Although I usually am not overly impressed with the marketing measures done by Microsoft, I 
have to give them credit for a more simple, yet effective promotion they are running for Microsoft adCenter.
As a 2nd birthday present Microsoft adCenter is offering to take all of the existing keywords from your Google Adwords campaign and use them in their own system and also give a $25 credit on clicks.
Microsoft also claims in their advertisement that there is a greater quality of clicks and a higher level of engagement / conversion with the people searching through Microsoft compared to Google.
Our Own Take On The Announcement
At TechWyse, we run campaigns daily on all paid search platforms like Google, Yahoo!, Bing & Facebook. Based on our own experience we actually tend to agree with the claims made by Microsoft. Most of the accounts that we run show a much better cost per conversion than Google campaigns. The one major drawback is that the traffic volume is usually less than 5% of Google. Hence, adCenter while usually a beneficial platform to run, is usually best used as a complement to Google. It should never be used in place of Google Adwords.
I suspect that is the goal of this campaign by Microsoft. The first step is to get people using it. Once this happens they can begin other marketing initiatives to make the platform grow.
Microsoft Doing The Little Things
While Microsoft still is at the point that they are not very relevant in search, they do seem to be doing things right over the last year. If recent market share claims are accurate, it also supports the idea that Microsoft search is improving while Yahoo! is losing its market month by month.
My own feeling is that these small initiatives will continue to add up and improve the overall Microsoft community. They seem to be removing the dead weight (such as the recent announcement where they stopped their analytics platform) and focusing what they should.
on
New Microsoft AdCenter tool is getting better shape but still far away from the Google AdWords Editor tool as at least they can create all the application options with the enhance options what Google is offering including the Increasing the biding options and working multiple accounts simultaneously as Google have when you are uploading in one account can work in other account or switching between the accounts.
on
Thanks for sharing this information. Pleasing to the ears of the Adcenter advertisers.
Microsoft & yahoo can learn and imbibe things from Google on how to render refined services to its clientele. There is no overt reasons for Google’s big search share market, its just by value laden, real-time customer benefiting packages.
on
I agree with you DJ. Microsoft is doing the little things right. AdCenter is a very handy tool when used along with AdWords. It offers a great opportunity to broaden your reach, often into an area where your competitors have not yet gone. And the format of an AdCenter campaign is almost identical to that of an AdWords campaign, so Microsoft is able to offer a streamlined importing process.
on
Compared to Google search market, MSN market share is insignificant. However, they have shown a .02% growth over January 09. Over time we may witness a scenario where the entire search market will be fully cornered by Google, where as its adwords and pay per clicks programs could suffer market erosion. After all, no one can always have a free ride; it is against the law of nature.