MSN adCenter is in beta. This means real beta, i.e., a version under development, instead of Google's so-called "beta", which means a "version that is released, but they haven't figured yet out how to make money on it." We have accts on MSN AC. It is being developed. It's very rough to use; constantly crashes, it's buggy, etc. To get something done, you have to enter it 6-8 times.
But it does work. And it accepts credit cards.
MSN AC will be publicly available in June. Until then, it's only a few agencies that can use this. We test it, submit bug reports, write suggestions for add-ons or changes, etc.
It's like GAW: it's a PPC tool. The ads have the same format as GAW. They're shown on MSN search.
But there are diffs. It has very cool features. I was thinking of coming to NYC SES and present the new features, but I have to be at another event. So I'll tell you here.
MSN AC lets you see demographic data for your keyword. Enter a KW (such as "organic cat food") and it shows you graphs of users who search for those KWs: age, sex, city, income, and so on.
You can then bid by those criteria. If your market for cat food is 80% women, then bid $2 for women searchers, and 25c for male. If it's women 24-35 yrs old, then bid higher for those, and less for women 55+. You can focus your adspend precisely on the target market for your KW or products.
These are great features. Google doesn't have this.
Best of all, you can use MSN AC to do research on your KWs, and then use the info in GAW. If you find that 40% of your market is in Dallas and 20% in Phoenix, then you can focus your Google ad campaigns on those cities.
There's more stuff. This gives you an idea of MSN AC. Don't have an AC acct? Don't worry :-( Be happy :-) You'd tear your hair out over how buggy it is at the moment. It'll be a properly-functioning tool when it's ready for general release.
Pay attention to MSN AC. When it comes out, it'll become one of your top PPC tools.
