Microsoft AdCenter in the UK

[lloyd]

Anyone got a date for when it will be going live in the UK?

[engine]

Seems no one has that info at the moment.

[BrynTT]

I read somewhere that its going live in June 06, not much publicity about it so can't be 100% sure.

[sem4u]

I heard that it was going to be June this year, so sometime next month hopefully.

[tosspot17]

I think some agencies are trialling at the moment, with a projected launch date of June/July.

However it is Microsoft, so probably add 3 months to that date...

[Live_Lead]

They are the headline sponsor of SES London May 31 - June 2

[DontCopyMe]

Yes, indeed. June is when Ad-Centre should be launching, even if its just a Beta session. This is what they did in France before they went live. I know a few of the big agents have been in discussion with them, speccing the product and tools etc. The message is that they are aiming for conversions and customer satisfaction, not spend and Spam...shame!

[adCenter411]

hi there,
i just noticed this thread. we're planning to launch the adCenter pilot in the UK sometime this June. i'm based in the U.S. but if you have any other questions let me know and i'll find answers for you.

thanks,
adCenter411

[sem4u]

I spoke to a rep yesterday and some agencies are trialling it. I expect it to be available to everyone quite quickly now.

They are going to make a clean switch from Yahoo! to MSN ads, so they won't be doing any 50/50 testing etc.

Minimum bid will be 5p!

[tosspot17]

I spoke to a few disgruntled agencies at SES London as they'd been told that the programme would no longer be launching in June or July.

When someone asked the MSN rep in the Search Advertising Forum if the it would be live by September he said he couldn't give a precise date - he couldn't even confirm if it would be this year.

I wouldn't hold your breath.

[marcusbond]

Invitation only trials of UK targeted AdCenter ads on msn co.uk domains began to appear in late May.

You can compare the difference Yahoo and msn.co.uk ads using popular keyword terms, the additional ads showing up on msn.co.uk are the invitaion only trialists.

You can sign up for AdCenter UK now even if you haven't been invited, but you won't be able to select ads to show on co.uk domains. However they do still appear to UK IP addresses, on .com domains... not that there is much mileage in that... and you won't simply be able to change/select ads to show in the UK when it goes live to everybody in August... you will need to delete ads and set them up again targeting .co.uk

[engine]

Thanks Marcus, and welcome to WebmasterWorld.

[tosspot17]

Marcus,

Is August a confirmed date?

[marcusbond]

I'm not sure what 'confirmed' means, dates could very well change, but at the moment the information is that AdCenter will allow all accounts to target ads on .co.uk domains in August.

[tosspot17]

By confirmed, I mean formally announced by MSN that August is the launch date for AdCenter in the UK.

They had previously said to many agencies in the UK that it would be June, then July.

The last I had heard was that they couldn't confirm that it would be in 2006.

[sem4u]

Thank's for the information marcus. August sounds good to me. I can't wait to move funds away from Yahoo!

[tosspot17]

The latest I've heard from a large UK PPC agency is that it's definitely Q1 2007 for the full launch - i.e. AdCentre ads showing on MSN.co.uk.

Does anyone have any information to dispute/confirm this?

[marcusbond]

...email from adcenter saying its launching later this year...

...our test listings for the pilot are now live on msn.co.uk as of last night...

...I guess Q1 2007 refers to when they expect to switch off the Yahoo ads and run completely independently.

[tosspot17]

Ah, thank you Marcus.

That would seem to tally then.

I hope your trial is going well!

[engine]

For those of you with an alert on this thread, you might want to know that AdCenter in the UK [webmasterworld.com] is going live this week.

[advertising.msn.co.uk...]