30-Mar-06 9:00 AM CST

MSN releases adCenter Pay-Per-Click program - MSN Search will no longer display Yahoo sponsored ads

It was just a matter of time before MSN jumped on the lucrative pay-per-click advertising bandwagon with Google and Yahoo. They have released their own pay-per-click advertising program, adCenter.

MSN adCenter is still a beta, so you have to register to be considered for participation in the US-only pilot program, which actually works very similarly to Google AdWords and Overture (Yahoo). MSN adCenter allows you to set a budget, bid on keywords, write ads, and target your ads geographically.

However, adCenter offers some unique and really cool features that set it apart from the bigger ad programs. Google AdWords recently released the option to allow advertisers the ability to target their ads demographically. MSN adCenter has this option as well (targeting by age and gender), but in addition, it allows you to target your ads by day of the week or time of day! It also gives you the option to set ad parameters, and allows incremental bidding for better targeted ads.

There are also easy instructions on how to export your current keyword lists from Google and Yahoo!

The pricing & billing structure is also very similar to other ad programs. As mentioned above, you set a budget and there is no minimum spending requirement. Some differences, however - there is a $5 initial set up fee, the minimum keyword bid is only $.05, and they bill you according to a "billing threshold." More on adCenter pricing and billing.

If you are interested in participating in the adCenter US pilot program, register here at adCenter Pilot Signup.

While MSN may only have roughly 10-15% of the search market, it definitely offers more ways to effectively reach that 10-15%.
(Source: Neilsen//NetRatings for SearchEngineWatch.com November 2005)

**Webmaster World offers an informative discussion thread on adCenter**

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