The official Microsoft adCenter representative has confirmed that they are using Intellitxt ads "to drive trial and interest in Live Search itself."
Intellitxt is a contextual product that shows ads within the text you are reading for the those keywords in the content.
The thing is, they are driving search queries to their search engine, via the contextual networks.
Imagine you are reading a web site on sports, you then hover over a link that reads "sports" which takes you to a search query on "sports" at Live.com. Then your ad targeted for the keyword "sports" is displayed on Live.com. Is that the type of traffic you want?
Advertiser, Mel, said no:
Here's my issue with this campaign: we've found that visitors coming from this type of advertising tend to behave more like content network visitors than search visitors. In other words, they ran across the ad while reading an article on a content site, and are just idly browsing -- they're not in "buy" mode like someone who purposefully went to a search engine such as Live.com and typed in a query. And these visitors convert about the same (for us, anyway) as content visitors.
However, the ad they were clicking on in this case was our search ad, with bids based on search economics. All of a sudden, our ROI on that keyword plummeted as a result. If these were content ads, I'd have been fine with it, because I'd have set my bids accordingly.
Mel wants a way to opt out.
We know Ask.com has marketed on Google and other engines to drive traffic to their search engine in the past. Here are two examples. I am not sure if Ask.com using the contextual network to advertiser, so the user intent is a bit different....
Read more ...
Monday, May 7, 2007
Microsoft Woos Yahoo; Ad Sales Lost to Google May Be $2 Billion
By Dina Bass
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer interrupted a Hawaiian vacation to call his top Internet ad man, Yusuf Mehdi, on April 16 after Google Inc. announced its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc.
Mehdi says Ballmer offered money, personnel, acquisitions or whatever he needs to fight the threat that buying Web advertising company DoubleClick will advance Google's dominance of the $28.8 billion market.
Ballmer may be about to follow up on his pledge. Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, has held talks with Yahoo! Inc. about a partnership to develop Web search and advertising programs to fight Google, people briefed on the discussions said. That would help remedy what Mehdi says is his one regret in the past year.
``Really the one and only thing is the volume of search,'' Mehdi said in an interview April 17. ``But that's a big thing.''
Microsoft probably lost $2 billion in sales last year alone because its search engine doesn't attract as many users as Google, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland, Washington- based Directions on Microsoft.
Google runs four times more Web queries than Microsoft and is gaining market share over the software maker and Yahoo, confounding analysts who expected progress by Microsoft. Buying DoubleClick gives Google an instant position in graphical display ads, one market where Microsoft is beating Google.
Internet ad sales are growing twice as fast as the personal-computer market, where Microsoft's Windows runs most systems.
Yahoo Talks
Microsoft's discussions with Yahoo are in the early stages and focus on a partnership rather than a merger, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The New York Post said May 4 that Microsoft may want to buy Yahoo. Both companies declined to comment.
Even together, the combined company would have 38 percent of the U.S. search market, 10 points less than Google, according to ComScore Inc. Yahoo CEO Terry Semel has come under fire after the stock sank 35 percent last year amid delays in new ad programs and earnings that disappointed investors.
It could take at least five and maybe 10 years for Microsoft to gain significant traction against Google's search, Mehdi said. A Yahoo partnership could make Microsoft a threat right away and may be its only choice to keep up with Google's acquisitions.
``Once Google bought DoubleClick, the ability for Microsoft to build via smaller pieces a viable competitor to Google disappeared,'' said Peter Misek, an analyst with Canaccord Capital Inc. in Toronto who rates Microsoft ``buy.''
Microsoft's stock gained 30 percent in the past year on optimism for the new version of Windows, compared with a 19 percent increase at Google. Microsoft fell 41 cents to $30.56 on May 4. Yahoo rose $2.80, or 9.9 percent, to $30.98 on reports of the talks. Google fell $2.11 to $471.12.
Biggest Failure
Microsoft already was prepared to spend $16 billion in the next three years to improve its online business, said Goldman analyst Sarah Friar. Now a year into an effort to spur search ad sales with a program called AdCenter, Microsoft attracted 100,000 advertisers. Mehdi says Google, which doesn't disclose client numbers, may have 1 million.
