Microsoft adCenter is Open to the PublicOn May 4th, Microsoft made its online advertising platform open to the public. Microsoft adCenter allows Internet marketers to run pay-per-click advertisements on msn.com (one of the most trafficked sites on the Internet) and other Microsoft properties, including the new versions of Microsoft offerings, such as Windows Vista. Online merchants will be well served to jump on this opportunity sooner than later. The longer this platform exists, the more expensive click prices will become as a result of increased competition among advertisers. Just like Google AdWords, adCenter rewards advertisers with high click-through rates by using CTR as an integral factor in determining the ad's ranking. Early advertisers will have less initial competition. This will result in a higher CTR that will help rankings greatly as competition increases.
Over the last several months, this platform has been in beta and only accessible by a small pilot group of marketers. During that time, Microsoft had been displaying a combination of ads from these pilot users and also ads from Yahoo (formerly Oveture). Since the release of adCenter, Microsoft is only displaying ads from adCenter.
Microsoft adCenter has some powerful features, one being the ability to specify the days of the week and times of the day that a campaign will run. If an advertiser finds that clicks during the wee hours of the night don’t convert, he or she can set the campaign not to run during those times. It also includes demographic targeting. Microsoft says it has demographic data from information reported by MSN customers. Let us assume that a marketer wants to target 25-35 year old males. The marketer can have adCenter increase the max bid when Microsoft knows the web surfer fits that specific demographic.
There are some similarities between Google Adwords and Microsoft adCenter. With both platforms, advertisers can setup multiple campaigns, each with different properties. Marketers can also run multiple ads for one campaign. Additionally, there is the option to setup 3 different bid types; exact, phrase, and broad.
It is obvious that Microsoft has put much thought into adCenter and has done a nice job building functionality that does not yet exist in Yahoo or Google Adwords. Microsoft adCenter is definitely worth evaluating for anyone who is interested in online marketing. Early advertisers are reporting great returns on their investment.
