• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 15, 2011

What are moms most interested in online? Well, not information about being moms, according to new research from About.com. Rather, before parenting-specific fare, moms are more likely to search in various lifestyle categories, from food to careers.

"The findings confirm that food, health, education and travel advertisers and brands have a unique opportunity to connect with moms, often considered the chief household officers, at a time when they are actively seeking solutions and need them most," said Mitchell Kreuch, senior vice president, sales at About.com.

Moms' care-giving instinct did come out when it came time to spend. In particular, they clearly preferred ads that offered coupons and discounts on products and services that could be useful and relevant to their families.

"Since moms are mostly interested in ads that provide incentives, brands can create ads that appeal to moms and their purses, providing both the marketer and consumer with the best return on investment," says Kreuch.

Specifically, 67% of respondents preferred coupons and discounts in online ads, while 47% preferred ads that provided useful information to help them do something.

Conducted on About.com this past spring, the "American Moms" study examined the behavior of over 2,000 moms online in the U.S. Across the board, online ads appear to drive moms to seek more information and try products. Over half of the respondents visited product Web sites as a result of seeing an online ad in the past year, according to About's research.

In addition, over 50% printed a coupon, while nearly half clicked on ads or did more research. Moreover, nearly 40% purchased products.

Online advertisement tones and formats were also important, with 51% indicating that online ads that most grabbed their attention were those with detailed product information about how to use the product, while 39% preferred ads that were visually appealing.