Microsoft adCenter launched in the UK

During August Microsoft launched its pay per click advertising service adCenter, in the UK, replacing Yahoo’s provision of adverts to the MSN search engine.

We have been busy setting up new accounts on this tool, which offers a good level of functionality, and the ability to target adverts by time of day, and demographic, through analysing details of Microsoft’s Hotmail, and Passport users.

To give you an idea of the traffic that this new network provides, here is table showing the number of impressions (times adverts are shown) in the past week, aggregated across a small group of our advertisers who are now targeting the same keywords on Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and adCenter.

This shows adCenter takes a 9% share of this group, coverage of which is worth considering for many advertisers.

Beyond the coverage of adCenter, there is a lower number of advertisers using this system (for example there are over 30 advertisers targeting the term ‘flowers’ on Google AdWords, but 8 on adCenter), meaning traffic at a lower cost can be obtained.

You may find adCenter particularly appealing to use in comparison to Yahoo Search Marketing if you have a specialist offering that would not reach Yahoo’s minimum £20 per month spend, or an offering that you cannot justify a high cost per click for (adCenter has a minimum cost per click of 5p, compared to Yahoo’s 10p).

On the negative side, this additional service does mean more management time for advertisers, running campaigns on an increasing number of services, with differing features and functionality.

If you would like more information about adCenter, or would like us to set up a campaign for you, please contact us for more information.