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THE NEW KID IN TOWN: MSN ADCENTER

Merle, WebProNews, 03/10/2006

If you use Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly known as Overture) for your pay per click advertising, you'll want to "listen up".

There's a new competitor on the scene "MSN Ad Center". Microsoft's pay per click program is called "MSN Keywords" which is the first of several advertising options they have planned.

At the time of this writing the only way to participate in this "pilot program" is by invitation only. Rumor has it they should be going public with the launch towards the middle of this year. If you'd like to be considered for participation you can sign up at ... http://advertising.msn.com/searchadv/PilotForm.asp

If you're already a client you can log into your account at http://adcenter.msn.com

The program, which is very similar to Google Adwords allows you to bid on keywords associated with your online business and your ads will be displayed on MSN's search results pages reaching a potential audience of 49 million people every month.

Once approved for the program you'll need to create your own "ad center" account. The sign up fee of $5.00 will be charged to your credit card at that time.

The next step is to select the keywords you want your ads to appear for and how much you want to bid for each. The minimum bid is five cents. You're only charged for actual clicks on your ads not for their display. There is no minimum monthly budget. You'll also find a keyword research tool under the research tab to brainstorm new keywords or check on keyword performance.

If you already use "Google Adwords" or "Yahoo Search Marketing" you can easily import your existing ads and keyword lists. If you need assistance you can use what's called "Quick Launch" where a marketing analyst will assist you with your account setup. During beta there is no charge for this assistance.

One of the nicest feature of MSN's pay per click program is the "advanced targeting". You can select the target markets you want to reach (male, female, by age). You also can select locations, specific countries/ regions, even select cities where you want your ads to appear. How about choosing the days of the week you want your ads to run, right down to the time? Yes, you can do it all right here. This is possible due to MSN's use of "audience data" to better target your ads to the audience who would be most interested in your offer. They call this "Audience Intelligence" which allows you to make smarter decisions when it comes to your online marketing campaigns.

You can also track conversions with their free conversion tracking.

Setting up your text ads is simple following their guidelines. You have four lines to work with:

Title Line (25 characters max, incl. spaces) 2nd & 3rd Line (70 characters max, incl. spaces) 4th Line (this is for your url, 35 characters) For more specific style guidelines see http://tinyurl.com/cevu4 . For content guidelines see http://tinyurl.com/7ue53

You'll find a "reports tab" in the ad center so you can keep an eye on how well your campaigns are doing. You can track click through rates, impressions, and more.

If you're already using pay per click marketing in your online marketing efforts, you might want to take MSN for a spin. With their advanced targeting you'll be given the ability to hit your target market with more precision, and expand your reach and online exposure.

For more information visit the learning center http://tinyurl.com/b786r or see the AdCenter Blog for members at http://blogs.msdn.com/adcenter/

GOOGLE OFFERS DEMOGRAPHIC SELECTIONS

Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide , 03/10/2006

The big news on the pay-per-click front this week was the introduction of demographic targeting for Google AdWords advertisers. Actually dubbed "demographic site selection" by Google, because the feature is limited to the content syndication network, the program offers many of the same demographic categories that MSN's adCenter does, but serves up the offerings in a completely different way.

AdWords' demographic option is designed to let advertisers select specific sites to advertise on based on the demographics of that site. Advertisers will be able to specify a preference in up to three categories. Google will then examine it's database of content partners and will return a list of sites that it feels are most likely to deliver the types of visitors that the advertiser is looking for.

This option is only available when users that geo-target their campaigns to the United States and that set up a new "site targeted campaign" or while managing an existing site targeted campaign. It's also important to note that advertisers will still have the option of making their selections manually, either from a keyword generated list or by selecting sites that pop up in response to the demographic criteria.

The demographic breakdown options are as follows:

Gender

  • Male
  • Female

Age

  • 18-24
  • 25-34
  • 35-44
  • 45-54
  • 55-64
  • 65+

Annual Household Income (USD)

  • 0-14,999
  • 15,000-24,999
  • 25,000-39,999
  • 40,000-59,999
  • 60,000-74,999
  • 75,000-99,999
  • 100,000+

AdWords will also be offering more advanced targeting options that break things down by ethnicity as well as by whether readers have children or not.

While the option for more targeting, especially targeting of a demographic variety is going to be very attractive to small business owners that rely on pay per click as a part of their marketing strategy, there's still the question of how accurate the data compiled by Google is going to be. Google states that their data comes from comScore Media Metrix, one of the largest companies around when it comes to providing information about web sites.

The problem here is that a large portion of Google's content syndication network is made up of sites that never even create a blip on the comScore Media Metrix map. In fact, one could argue that many of the smaller sites that are capable of returning an excellent level of qualified click-thrus are likely to fall through the cracks in this type of system. I can almost guarantee that most of my own content sites are not going to be large enough for Google to have any sense of the demographics they attract.

Google is aware of this issue and states on their site:

Please remember that demographic site selection cannot guarantee that your ad will reach only the exact audience you select.

They also point out that because most web sites get a variety of visitors, the demographic targeting should simply be viewed as being a best estimate, not as promised reality.

The interesting thing that I'm noting is that most of the press and blog coverage I've read of this launch are lauding it as a direct frontal assault on MSN's adCenter and claiming that it will once again give Google the lead in terms of advertiser experience.

