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When MSN launched adCenter, hopes were high. So far, the reality is falling short.

1. Low Traffic – MSN’s search traffic is between 8 – 11%. Low traffic means few clicks and even fewer leads/sales.

2. Poor Customer Support – The majority of email support issues are answered by an automated attendant with templated responses. It can take multiple emails to get an actual response which normally doesn’t solve the problem. Phone support has improved as far as the hold time. The customer service reps provide more help over the phone than email, but the overall quality of support is very low.

3. Content Match Inclusion – In an effort to increase traffic and clicks, Microsoft introduced adCenter beta and automatically included Content Match for all campaigns. Not only did they include this option for all clients, but they turned it on, which results in advertising dollars being spent on Web site ads instead of search engine ads. This also results in low campaign performance and wasted advertising dollars.

4. Reporting – The reporting tools that MSN provides are very basic and slow loading.

5. Bid Changes – Changing bid prices has become very cumbersome. Multiple steps are needed to change a simple keyword bid. This results in a great deal of wasted time.

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adCenter
search marketing

Competition between Google and Microsoft is heating up on several fronts. An area of special interest to us is in the pay-per-click arena. Yahoo! Search Marketing hasn't put much of a dent in Google AdWord's market share. Can Microsoft's adCenter fare better?

Tech Quotient presents a thorough overview of Google versus Microsoft on all fronts.

Josh Einstein voices concerns over the adCenter back end. He is not alone.

But then, some rant just as loudly about Google's customer service, as Matt Heaton's post and ensuing discussion make clear.

Matt Grehan from ClickZ discusses the relative merits of personalization versus customization. In his view, that is what separates AdWords from adCenter.

A look toward the future from Random-Success.com. The competitive dust won't be settling any time soon.

Thoughts to share? Please let us know!

Everybody knows MSN adCenter is on the move, but where is it heading? The following posts provide some answers, both for the big picture and the little picture.

Ben Elgin and Jay Greene explore how Yahoo! and MSN are trying to stop Google from taking over the PPC world.

Details on new adCenter features and development from Lisa Barone at Bruce Clay, Inc.

A fascinating discussion about PPC innovation and effectiveness sparked by a recent Don Dodge post.

From SEOmoz.org, an in-depth interview with MSN's search team.

Scott Karp offers some sobering opinions. How much PPC is too much?

Opinions to share? Please let us know!

MSN adCenter is off and running as the latest platform in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Whether it can compete with Google AdWords remains to be seen, but adCenter does have three things going for it--exceptional targeting capabilities, MSN data, and Microsoft money.

With adCenter, advertisiers can target users based on gender, geography, and time of day or week. Although keyword costs rise with greater targeting, the cost figures to be more than offset by higher conversions. So far, adCenter conversion rates versus Google and Yahoo! are indeed higher.

MSN's enormous database makes this nifty targeting work. MSN collects user information from subscriptions and registrations for its many news and service Web sites. With upwards of 40 million users, MSN offers advertisers a market far too large to ignore.

And having just brought adCenter out of beta in August, Microsoft continues to enhance and invest in the platform. adCenter Labs, adCenter's research center, will be rolling out new behavior predicting, forecasting and analytic tools to further help advertisers minimize costs and maximize conversions. Microsoft recently acquired DeepMetrix, a Web analytics firm, which will be integrated into the adCenter platform by mid-2007. DeepMetrix is one of twenty-two acquisitions by Microsoft this year, and there is no sign of a letup.

Whoast recognized the potential of adCenter early on, and has been using it frequently for PPC campaigns of varying size. We will be reporting on our impressions in future posts, and we welcome your feedback and opinions on adCenter!