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I mentioned in passing the other day that advertisers were champing at the bit for Microsoft to expand its adCenter beta. Right now, Microsoft has stopped taking new advertisers for the beta, will provide results of the test in 1Q2006, and are “hoping” to launch in 1H2006. All of which seems rather less than sprightly.
In this same vein, Nathan Weinberg points to a blog post by “TDavid” titled 8 things Microsoft can do in 2006 to better compete against Google search and Adsense which, if I may put it succinctly, is “fish or cut bait.” Excerpt of number 1:
1. Launch Adcenter for websites worldwide ASAP (no beta invite only garbage). Why can’t I sign up for this and add to our websites now? Why is Adcenter still in pilot status? If this isn’t done in Q1-2006, they can pretty much forget about this doing anything unless their pay structure blows away all competitors. Adsense and YPN are gaining market share that MSN loses every day.
More by following the link including getting adCenter some traction among blogger publishers. That, of course, is another mystery - adCenter ads are currently only appearing on Microsoft Web properties and there is no sign of a beta publisher program other than the occasional rumor.
January 6th, 2006 at 1:24 PM
[...] There may be grumbling about the speed at which Microsoft is rolling out its Internet advertising program, but some interesting nuts-and-bolts details of the “advanced audience intelligence and targeting capabilities” are coming from the beta participants: Under MSN’s process, for example, once a registered user logs in, the engine “knows” what profile the user fits based on information the user supplied at registration, and it can see what registered users fitting any given profile are searching for. That knowledge allows a search marketing advertiser to boost its bid so as to appear in a higher keyword position in search results delivered to users who fall within a desired demographic target. It’s less important for the marketer to appear at the top of search results delivered to those who fall outside the desired target, so the marketer can limit the premium it pays for top position to a smaller, defined group, while setting a lower CPC bid so as to show search results in a lower position to the rest of the search audience, Leitch explains. [...]
January 20th, 2006 at 11:09 AM
[...] In the hoopla surrounding the announcement of Microsoft’s adLab in Beijing, Microsoft officials drew a lot of press by confirming what had been been pretty much common knowledge ([1], [2]) about the roll out of adCenter: Microsoft Corp. plans to launch its system for selling advertising alongside regular search results by June in the United States, giving the company its next piece of ammunition in the battle with rivals including Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. [...]