Microsoft faces some pretty tough competition in the pay-per-click space. On the adCenter blog today, they have posted some reasons they think users (at least in the UK) would benefit more from adCenter than its “main 
competitor.”
There are a number of reasons Microsoft gives to use the service that frankly don’t really stand out from its competitors, but they do provide some numbers that may stand out to advertisers:
– Our searchers are 51% more likely to convert than the average UK searcher and 61% more likely than that of our main competitor (via NNR UK, Oct-Dec ’08)
– Searchers are 32% more engaged on destination sites than the average UK searcher spending 4.37 minutes on average on destination sites (via NNR UK, Oct-Dec ’08)
– The MSN Portal has the largest audience in the UK along with millions of engaged users using our Hotmail and Messenger services. More likely to be action-driven searching than mere browsing (via **comScore August 2008)
Other reasons given include display/search integration and targeting tools, which aren’t really unique to adCenter. They do note however, that UK Microsoft Advertising was voted number 1 by IPA 2008 for outstanding customer service and support.
When calling for creativity and variety in PPC activities/engines, Microsoft’s Mairead McCarthy says”…if you were advertising on the TV you wouldn’t concentrate your entire budget on one channel.” Ironically, Microsoft’s biggest competitor offers TV ads within its platform (granted not in the UK yet), a service adCenter is still lacking.
