Microsoft`s Push for the AdWords Market - The returns of adCenter
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One of the driving forces behind the new adCenter is Microsoft’s Windows Live. Executives at Microsoft feel that Windows Live is their ace in the hole, and where adCenter is concerned they believe that the unified Windows Live services will allow Microsoft to get a deeper understanding of the people using its online services.
Ad placement using MSN’s adCenter keyword bids depends on a type of quality score like Google’s, taking into account cost per click, click through rates, and relevancy of landing pages. Where MSN differs from Google in the respect to landing pages is that Google allows non-relevant keywords to prompt ads depending solely upon bid price, whereas with MSN’s ads, if the landing page is devoid of the keyword you’ve bid on, your ad won’t be shown.
Currently, MSN is only serving about a fourth of its ads through its adCenter, while the other 75% are served from Overture or other sources. The program is still only a pilot program, so statistics are hard to gather during this time. However, advertisers have reported seeing a higher rate of return on their ads at a much lower cost. It will be interesting to see where the revenues will increase once the program is in full force by July. Yahoo says it has already made its adjustments in the financial shift it anticipates from losing the profits from the MSN ad revenues.
MSN fully expects to take a large piece of the pie in July when the adCenter fully rolls out, especially backed by its aggressive marketing strategies. While some experts feel that the pie isn’t necessarily going to get bigger with the launch, they also anticipate that it will only divide Google’s and Yahoo’s pieces. Yahoo’s piece of the pie will certainly get smaller, since many of the ads served currently through adCenter are Overture driven, and once Overture’s agreement with MSN ends in June, MSN is free to keep the whole piece of the pie instead of splitting the proceeds with Yahoo. MSN also will strive to expand the big pie of Internet searchers into a bigger one, and some analysts support this ideology; especially in light of the expanding online searches which are being integrated into virtually everything: toolbars, PDA’s, wireless phones, and desktop utilities to name a few.
It is still too soon to predict where adCenter will end up once the full program is launched, and analysts keep their opposite points of view intact. I have a “wait and see” policy, and for now, will refrain from making predictions regarding the world of search. In a way, search engine technology is like the shifting sands on a beach, because the Internet seems to be ever changing and fluid. Ultimately, in the end, searchers want relevant results, whether in an ad format, or on a search results page. With all of the changes in the works from Microsoft, MSN search certainly hopes to deliver soon.
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