Is MSN Getting Serious about Pay Per Click?
Writing by Brick Marketing on Tuesday, 18 of March , 2008 at 8:10 am
David Snyder is the guest host today on Marketing Pilgrim. He reports that MSN is ditching its current adCenter Pay Per Click customer service products in lieu of an adCenterCommunity. I say, Bravo!
This new product is an extension of an adCenter customer service program that already blows its competition out of the water. Adwords, for example, is pretty well known for its sub par customer service and famous generic email responses to questions. While Google does offer an Adwords blog, an Adwords group in Google Groups, and a learning center in the Adwords program, the fractured nature of this content stand in stark comparison to the adCenter initiative.
At a recent conference I inquired of a Google Adwords’ representative why Microsoft was so quick on the draw with customer service in comparison with the leader in the market. The response I received was a joking, “They have more time on their hands.”
As comical as it sounds, the Google executives may be right. MSN does have more time on its hands, and it seems to be using that time wisely.
There is a reason, of course, why Google AdWords is the leader in the PPC market. Their technology is scalable and has been perfected over and over again. Nothing that MSN Pay Per Click and Yahoo! offers is comparable to the Google AdWords reporting interface and Google Analytics. I don’t like, for instance, that I have to put two links to the MSN adCenter Pay Per Click privacy policy on my landing pages in order to advertise there. Google doesn’t make me do that. To be sure, the need for customer service with Google AdWords is much less than the need for customer service through MSN or Yahoo! So that’s a point in Google’s favor.
Nevertheless, I like the idea of a community. I’d much rather get questions answered from another user of a product than from a company’s canned representative. Customer service reps tend to be scripted with pat responses. Product users aren’t. The help you can get is a lot more practical and useful.
If MSN can improve its technology to the point that Google has then it could be competitive. And, as David Snyder says, if MSN and Yahoo! team up then it’s quite possible that the combination could lead to Google falling off its leadership perch. That’s a big if. It’s big because, while Yahoo! has a sizable share of the market and is competitive in its technology, it is hard to capture market share from a recognized leader, no matter what industry you are in. Google has a good enough head start that there would have to be significant developments coming out of Yahoo! or MSN to pass them up. It’s not impossible, but the possibilities are limited. At any rate, I’m glad to see MSN getting serious with this bold new move. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Yahoo! and Google follow up with their own Pay Per Click communities.
Category: Google Adwords, Microsoft Ad Center
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Comment by David Snyder
Made Tuesday, 18 of March , 2008 at 9:26 am
Thanks for the nod to the article. I do not think that adCentercommunity.com is set to replace MSN’s customer service, but rather I feel that it is going to add to that superior product.
I truly feel Google Adwords lack of customer service really has less to do with the fact that they are the industry leader and constantly tweaking, and more to do with the fact that they are the market share leader and have little to be concerned about in terms of repercussions from poor service. The reality now is that if you want low cost targeted advertising on the web you are handcuffed to Adwords.
I am not anti-Google by any stretch of the imagination. In fact I think their constant innovation is what is really making them out pace their competition. I also feel Adwords is the best SEM product available with what is by far the best interface. I am really just against how difficult it is to get questions answered and feedback using the service.
I am a Google Qualified Professional, and my company is Google Qualified as well, and yet despite the serious ad dollars we roll towards Adwords, we do not have a direct contact for customer service issues.
AS for the MSN and Yahoo merger take two other properties into account, one being Flickr and the other Facebook.
Flickr is already the 800 pound guerrilla in the photo sharing market, and now intends to compete with YouTube.com by allowing video hosting. Flickr is of course what became of Yahoo Photos. Microsoft has 1.6% share in Facebook. While the future of the merged company’s sponsored search might be questionable, the power it will bring in terms of online media buying and selling is not. If they were to figure out a way to integrate all of their advertising services into a one stop shop for advertisers, they could seriously challenge Google.