``This is the biggest area where they've failed to make progress,'' said Friar, in San Francisco. Even for Microsoft, that spending ``is not chump change.''
When Microsoft flexes its $28.2 billion cash hoard, rivals often wither. The company came from behind Netscape Communications Corp. in Web browsers and now controls 85 percent of the market its rival pioneered. With its first Xbox game machine, Microsoft won the No. 2 spot after Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2.
``It's surprising to me that Microsoft hasn't been able to gain share in search,'' Rosoff said. ``Maybe this incumbent just has too many advantages. The way Microsoft goes after competitors is they keep hammering until the competition stumbles and Google hasn't stumbled.''
Can't Sell
Microsoft's share of searches widened 0.4 percent to 10.9 percent in March, the biggest rise since releasing its own search in November 2004, said Reston, Virginia-based ComScore. Microsoft had 14 percent at the time, using an earlier product.
Christal Condon, vice president of online marketing at Home Décor Products Inc., spends about 5 percent of her search ad budget with Microsoft's AdCenter because the low traffic means she can't sell as much as she does on Google. She devotes 65 percent to Google.
``If you are going to derive only 5 percent of your search engine marketing revenue from Microsoft, how much time do you want to spend on Microsoft campaigns?'' said Condon, whose Edison, New Jersey-based company sells everything from a $2 cabinet knob to a $20,000 grill on 10 Web sites.
Microsoft, Google and Yahoo make money by auctioning off ads attached to keyword search results. So a sporting goods seller may bid on words such as ``skis'' and ``baseball bats.''
Advertisers pay a premium for words that get more attention from users, hence from the sites that deliver the most people.
Some Successes
Microsoft's ad sales grew 23 percent last quarter, less than Google's 66 percent. Microsoft had $1.61 billion in ad sales in 2006, less than the $10.6 billion for Google, said Charles Di Bona at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
While hurt by low search numbers, AdCenter itself gets good reviews. Since unveiling AdCenter almost six years after Google's software, Mehdi says customers find more of the people who see the ads actually make purchases than with Google or Yahoo.
Last quarter, Microsoft surpassed the revenue received for each computer user who clicked on an ad it had achieved with an earlier system, a quarter ahead of plans.
``They've built a system that has gained a lot of respect among advertisers,'' said Danny Sullivan, who tracks the search industry and contributes to Search Engine Land, a blog owned by Redding, Connecticut-based Third Door Media Inc. ``That was no small challenge given that they started from scratch.''
Microsoft relies on personal contact to win accounts that might otherwise ignore AdCenter, said Steven Jacoby, president of New York search marketer SendTraffic. Microsoft had two or three workers sitting with SendTraffic employees throughout January and February, showing them how to use AdCenter.
``No one else does that,'' he said....
Read more ...
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer interrupted a Hawaiian vacation to call his top Internet ad man, Yusuf Mehdi, on April 16 after Google Inc. announced its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc.
Mehdi says Ballmer offered money, personnel, acquisitions or whatever he needs to fight the threat that buying Web advertising company DoubleClick will advance Google's dominance of the $28.8 billion market.
Ballmer may be about to follow up on his pledge. Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, has held talks with Yahoo! Inc. about a partnership to develop Web search and advertising programs to fight Google, people briefed on the discussions said. That would help remedy what Mehdi says is his one regret in the past year.
``Really the one and only thing is the volume of search,'' Mehdi said in an interview April 17. ``But that's a big thing.''
Microsoft probably lost $2 billion in sales last year alone because its search engine doesn't attract as many users as Google, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland, Washington- based Directions on Microsoft.
Google runs four times more Web queries than Microsoft and is gaining market share over the software maker and Yahoo, confounding analysts who expected progress by Microsoft. Buying DoubleClick gives Google an instant position in graphical display ads, one market where Microsoft is beating Google.
Internet ad sales are growing twice as fast as the personal-computer market, where Microsoft's Windows runs most systems.
Yahoo Talks
Microsoft's discussions with Yahoo are in the early stages and focus on a partnership rather than a merger, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The New York Post said May 4 that Microsoft may want to buy Yahoo. Both companies declined to comment.
