The New MSN AdCenter
I was able to create an account in the new MSN AdCenter. I really like the user interface. They put the important stuff in front of you, hiding the more advanced features unless you want to see them. This is in sharp contrast to Overture, which I always felt exposed people to a really complex set of pages for setting up campaigns and creating ads. That was great for experienced ad campaign managers, but not so great for small business, individuals, and new users.
The minimum bid appears to be $0.05, which is what it was on Google about a year ago before they increased to $0.10. This will help get advertisers in and using the system, and then they can clean it up later. Not ideal but they do need to get to critical mass of advertisers in order to have not only ad revenue, but a worthwhile ad marketplace for advertisers and publishers who want to syndicate the ads out onto their sites.
Two things I dislike so far. First, AdCenter often causes my browser to hang. You can see that the system is running on IIS/ASP and perhaps there is something about the way it is coded that causes this to happen. The annoying part is you get in and create a campaign, but then when you try to go to the keywords screen, it will hang and you have to start over. I was able to get past this after trying a few times.
Second, the ad approval time is unclear. Google approves ads instantly and then goes back and dis-approves them if they are bad. MSN works more like Overture in that they control the ad approvals up front.
But so far, it looks good. The ad prices are within reason; you can still find some terms that are under-valued for some products, although it will really depend on what the conversion rates are off MSN's traffic.
Stay tuned!
The minimum bid appears to be $0.05, which is what it was on Google about a year ago before they increased to $0.10. This will help get advertisers in and using the system, and then they can clean it up later. Not ideal but they do need to get to critical mass of advertisers in order to have not only ad revenue, but a worthwhile ad marketplace for advertisers and publishers who want to syndicate the ads out onto their sites.
Two things I dislike so far. First, AdCenter often causes my browser to hang. You can see that the system is running on IIS/ASP and perhaps there is something about the way it is coded that causes this to happen. The annoying part is you get in and create a campaign, but then when you try to go to the keywords screen, it will hang and you have to start over. I was able to get past this after trying a few times.
Second, the ad approval time is unclear. Google approves ads instantly and then goes back and dis-approves them if they are bad. MSN works more like Overture in that they control the ad approvals up front.
But so far, it looks good. The ad prices are within reason; you can still find some terms that are under-valued for some products, although it will really depend on what the conversion rates are off MSN's traffic.
Stay tuned!
posted by David at 1:12 PM
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