We are getting reports that Microsoft’s PubCenter, a self serve thirty party ad publishers platform through AdCenter, is doing quite well with beta testers. Microsoft began testing PubCenter last summer.
One beta tester we spoke with said PubCenter is paying significantly more than Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher. All three of these programs let third party publishers add contextual ads next to their content via a self-service format.
Google has dominated this space in the past (and all other contextual advertising) because it offers publishers higher fees for ads. But this might change when Microsoft unveils PubCenter to the greater publisher community, particularly if Microsoft is aggressive in revenue splits to gain market share.
Currently, PubCenter is being tested by a small subset of web publishers. Our tipster says that he receiving from four times more in revenue Microsoft than Google AdSense. And the money isn’t the only advantage PubCenter has over AdSense. The advertisement themselves are are higher quality than Google’s ads, he says, and equally as targeted towards the content. He says that Microsoft seems to be more stringent about letting advertisers into the program, versus what seemed like an advertiser free-for-all though Google’s AdSense. Of course, with a smaller inventory of advertisers, it’s tougher to provide contextual ads for obscure content.
We also heard that Microsoft is allowing publishers to get creative with ads by allowing them to set background images. Google AdSense only allows publishers to change the color of the ads.
Microsoft is allowing test partners to publish Google ads on their site as long as the publisher doesn’t have an exclusivity agreement with Google. Third party ads are a controversial concept, since advertisers expect the click throughs and conversions that they get from search. Google has been sued for fraud because ads placed on parked pages weren’t producing results. But if Microsoft is offering a better program, with nifty, more targeted ads, then publishers and advertisers alike might make the switch (or use both, if possible).
Microsoft recently enlisted digital media executives, including execs from IAC, Wall Street Journal Digital Network, The New York Times Co., Time Inc. and Viacom Inc. to consult on next-generation advertising platform.
Microsoft said this about PubCenter in February:
PubCenter will be built on the existing adCenter Publisher architecture that is currently in beta and will include the convergence of technologies and tools provided by the former Atlas and Rapt solutions, as well as a self-serve offering. The new platform will provide innovative forecasting and order management solutions, advanced analytics tools, and enhanced targeting functionality to enable all digital media publishers to have access to the tools and technology they need to provide valuable and relevant ad content to their advertising partners.
Here are some screenshots of Microsoft’s ads on a publisher’s site and an ad with an image in the background:
but most of all are using adsense.. we’ll just see if they succeed.. hhmmm, perhaps they would..
Google has a conflict of interest.
- Most of the revenues goto their search pages where they keep 100% of the revenues.
- Google keeps the highest CPC on their search pages.
- Over the last 5 years, the share of revenues paid to affiliates has declined.
Microsoft has the following advantages:
- Shear size and budget to fight Google.
- Reach with big and small businesses.
- A clean start on the design of PubCenter. AdSense and AdWord have gotten cluttered with all the migratory changes.
- Further, they have the technical strength to match Adsense. Maybe not search, but the Adsense logic is easier to copy and outperform.
- Less conflict of interest since the only page views owned by Microsoft is primarily with Hotmail users. They don’t have a significant news or search inventory of page views.
If Microsoft offers a higher payoff to early publishers, and advertisers realize that there is lesser competition leading to lower prices, many would certainly try Pubcenter and possibly stay.
This is good news for the Long Tail.
I think the reason is that Microsoft has up the ante in terms of new & innovative R&D (ie, hiring more PhDs over recent years and collaborating more with University researchers from around the world).
I think one of the issues that MS or even Yahoo face is the lack of international advertisers. If you want to have advertisers globally, unfortunately Google is still pretty much the only game in town.
Yahoo has decent advertiser base in US and UK and a few other countries, but even they are all run out of different country specific programs, so a publishers has to make separate deals with each Yahoo country unit.
This is a classic two sided market. And the fact of the matter is that Google has the global ad inventory that no other single player has.
That said, hopefully more competition will improve the situation.
From India
Anjali Sen
I used it for a couple of months and didn’t find its performance to be that great. I think Google is too far ahead of the pack for now…
Wow, this could be huge. Could being the operative word.
Hey Jeff, fun to see you outside of Twitter.
Agreed, this early in the run, with the Msft history on ads, I am beyond skeptical. But still, perhaps.
It would be very interesting to watch Google’s valuation gyrate if they had even on serious competitor.
That said, in regards to the black ad box, I wonder if changing the bgnd image would be that useful. Text over image? Clutter?
Very impressive. this could be a huge opportunity for ms.
Excellent. Time to move from G Adsense to MSFT.
http://health.okguru.com
I really hope they become a leader. Adsense is pretty crap with really dodgy inventory – they just have spammy advertisers offering LARGE CPC however the chances of the visitor clicking the spammy ad is low.
