I recently returned from Bellevue (Seattle) ,Washington after being invited for the second time by Microsoft to participate in the 2009 Search Summit (formerly known as AdChamps). This is an invite-only summit in which the programmers, designers, and executives engage the advertisers in an attempt to align their goals with each other.

The big news this year was obviously BING.com, Microsoft’s Live.com rebirth and rebranding. All the employees there were fantastically excited and oddly enough, so were the advertisers there. If you read my blog from last year’s event: http://blog.engineready.com/microsoft-adchamps-2008/ you will see that Microsoft done the near impossible, caused excitement from the Search Engine Marketing community.

In ’08 the climate was much nastier. There was pure anger in the eyes and knuckles of many advertisers, including myself. We felt abused by all of the technical problems, poor customer support, and overall horrible user experience. And all the time, a small army of adCenter employees scurried to document every comment, suggestion, feedback and criticism. For nearly a year, it appeared that nothing had been done, then slowly releases started to appear which specifically addressed some of the more major issues brought up during that meeting. 15 months later, I have almost every tool I need to manage my account with the same efficiency as I do a Google account* Less: Negative Keyword Character Limit & CPA/Conversion Rates displayed in the UI.

I’m not saying that bing.com is going to dethrone Google, but I am saying that Microsoft has positioned themselves in an excellent position compared to where they were 15 months ago. Let’s take a look why:

Advertising: Let’s face it, the commercials are pretty clever and funny. http://www.youtube.com/user/bing

Branding: BING is a pretty catchy, fun and easy to remember name. Compare that to Live.com. Not sure what they were going for with that one.

Competition: More and more people are getting out of the “Googolie-eyed Dating Phase” with Google and are looking to see other engines. The question is, does Microsoft have it going on upstairs to make a serious impression or will it be simply dismissed as ditzy eye candy?

Quality: Many have said, including myself, MSN provides some of the cheapest and most qualified leads or highest ROAS. We all just get very little of it.

Traffic: It has been increasing. My AdCenter spending has surpassed that of Yahoo in many of my accounts.

Tools: AdCenter has provided us with two tools. Excel-Ad-in and the Editor.
While the Excel Ad-in provides some nifty features, it nowhere near compares to the operational efficiency you can enjoy when using an editor. Like the AdWords editor, you can build & optimize an account completely offline. In less than 10 minutes, you can import and upload an existing Google account structure into AdCenter. This now leaves me with one less reason I would migrate from Google to Yahoo before doing so with MSN.

Content Transparency: AdCenter has added a new report to their interface which allows you to run a CPA based report highlighting all websites which AdCenter has shown your content ads on. Once you isolate a poor performing domain, you can then exclude it to further tighten up your campaigns. Anyone who has had experience with Yahoo knows how what quality a black box system produces.

Yahoo: Whom I believe is a lame duck. There have been no updates, only layoffs. Bing is the newest buzz word in the online community. Once luster diminishes from this shinny new search engine, I believe Microsoft bring it right back into the lime-light by making a final (and successful) bid to overtake Overture.. err.. Panama.. err.. Yahoo Sponsored.. err. Search Marketing Solutions.. oh whatever, that last one standing which has neither an identity nor direction.

Bing, MSN AdCenter

On June 3rd, I will have the opportunity to speak directly with the designers, managers & executives of Microsoft AdCenter.  In a yearly summit which about 50 advertisers are chosen to attend, Microsoft allows us to air our frustrations and point out their (many) short comings from the eyes of an end-user.  This is a rare opportunity to actually make a difference and get Microsoft AdCenter to the forefront of search. 

These yearly powwows are to align AdCenter’s goals with that of its advertisers.  I was quite surprised how humbling they were last year; jotting down every idea brought up.  I think they realized that their system was architected with their programmer’s ideas & designs instead of an advertiser’s.  They need us to help make their changes.

If you are reading this and have a specific operation issue, lack or functionality, editorial, customer service, or anything you want to get off of your chest, please leave a comment here and I will be sure to represent your voice.  And please, don’t hold back.

MSN AdCenter