• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, November 7, 2006

Jim Barnett, the former CEO of AltaVista, today will unveil a new ad network that aims to place inventory on the sites where users are most likely to click on the ads.

The new network, Turn, draws on elements of contextual targeting and demographic targeting to determine where particular ads are likely to be effective. For example, says Barnett, mortgage ads might be placed on cooking sites because people who cook tend to also own homes.

Barnett says the ad network's platform examines a list of 60 variables, ranging from ads' past performance on certain sites to brand strength to user profiles, to determine where to place ads.

Pricing is on a cost-per-action basis, meaning that marketers only pay when users make a purchase, sign up for a lead, or perform some other act. Travel search engine SideStep will be among the initial advertisers; at launch, more than 1,000 marketers have signed up for the network, as have 30 publishers. The network will reach 11 million unique users at launch, according to Barnett.

Barnett, co-founder and CEO of Turn, took over as AltaVista CEO in 2001; he later became an executive at Overture, after the company acquired AltaVista in 2003.