My experience with MSN PPC so far...

(not to bad)

[ScottG13]

Seeing competitors gain some of my ad places on MSN, I decided I need to get into the MSN PPC buy-in if I could. I contacted them and they got back to me explaining the details. I sent about a 40 key phrase list to them and they came back with a spreadsheet of the ones they could accept and the offered CPC. We negotiated the price, I wrote the ads and filled out the spreadsheet with titles, ads, and URLs. I am assuming they will be up sometime this week.

The CPC works in that they come up with an "average" CPC for all your words. Protects against bid wars, certainly. Rank is determinted by estimated annual spend with MSN.

My understanding is that the MSN bid PPC will be slowly rolled out this fall to select advertisers. Those in the "buy" program will have first dibs and exclusivity for a while longer as they slowly roll it out. I love me some beta testing.

Overall, the experience has been pretty good. They seem eager for business, are very responsive, and try to help out the best they can. My rep offered to fly in to talk to our president if I thought he needed convincing.

Anyways, feel free to post questions if you have them.

[mhhfive]

I assume you're not in France or Singapore. I thought those were the only places MSN was testing their PPC ads...

[eWhisper]

You've been able to do IO based MSN PPC marketing for a while now.

Usually a $75k/year entrance fee.
Fixed CPC costs.
1 month autorenewable contract.
No bidding.
Exact match only keyword targeting.
Fairly profitable considering MSN has a pretty high CTR on paid listings compared to some other properties.

[edwardjsi]

How does a newbie get into MSN PPC?

I would appreciate if someone can tell me more.

Thanks,
Edward

[ScottG13]

For now, you need a high projected annual send with MSN ($75k). As far as I know, this fall, they'll start rolling out their bid style PPC that everyone can get into similar to Overture/AdWords. If you have the money, you can get into MSN right now via this contact form: [advertising.msn.com...]

[beren]

How does a newbie get into MSN PPC?

Good luck. I've tried several times to get their attention, and we have the budget to meet their minimum. But they've just blown me off and referred me to bcentral.com or whatever they are calling it now.

[eWhisper]

If you still want to do business with a company who's blowing you off, I'd get on the phone with them.

They do have sales people who I'm assuming are comission based, so want your business - it's a matter of getting ahold of them.

I've been impressed with their sales people and tech support at a variety of levels.

[ScottG13]

They definately want your money if you have the budget. You just have to get through to the right people. Fill out the form that I linked to and I think they will get right back with you if you qualify.

[bostonseo]

They are very hard to get in touch with. Perhaps they are not actively selling their fixed cost CPC program with the new bidding system rolling out soon as well.

Also may you are not getting a response from them because your industry is already sold out.

Just some thoughts.

I was disappointed by the lack of impression/clicks on the 'good' terms that typically are higher priced than the 'average' cpc the IO was for. So in a sense we overpaid for the terms because the terms that got the majority of clicks were terms that were well below the agreed upon CPC price. There is no GUARANTEE that the terms that are in your campaign will actually be displayed 24/7 like you would think. They won't committ to hard numbers and it's very much to their advantage. Just be careful is all I'd advise with MSN.

[ScottG13]

Also, it's looking like the MSN PPC is moving pretty fast. I got some documents this week that lead me to believe it goes live for some people this month.

They might be done with the buy in, either way.

[eWhisper]

I got some documents this week that lead me to believe it goes live for some people this month.

Sounds like more NDAs...

All I can say is everyone should keep their eyes open for some interesting news this quarter.

[ScottG13]

Definately keep your eyes open. I can't pass along everything, but I'll be sure to let you know how the experience goes.

We'll have to add a MSN AdCenter forum pretty soon, either way.

[ryanfromaustin]

In what areas is MSN PPC currently available?