MSN PPC Coming Next Week

[rustybrick]

Gary Price again with the coverage http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050803-164021

"Coming Next Week: Microsoft Will Begin Testing Paid Listings Program in U.S."

Im so fla'kempt (spelling??)

[Nacho]

500 advertisers? They have *a lot* of catching up to do.

[AussieWebmaster]

They are spreading them across various niches so it's not like you will be battling a lot of people with a few days (learning curve) advantage.

[garyp]

Gary here. Barry thanks for posting. I just realized that my headline was off.

Yes, the announcement will be made next week but the actual testing will begin in October.

Apologies for the confusion.

[Chris Boggs]

...recent speculation about a 33% increase in the average PPC Management program cost also occuring sometime near October.

[dannysullivan]

Just got back from MSN today, where they gave us a ton more details on the program. Just wrote them up on the blog, direct from the sports bar at Sea-Tac: More Details On New MSN Keywords Program.

[Scoreboard]

Thanks for the write-up, Danny!

[Web Design Pros]

I hope it's got all the revenue potential for web masters that Google Adsense has.

[B-Double-U]

What a joke.......

They really need some help in their own marketing dept. if this thing is EVER expected to be a contender.

I tried to sign up a while ago (A very painstaking process, by the way).
They are in the middle ages as far as the advertising policies are concerned. They ask for a list of keywords from you, then shoot back an average price for all of them. Within that average price, they have removed ALL keywords that fall below a minimum monthly search volume.

This is done totally at their discression!!!

Once you get back your list that has now been stripped of anything remotely cost effective, you are left with a bunch of global keywords that have a questionable amount of relevancy. Since the campaign cost is based off of an average of the keywords contained, you find yourself with the old feelings of Banner advertising in the late '90s.

Don't they understand that they are dealing with a tech savvy, statistically based, bottom line oriented bunch of entreprenurial individuals, many of whom know what it means to start from scratch???

In my opinion, that is the absolute worst way to try and enter the market... Poor Gorilla tactics that may have worked in the internet frenzy years ago.....

Guess what. Times have changed and you are driving a big ship now....

what about it

[AussieWebmaster]

Interesting view Brad... but you are referring to their sponsored listings/branded response offering. It is based as you said on mixed terms for a set CPC. Add and subtract words and get different prices.
You had to manipulate the pool and test ROI to see any value... but it is there.

[Jeff Nienaber]

Brad you're half right, the manual process for the MSN Featured Sites program is very antiquated - but then again they have openly admitted to having their butts kicked in search. Although it's outdated, from my experience the FS program does deliver some of the highest quality search traffic anywhere and I can't wait for October.