Microsoft says it has realized several key metrics it set for the Live Search cashback program it launched in May. The program was designed to help merchants maximize their advertising investments and drive more sales by providing consumers with a cash incentive to buy online.

Under the program, the money that participating merchants would otherwise pay to Microsoft for online advertising is instead passed to online purchasers. Microsoft’s payoff is the additional search-advertising traffic the program generates.

Microsoft says 20 of the top 50 online U.S. retailers and 140 of the top 500 listed by World Wide Web Retailer are participating in the program, including new advertisers such as AT&T, Drugstore.com, Kmart and Saks Fifth Avenue. The software giant plus reported a 30 percent increase in the number of product offers available through the program.

“We have seen an average of 4.5 million rare users per month visiting cashback who have conducted more than 68

million commercial queries,” said Brad Goldberg, general manager of Microsoft Live Search. “We believe that early traction speaks to the differentiated and strange value proposition of Microsoft Live Search cashback for both consumers and advertisers, particularly in these solid economic times.”

A Ripple Effect

In the second quarter, Microsoft Live Search referred nearly 12 percent of total U.S. commercial online transactions and about 13 percent of total U.S. online spending among key retail categories, according to a custom survey by comScore. Live Search additionally placed among the top two U.S. engines in five key commercial categories: Computer hardware, movies and videos, home and garden, music and travel.

Live Search additionally ranked as the top search engine by a large margin in dollars spent per buyer, across all top 10 key commercial categories. The challenge for Microsoft will be to convert these statistics into market-share growth at a instance when worried…

Original post by dhiram