The official Microsoft adCenter blog announced the testing of a new pilot program that allows third party publishers add Microsoft’s contextual ads alongside their content in a self-serve format.
“For paid search managers, this software will function very similar to Google’s Adsense and Yahoo’s Publisher Network.”
According to a letter giving details of the program and published on TechCrunch, Microsoft is trying out a new pilot program that allows smaller publishers to use contextual ads from Microsoft, possibly putting it in competition with Google’s AdSense and Yahoo’s publisher network.
In general you will be able to manage your adCenter campaigns from the convenience of your desktop without the use of a browser. The upbeats of the software like this are numerous. The most apparent is that it allows you to make wholesale edits and revisions without worrying about the real time implications on your account. Such software also makes the initial process of paid search account setup much easier.
According to the blog the adCenter application allows:
“Microsoft’s self-serve advertising offering for publishers is still under development and is currently in a private pilot phase, being tested by select publishers who met the participation requirements,” Microsoft said. “The private pilot phase began earlier this year.”
It allows you to:
- Quickly navigate through multiple accounts
- Copy and paste keywords, negative keywords, match types and bid amounts from the adCenter Add-in for Excel into the Desktop application
- Bulk edit multiple items at once (bid prices, destination URLs, ad group targeting, etc.) "within or across groups of items
- Scan campaigns for editorial issues before uploading to adCenter
- Upload changes to the adCenter user interface instantly with one click
A private, phased approach helps us to find out more about customer interest in content advertising and offer assistance as to how we can improve the product and deliver the right features required to meet publisher and advertiser needs.
Google largely dominates this space (and all other contextual advertising) as it offers publishers far higher fees for ads. Yahoo and Microsoft have made up for that loss by offering guarantees in the past. Or for instance, in the case of Yahoo, offering more flexible products like allowing their ads to be shown next to third party search results.
It is our goal to continue to expand our high quality network and relevant audience gradually and intelligently over time for our advertisers. We will assess customer interest and product performance as we move through the private pilot, but we have no specific launch plans to announce at this time.
The new program will begin on July 21. However, no word on how Microsoft will get more money to these sites than what is offered by Google today but they are not requiring exclusivity: “You may also use Microsoft ads on the same sites and pages as Google ads as long as you do not have a specific exclusivity agreement with them.”
This is just one more noteworthy move in Microsoft’s visible focus on their paid search initiative. It seems as though the minds at Microsoft are focusing on showing on the value of paid search to advertisers as a way to grow their market share.
Microsoft pointed publishers interested in the pilot program to sign up for the trial.
The pilot program is open to only US-based Web publishers. After you have submitted the form, we will contact you when we are able to invite you into the program.