ZDNet Asia reported that Microsoft has launched its first paid-search advertising application that offers advertisers information on searchers and their search activity, and the frequency at which keywords have been accessed. This pay-per-click search ads service, called MSN Keywords, is the first tool to be launched on the MSN adCenter announced earlier this year, which was designed to be a one-stop site for customers looking to launch advertising campaigns.

To subscribe to MSN Keywords, advertisers have to pay a one-time subscription fee of S$5 (US$3). For each keyword, they bid a minimum of S$0.10 and pay for the number of times search users click on their advertisements, which appear as sponsored links alongside search results. The placement of the links will depend on the bid price, click-through rate as well as the types of user profiles captured by the system.

Advertisers can key in a pre-determined budget in MSN Keywords and initiate marketing campaigns that work around the budgets. They can also view the profile of users who search for particular keywords, and find out how frequently certain keywords have been searched. Currently, it’s still limited to the age and genders of search users, as described by Raxit Kagalwala, MSN’s director program management, but more profile differentiators will be added in future.

Singapore is the first country in which MSN Keywords was launched. France will follow up later this month and a pilot run in the United States in October.