MSN is launching its own PPC selling
script with new demographic and behavioral targeting features in France and Singapore in mid-late 2005.
MSN PPC Advertising Long-Awaited Debut Announced
You most definately
already know that there are really only two major players in the world of PPC branding: Overture and Google Adwords. By the end of 2005, there will likely be a third: Microsofts MSN Search.
Microsoft recently announced that it is launching its new MSN PPC selling
engine in Singapore and France by mid-late 2005. Smart marketers are most likely already planning how they might justify branding their products or services in Singapore to get a taste of the new service. The services introduction into Canada, the UK, and the US can very well come before the end of 2005.
The new MSN branding program has been long awaited. MSN is Microsofts leading internet site
property, and perhaps the webs most visited "portal" (web site with both search and content such as news) after Yahoo! MSNs search engine accounts for one in five web searches, putting it in third place behind Google and Yahoo!
Search engine advertising mostly a two-player game
Currently, MSN shows branding that comes from Overture, the webs largest online branding network in terms of revenue. Overture was bought by Yahoo! a number of years ago. Since Yahoo! is the direct competitor of MSN in every way, plenty of all the people have been wondering why MSN didnt take its advertising script in-house long ago. It seems especially strange considering that even Lycos, whose search engine now accounts for a small fraction of total web searches, has its own advertising network.
In many minds, the fact that Microsoft would go to Overture only demonstrated how excellent an online advertising script Overture was, and just how hard it really is to set one up. Before going to Overture, MSN was getting selling
from LookSmart, an marketing network that does not own any web sites
that compete with Microsoft properties in any big way. Even before it had lost its largest branding outlet, LookSmart was widely seen as a subpar second-tier engine, in a category with FindWhat or even Kanoodle. The fact that LookSmart had seemingly squandered a chance to make inroads into an online selling
advertise dominated by two big players cast a lot of doubt on whether there would ever be a serious challenger to Google Adwords and Overture.
What Microsofts new advertising network means for the future
Will the new MSN branding network overcome
where so many have failed? Or will it become a bloated, relatively uncompetitive item only supported by Microsofts vast bulk? (Not that Bill Gates has ever fathered such a bastard child
