search123 will place CPC banner campaigns on an exclusive 30-day basis, by "keyword" buckets. Banner ads follow the same pricing model as the company's search listings. Advertisers themselves set ad prices by bidding on key words or phrases; a search on a particular keyword -- which identifies the searcher's specific interest -- generates a search result and a series of targeted banners. Advertisers establish minimums and maximums on their keyword bids, paying only what each determines a click-through is worth.

The Search123 search results page features three button and two banner ad positions, each of which is priced according to client bids on keyword listings on that search results page. Using this method, the click-through price will be dynamically set by the market, in line with Search123's pure market model.

Search123 features a patent-pending real-time search engine that enables advertiser listings to go live, instantly. The company is proving that CPC-based advertising online delivers for advertisers and affiliates alike, with click-through rates in excess of 30 percent. Search123's goal is to continually find new and innovative ways to assist clients in the quest for qualified leads at fair prices.

The company maintains a relentless focus on helping merchants make the most of their online advertising experience. As a commercial medium, Search123 offers advertisers unprecedented freedom by enabling them to list themselves as they choose. Merchants can receive detailed campaign reports at any time, among other benefits.

About Search123

Based in Westlake Village, Calif., Search123 (www.search123.com) is a commercial search engine that enables merchants to list their sites, bid on keywords, and manage their online advertising accounts -- all in real time. By creating aggressive revenue sharing relationships with Web properties with a strong base of qualified users, Search123 has been able to cost-effectively and profitably drive increasing amounts of highly-targeted consumers to its advertisers Web sites while creating a strong supplemental revenue opportunity for its search partners. Search123 is part of the essential shift in online advertising that has embraced the concept that performance -- and the ability to deliver meaningful return-on-investment for advertising clients -- must be the industry's focus.