Even together, the combined company would have 38 percent of the U.S. search market, 10 points less than Google, according to ComScore Inc. Yahoo CEO Terry Semel has come under fire after the stock sank 35 percent last year amid delays in new ad programs and earnings that disappointed investors.
It could take at least five and maybe 10 years for Microsoft to gain significant traction against Google's search, Mehdi said. A Yahoo partnership could make Microsoft a threat right away and may be its only choice to keep up with Google's acquisitions.
``Once Google bought DoubleClick, the ability for Microsoft to build via smaller pieces a viable competitor to Google disappeared,'' said Peter Misek, an analyst with Canaccord Capital Inc. in Toronto who rates Microsoft ``buy.''
Microsoft's stock gained 30 percent in the past year on optimism for the new version of Windows, compared with a 19 percent increase at Google. Microsoft fell 41 cents to $30.56 on May 4. Yahoo rose $2.80, or 9.9 percent, to $30.98 on reports of the talks. Google fell $2.11 to $471.12.
Biggest Failure
Microsoft already was prepared to spend $16 billion in the next three years to improve its online business, said Goldman analyst Sarah Friar. Now a year into an effort to spur search ad sales with a program called AdCenter, Microsoft attracted 100,000 advertisers. Mehdi says Google, which doesn't disclose client numbers, may have 1 million.
``This is the biggest area where they've failed to make progress,'' said Friar, in San Francisco. Even for Microsoft, that spending ``is not chump change.''
When Microsoft flexes its $28.2 billion cash hoard, rivals often wither. The company came from behind Netscape Communications Corp. in Web browsers and now controls 85 percent of the market its rival pioneered. With its first Xbox game machine, Microsoft won the No. 2 spot after Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2.
``It's surprising to me that Microsoft hasn't been able to gain share in search,'' Rosoff said. ``Maybe this incumbent just has too many advantages. The way Microsoft goes after competitors is they keep hammering until the competition stumbles and Google hasn't stumbled.''
Can't Sell
Microsoft's share of searches widened 0.4 percent to 10.9 percent in March, the biggest rise since releasing its own search in November 2004, said Reston, Virginia-based ComScore. Microsoft had 14 percent at the time, using an earlier product.
Christal Condon, vice president of online marketing at Home Décor Products Inc., spends about 5 percent of her search ad budget with Microsoft's AdCenter because the low traffic means she can't sell as much as she does on Google. She devotes 65 percent to Google.
``If you are going to derive only 5 percent of your search engine marketing revenue from Microsoft, how much time do you want to spend on Microsoft campaigns?'' said Condon, whose Edison, New Jersey-based company sells everything from a $2 cabinet knob to a $20,000 grill on 10 Web sites.
Microsoft, Google and Yahoo make money by auctioning off ads attached to keyword search results. So a sporting goods seller may bid on words such as ``skis'' and ``baseball bats.''
Advertisers pay a premium for words that get more attention from users, hence from the sites that deliver the most people.
Some Successes
Microsoft's ad sales grew 23 percent last quarter, less than Google's 66 percent. Microsoft had $1.61 billion in ad sales in 2006, less than the $10.6 billion for Google, said Charles Di Bona at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
While hurt by low search numbers, AdCenter itself gets good reviews. Since unveiling AdCenter almost six years after Google's software, Mehdi says customers find more of the people who see the ads actually make purchases than with Google or Yahoo.
Last quarter, Microsoft surpassed the revenue received for each computer user who clicked on an ad it had achieved with an earlier system, a quarter ahead of plans.
``They've built a system that has gained a lot of respect among advertisers,'' said Danny Sullivan, who tracks the search industry and contributes to Search Engine Land, a blog owned by Redding, Connecticut-based Third Door Media Inc. ``That was no small challenge given that they started from scratch.''
Microsoft relies on personal contact to win accounts that might otherwise ignore AdCenter, said Steven Jacoby, president of New York search marketer SendTraffic. Microsoft had two or three workers sitting with SendTraffic employees throughout January and February, showing them how to use AdCenter.
``No one else does that,'' he said....
Read more ...
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