Not to be outdone by Google or Yahoo, Microsoft lifted the lid on two new search marketing tools and an accreditation program called adExcellence…
“Microsoft is playing catch-up against Yahoo and Google — its chief competitors in the booming online advertising market — with a new program called adCenter Excellence introduced Monday…”
Redmond, Wash., — Microsoft Corp. on Monday said it has created two new utilities, one designed to improve the way partners in the company’s adCenter online advertising system generate revenues from paid search and the other to optimize Web sites for Microsoft Live Search.
“AdCenter Add-in for Excel 2007 and Webmaster Center are being offered through Microsoft’s Advertiser & Publisher Solutions unit.”
Microsoft’s adExcellence, opening to all U.S. adCenter users today, is an official training and accreditation program for adCenter. The company furthers its commitment to provide data transparency for customers of Microsoft adCenter and Live Search.
The adCenter platform is the core weapon in Microsoft’s bid to compete with rival ad platforms from market leaders Google, Yahoo, AOL and several others. The adCenter partners pick keywords that will help boost their products or services, and then build ads they believe users will click on.
The first new tool, called Microsoft adCenter Add-in for Excel 2007, is a software application designed to help adCenter customers more easily research the effectiveness of keywords that will better help them target the right audience with their paid search advertising campaigns.
“As the name suggests, it plugs into Excel, and allows users to build keyword lists and plan strategies based on attributes like relevance, historical cost information, and projected volume.”
Advertisers often use spreadsheets to study data about keywords, search habits, cost-per-click and other attributes across their accounts, James Colborn, director of adCenter for Microsoft’s advertiser and publisher solutions, said in a statement.
For example, Colborn said that if a user typed in the word “camera,” the user could right-click on the keyword in Excel and find 100,000 keywords related to that word.
Instead of taking the time to manually comb through the adCenter interface to find that information, which fluctuates frequently, the software will query 10,000 keywords in 30 seconds.
With those keywords, advertisers can then sort through key performance indicators, such as the number of ad impressions, clicks, positions, demographics and geographical information.
“The adCenter Add-in for Excel raises the bar for search and data-driven marketing tools. The ease of use with Excel and vast amount of keyword data are all extremely valuable for the online marketer,” said Jeffrey Pruitt, executive vice president of Corporate Partnerships at iCrossing.
“This product helps unlock the true power of search data, providing access to more data than any other engine, enabling increased understanding of consumer behavior and intent. Within minutes of using this tool, a savvy marketer will be able to discover new information to help drive more successful, consumer-driven campaign strategies.”
The software plug-in, represented as a tab called “ad intelligence” at the top of the Excel spreadsheet, accesses data from Microsoft’s Keyword Services Platform, a set of Web service application programming interfaces for keyword recommendation, forecasting, categorization and monetization.
“Available after January 8 of next year, the Add-in accesses data from Microsoft’s Keyword Services Platform.”
“The adExcellence program, adCenter Add-in and Webmaster Center are three great examples of Microsoft delivering on its commitment to provide customers with the tools, transparency and programs they need to maximize their success with our products and services,” said Aaron Easterly, general manager, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions at Microsoft.
“We believe that providing unfettered access to data and best-in-class training is simply the best way to do business and to help ensure the success of the advertisers and marketers that choose to do business with Microsoft.”
Microsoft’s announcement comes just about two months after Yahoo’s acquisition of BlueLithium, producers of an extensive ad toolkit, and not much more than a year after Yahoo’s acquisition of the Right Media advertising network.
Yahoo’s earlier attempts to add better analytics to its services date back to the acquisition of Overture in 2003, through which it obtained a package called Keylime. In 2005, Google was seen to play catch-up through its acquisition of Urchin.
“The Microsoft adExcellence program provides agencies and advertisers with the opportunity to become certified adCenter experts. The program offers more than 20 free training modules and a fee-based examination, providing users with the ability to demonstrate to their customers and prospects that they are fully trained and proficient in using adCenter.”
Accredited members will be listed in the adExcellence Membership Directory and will receive an adExcellence logo for use on their Web sites and marketing collateral. More information about the program can be found at http://www.adexcellence.com.
Another new offering, is a beta version of a portal called “Webmaster Center,” which was designed specifically for webmasters and search engine optimizers. Like Google’s Webmaster Central, it provides all the necessary resources to optimize a Web site for achieving the highest possible algorithmic or “organic” listing on Live Search.
The resources include information on how Live Search crawls and indexes site pages and on site map creation and submission. They also include data on Web sites currently indexed by Live Search; consolidated content submission guidelines and, new content and community resources.
The beta version of the Webmaster Center can be accessed at http://webmaster.live.com.
“Like the maneuvers of Yahoo and Google, Microsoft’s program is a bid to make customers jump ship. But although Microsoft’s tools’ offering comes later than those of either Yahoo or Google, the company’s timing could still be good.”
Microsoft is also hoping to beef up traffic on its MSN and Windows Live search sites. Despite the efforts, the company appears to be losing ground against rivals Google and Yahoo in the race to attract traffic.
Some analysts are projecting that the surge in online ad spending which marked the period from 2001 to 2006 is likely to maintain its momentum for at least five years.
The Microsoft adCenter and Live Search teams are attending Search Engine Strategies in Chicago and WebmasterWorld in Las Vegas this week to demonstrate and answer questions about adExcellence, the adCenter Add-in and Webmaster Center.
Microsoft’s new adExcellence tools are available for free download today at: http://adexcellence.com/adEx/default.aspx, but only to users who are authorized by their sites as Webmasters.