This puzzles me a bit, for several reasons.

First, MSN's adCenter offers up demographic targeting options for the search related pay-per-click ads. Google's demographic targeting applies only to content syndication. Any advertiser that has run pay-per-click campaigns knows that search related PPC advertising tends to outperform content related PPC by quite a bit.

Second, MSN's adCenter relies on their own internal data and on users being logged in during a search to match the ads up with the preferred demographics. Google will be relying on a third party's estimate of the types of traffic that a web site likely receives. In fact, they won't have ANY data for a large portion of the sites in their content syndication network because those sites will simply be too small to even show up on comScore's map.

While I think Google's latest move represents an important step forward in regards to improving pay per click advertising options, I also have to admit to being a little bit skeptical when I read the glowing praises that talk about what an impact this offering will have on the ROI of AdWords advertisers.

Only time will tell...but my brain just keeps thinking about the Emperors's New Clothes...

ASK.COM RETIRES JEEVES, BUT STAYS FOCUSED ON SEARCH

Kris Oser, AdAge, 03/01/2006

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- As Jeeves retires to the virtual online icon rest home in cyberspace, newly rebranded Ask.com has bold plans.
Jim Lanzone

Though the second-tier search engine has a meager share of the search query market share, it hopes to build that base with a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign breaking this week online and next week on cable and network TV. The push, from TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, uses the tagline “Use Tools, Feel Human.” The TV spots show characters who are transformed by using Ask.

“Each point [of market share gained] means a huge financial gain for us,” said Jim Lanzone, general manager of Ask U.S. “We don’t have to be as big as Yahoo and Google to be a huge success.”

Google, it isn’t

In November 2005, Google had a market share of 46.3% of the searches in the U.S.; Yahoo had 23.5% and was followed by MSN with 11.4%, AOL with 6.9%, Myway with 2.6% and Ask with 2.3%, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

Yahoo Search and Google are strong competitors, conceded Mr. Lanzone, but he maintains “they have certain constraints.” In other words, while Yahoo courts Hollywood and Google tries to figure out how to be a media company, Ask -- focused only on search -- plans to sneak in and grab users.

“People who think the search game is over need to wake up and come see Ask.com,” Mr. Lanzone said.

Sleek features

What users will see: a redesigned home page with a look reminiscent of the clean, sleek Google home page. New features include a navigation bar that helps the searcher refine searches; “binoculars” accompanying natural search results that let the user see a graphic representation of the found sites; and a smart-search feature that appears at the top of every page, providing locations, directions and other information relating to the search results.

Ads are reduced to three sponsored links at the top of each page and more than three on the bottom. None appear in the margins, so the rest of the page is devoted to natural results. All of this is geared to provide the “best search experience possible,” Mr. Lanzone said.

More users, more often

The ad push is designed to bulk up traffic and frequency of use. Most of Ask’s users typically visit twice a month, compared to the 15-times-a-month frequency Google enjoys. “If we can increase that to four times a month, we’ve doubled our frequency.”

To increase audience, he said, more sponsored links will be sold across other properties -– like MyWay, iWon and Excite -– that are owned by Ask parent IAC. And over time, Ask, which is the center of IAC’s Internet property network, will become a sort of search portal for IAC. Ads for those properties will be placed in Ask’s results pages to drive traffic.

WINDOWS LIVE SEARCH BETA PRIMED FOR TAKEOFF

Elinor Mills, Silicon.com, 03/08/2006

Microsoft is set to launch the beta version of its new Windows Live Search page, which uses the same behind-the-scenes technology as MSN Search but will eventually become the company's sole search offering.

Adam Sohn, director of MSN global sales, marketing and public relations, said: "In the future there will be one search experience - when we come out of beta [with Windows Live Search], which won't be years [from now]." Sohn was making a reference to Google, whose products often stay in beta for years.

Microsoft merged MSN with Windows last summer and announced plans in November to offer web-based services under the Windows Live name. Windows Live will combine email, blogging, instant messaging and other services. MSN, meanwhile, will focus on content and media, Sohn said.

Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of MSN information services, said in an interview on Monday: "This is the second major chapter in our overall effort to drive innovation in search. The first two-and-a-half years were about catching up and building the basic services... closing the gap with the current players [with regard to relevancy of search results]."

Mehdi said Microsoft has closed the gap with Yahoo! and is "within a couple of points of Google".

Windows Live Search features new capabilities for image search, news search, RSS feeds, mail, local search and shopping. The beta search product also offers a search preview, a search slider bar that lets users specify the number and size of results on the page, and smart scroll, which lets users view all search results without moving from page to page.

Microsoft also unveiled an updated version of its Live.com site and a beta version of Windows Live Toolbar.

The new Windows Live Toolbar lets users search from any web page using Windows Live Search. It incorporates technology, acquired during the purchase of OnFolio, that allows people to save information onto their computers and find information through an integrated RSS aggregator and reader.

Microsoft's Live.com service will also allow users to add persistent search results to their home page, subscribe to RSS feeds directly from search results and use new gadgets such as clock, notepad, stock quotes and weather.

The Windows Live Search will be accessible across all the upcoming Windows Live services, such as Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Mail.

MSN Search has about 11 per cent of the U.S. search market, behind Yahoo! with 22 per cent and Google with 48 per cent, according Nielsen/NetRatings.

Elinor Mills writes for CNET News.com