Newsflash: Advertisers will pay more money for the chance to target their messages. Hmm. Novel concept.
MySpace expects refined audience segmentation will result in higher CPM rates for display ads. MySpace admits those rates are often low because the social networking site has so much inventory. According to MySpace, the site attracts 60 billion page views each month. (Read the whole story from ClickZ)
The HyperTargeting system launched in July, allowing 50 trial advertisers such as Procter & Gamble and Ford to target ads to 10 macro-level interest-based user categories such as Personal Finance, Consumer Electronics and Travel, segmented according to information users add to their profiles. Now MySpace is slicing audience interest categories into more than 100 smaller “hyper” segments. Top level segments include about three million users each while sub-segments have around 100,000 users, the company said in a statement.
MySpace analyzes non-personally identifiable information posted by users on their profiles to serve ads only to those users. “The information used for our targeting program is freely-expressed, public, viewable information that users have voluntarily put on their profiles,” said the firm in a statement provided to press outlets. In the future, the company expects to develop segments based on preferred MySpace activities and “life stages.” The HyperTargeting offering will be made available for targeting non-U.S. users next year.
MySpace offering target niches as small as 100,000…makes our 7.5 million online Colts fan base seem gigantic by comparison!! So, if you’re doing online sports sponsorship, realize we got your niche right here 
