Claria is set today to announce its Q2 plans to launch a new behavioral banner network, BehaviorLink, that will complement its behavioral network of adware users. Since Claria keeps tabs on the surfing behavior of tens of millions of its adware users, it can link that information to run of site media the company purchases on other websites, effectively buying banners at wholesale prices and selling them at much higher CPMs after having added in the right amount of targeting. Claria told ClickZ that it would purchase more than $100 million of media from about 3,000 sites to provide the coverage needed to hit the critical mass of relevantly targeted individuals for any given buy and provide enough inventory to sell to advertisers. The banner network diversifies Claria's media offerings away from the pop-up and pop-under avails it will continue to provide, although it seems the targeting technology remains tied to information coming from its vast adware network.

For Claria, the banner media will likely prove less profitable, but they will theoretically be able to sell more of it, as the banner media will not be subject to the necessary frequency caps set on pop-up media. Claria expects there to be a 7 to 15 percent overlap between its network of 40 million adware users and the universe included in its wholesale banner buys. That gives a potential audience of roughly four million people.

A CNET story on the impending announcement characterized the move as a bid for credibility, moving the adware firm away from software and pop-ups, more toward a mainstream banner ad network. But the story also noted that Claria harbors hopes that the banner buying relationships may provide opportunities to further spread its behavior tracking applications to additional audiences. It reportedly hopes to grow its tracked audience to 200 million individuals.