Most of my larger clients use Google Adwords, and complain about the cost and lack of conversions from clicks, which is a common complaint for any and all of the search engine advertising or affiliate ad programs.
But I recently noticed at one of my webhosts, Go Daddy, that I had a $25 credit for Microsoft's adCenter. I had not used this service before, but after setting up a quick trial and reading a bit about it online, I am pretty pleased with it. Ads are set up to be found using MSN's Live Search. I've had just under 2,000 impressions in a day and a half, and have had about 6 clicks. You only pay if someone clicks your ad. I've used half of my monthly budget, which I set at a pretty low $3o because I'm just testing this service out right now. I set my cost-per-click set pretty high so I would come up in the first couple of pages.
Though the clicks might seem small for the number of impressions, don't underestimate what those impressions can do. In advertising an unknown business, people usually need to see something anywhere from 3-7 times before taking action. That's why in an infomercial 30 minutes long, there will be repeated opportunities to call. The first or second time, a prospective customer may balk. But by the 3rd or 4th time, they'll pick up the phone and place that order. Or, they may wait until the infomercial ends and visit the web site, or they might call the next time they see the ad on TV. They are in the "warming up" process of getting comfortable and familiar with you. Those little ad impressions can work the same way. After doing multiple searches, and not clicking on you, a potential buyer is growing more comfortable with your name and offering sitting over there on the side of the screen. And the impressions don't cost a thing.
It's only $5 to get an account started, and there are tons of customization options like location, gender and age, because of the wealth of Microsoft's historical data, which is not something Google has in the same depth about their users, from the reviews I found.
The numbers for MSN are apparently lower than Google's traffic (it is the numero uno search engine after all) but, some have said in reviews that they feel the conversions and click-throughs are better with MSN, because the traffic is more targeted.
As far as the interface, it's okay. I wish it were a bit more intuitive and I didn't have to go back-and-forth so much. It is a bit difficult to learn the system of changing bid amounts for your individual keyword costs. I never quite feel "solid" that the change has been made until I leave that page and come back to it, to refresh because it does not refresh the page after saving changes (a no-no, in the majority of cases, from an interface design perspective.) In short, I have many persnickety annoyances with the gui and wish they would hire me to redesign it BUT, as an ad service, they do seem to be getting the job done, and I am pleased with my mini-test so far and plan to continue.
Warning to Mac users, don't even try to access the site using Safari - half the interface won't show up and it's very confusing. I've been accessing it using either Explorer on my PC, or the latest version of Firefox on the Mac (the version I had installed didn't work either.) Yet another interface complaint, in this day and age of rocking Mac products!
I would recommend my small and locally-oriented clients (such as a restaurant) give Microsoft's adCenter a try. It's a very inexpensive way to dip your toes in the search engine waters, and you may be very pleased with the results.
But I recently noticed at one of my webhosts, Go Daddy, that I had a $25 credit for Microsoft's adCenter. I had not used this service before, but after setting up a quick trial and reading a bit about it online, I am pretty pleased with it. Ads are set up to be found using MSN's Live Search. I've had just under 2,000 impressions in a day and a half, and have had about 6 clicks. You only pay if someone clicks your ad. I've used half of my monthly budget, which I set at a pretty low $3o because I'm just testing this service out right now. I set my cost-per-click set pretty high so I would come up in the first couple of pages.
Though the clicks might seem small for the number of impressions, don't underestimate what those impressions can do. In advertising an unknown business, people usually need to see something anywhere from 3-7 times before taking action. That's why in an infomercial 30 minutes long, there will be repeated opportunities to call. The first or second time, a prospective customer may balk. But by the 3rd or 4th time, they'll pick up the phone and place that order. Or, they may wait until the infomercial ends and visit the web site, or they might call the next time they see the ad on TV. They are in the "warming up" process of getting comfortable and familiar with you. Those little ad impressions can work the same way. After doing multiple searches, and not clicking on you, a potential buyer is growing more comfortable with your name and offering sitting over there on the side of the screen. And the impressions don't cost a thing.
It's only $5 to get an account started, and there are tons of customization options like location, gender and age, because of the wealth of Microsoft's historical data, which is not something Google has in the same depth about their users, from the reviews I found.
The numbers for MSN are apparently lower than Google's traffic (it is the numero uno search engine after all) but, some have said in reviews that they feel the conversions and click-throughs are better with MSN, because the traffic is more targeted.
As far as the interface, it's okay. I wish it were a bit more intuitive and I didn't have to go back-and-forth so much. It is a bit difficult to learn the system of changing bid amounts for your individual keyword costs. I never quite feel "solid" that the change has been made until I leave that page and come back to it, to refresh because it does not refresh the page after saving changes (a no-no, in the majority of cases, from an interface design perspective.) In short, I have many persnickety annoyances with the gui and wish they would hire me to redesign it BUT, as an ad service, they do seem to be getting the job done, and I am pleased with my mini-test so far and plan to continue.
Warning to Mac users, don't even try to access the site using Safari - half the interface won't show up and it's very confusing. I've been accessing it using either Explorer on my PC, or the latest version of Firefox on the Mac (the version I had installed didn't work either.) Yet another interface complaint, in this day and age of rocking Mac products!
I would recommend my small and locally-oriented clients (such as a restaurant) give Microsoft's adCenter a try. It's a very inexpensive way to dip your toes in the search engine waters, and you may be very pleased with the results.
No comments:
Post a Comment