MSN .co.uk Featured Listings on to STOP

Overture does it again

[Shak]

Word on the street is that MSN.co.uk will be discontinuing their "featured listings" (in-house sold ads on a CPC basis) and handing that position over to Overture in the very near future.

Whats interesting is the fact that most people were under the impression that MSN were looking to rival Overture, and here they pass over their prize asset over to them.

I can see that they will probably earn more from the deal, as Overture have ready advertisers already paying the £££ on a bidding war, where MSN were doing fixed CPC deals and only with a handful of companies.

oh well, another gem down the pan :(

Shak

[engine]

Thanks for the heads up, Shak.
Perhaps it's simply too costly to administer.

[webdiversity]

Maybe the bean counters sat down and realised that there were other ways to get the numbers on the bottom line by using companies that could get better results than they get themselves.

I guess the same reason for the demise of Google Premium listings, might have been good for some advertisers, but in the main the going rate for CPM deals meant that Google could make more money by throwing the keywords back into the pot and take advantage of their lower minimum CPC than the other 2 main players in the UK, than to try to administer 2 systems.

I don't think MSN sold enough of those deals to keep the expensive systems and people in place, so giving it to Overture for a bigger chunk of cash, with a reduced cost on the Loss column makes good sense.