For the last year or so we've been advertising exclusively with AdWords (about $800/month). When we launched our campaigns back then MSN adCenter didn't exist and Yahoo Search Marketing was clunky to use and didn't give us nearly the clicks that AdWords did. We abandoned Yahoo and focused only on AdWords. Now we're at a point (especially with the holidays approaching) that I'd like to start spending some more money to drive traffic and sales. I was wondering what the current status is of AdWords vs. the others. We're in a relatively low traffic niche so I'm wondering if it's even worth kicking off ads on the others. I'd love to hear any recent experiences that others are having with Yahoo and MSN and if they are getting any more traction relative to AdWords. Thanks!
the only way to know for sure is to try. YPN & MSN generally convert better (plus there's a bit less competition, which is nice), but there's slightly less volume. I'd at least give it a shot.
Current Status: AdWords is 50-100% more expensive than a year back + twice to 10 times the competition. Overture/YSM is still as clunky and still a shit system. Also twice as much competition and much more expensive. AdCenter is denfinitely worth a proper go. Don't expect a smuch traffic as from Google's network but it's on the rise and dirt cheap.
Cool. Really good stuff. So my guess is that we'll probably try to go with all three. Does anyone have any tips for optimizing our campaigns so rolling out over three networks isn't three times as much work? In other words, how can we easily duplicate campaigns across these networks (tweaking ad spending perhaps) without having to duplicate all of the work involved with setting them up?
adCenter allows you to imoport Google & Yahoo campaigns. http://advertising.msn.com/microsoft-adcenter/faqs/importing