Also, when trying other ad networks, the payouts are bigger… and number of clicks, bigger. Interesting how this is the case when google says it is not.
It’s like google is not reporting on half the clicks, even more than half.
Most aren’t using AdSense because of higher fees but because unlike Yahoo and Microsoft’s offerings, it is open to anyone on a self-serve basis. I’m pretty sure Yahoo is still by approval only.
Good to see old stodgy Google being challenged by some fresh blood.
Google old, Microsoft fresh blood? WOW!!
Challenge away!
There must be someone to challenge GOOOOOOGLE.
Nice! I’ll be checking it out when it’s ready. Never thought I’d be rooting for Microsoft, but in this case, oh hell yes.
So long as MS can keep out shoddy publishers and advertisers, I imagine the payouts will remain high as well. Thats really the meat and potatoes that plague adsense.
this is all about Microsoft overpaying for marketshare. There’s no way they can win on the merits because their product stinks.
Cry me a river. All the MS haters miss out on a lot of good technology, some they just have to accept such as Ajax. Must be hard inside that world of denial.
Yep totally agree with you, MS haters are just illuded by Google… I’ve been to MS and man, they’re rolling out even newer technologies on so many different fronts…
I just love google on most web stuffs like search, email, etc.
It’s nice to see Adsense monopoly being challenged. It’s good for the health of the market.
This is very encouraging. If they actually have publisher support i would switch in a heart beat. Google needs to be taken down a peg or 4.
1 word, http://BCENTRAL.com
Remember Banner Central ???
Microsoft wants you to forget. It was probably the worst business online ad revenue site ever created.
The service was crappy, the inventory was really crappy, and as if that couldn’t be superseded, the banner creator looked like it had been made by a 10 year old who just learned how to make his first .jsp page.
Banner Central sold you $50 blocks of 1000 impressions, so $0.05 PER IMPRESSION.
It’s that winning Microsoft vision that let Google completely take over the space, and it’s that winning vision that powers their systems now.
aQuantative’s tech does not help the fact that they don’t get it. Same as with the Zune.
shut up you google fanboy…… you can’t compare previous services to new services…
Actually I think it was business central, but the B was ambiguous.
It was a 1 stop SEO solution for people with no clue.
If you can bet on people being stupid or savvy, choose savvy.
When I had talked to Mauro Mariani at the Jooce interview, he was like, yeah, I read Techcrunch, we’re not looking for people that are that intelligent, and we want a *simpler* people to use our service.
What Mauro didn’t realize is that simple people get unusually smart as soon as they have Google and other tools at their fingertips.
It is unnatural for people to be at the mercy of Microsoft web services online. People feel like equals online even if their position is much less significant than the other party.
That is the major achillies heel of self important financial investors. They don’t realize the nature of online business.
Google does however. Before Microsoft can make any inroads they need to invest not in GUI usability tests, but in web psychology tests.
The ones who succeed online are not necessarily those with the best interface, the nicest icons, ect…
They are those who understand people. Like MySpace and their online celebrity and rock band museum vs. Friendster. They understood that musicians wanted a place to put their songs up and show fans. Google understands about what small business needs. Not hand holding but a powerful interface. Microsoft doesn’t understand.
Microsoft will never understand.
Microsoft sucks.
You bet.
Can MS do something more creative?
Get a REAL job!
finally, something could come up better than adsense. AdSense sucks when it comes to revenue making, you cant really rely on it.
Good stuff– although self-serve for customers with later more permanent acceptance would be better I think than the people being turned away at the door. Just default to accept, and delete the bads– if you’re qualifying them all anyway, and it would get more advertisers in faster.
One of the BIGGEST draws to adsense is the fact that it has ZERO geographical restrictions…that at times may mean that you will see OCCASIONALLY 10 clicks for an ad unit and literally “0.00″ for payment but in the longhaul, google’s been able to do the math to pay SOME money to ALL types of traffic, even if it is pennies per CPM.
I hope Microsoft gives google competition in the international space. Because I hate google adsense. Yes, it keeps my site running. But it is unpredictable as hell. Overnight, without any change on my part, my site’s click-thru rates go down by over 100% only to come back up to normal rate few MONTHS later. Writing to support gives the default “we don’t mess with the algorithm.” Least competition will do is get adsense to lose some of its arrogant ass.
WoW… this could change how ads are being dominated by Google and Yahoo.
Certainly now advertisers will make more revenue. Google AdSense dominated, hope we all (adsense ussers ) will have healthy comeptiion from Microsoft pubCenter. Healthy for publisher and advertisers.
hi,
I am new
Google adsense keeps the high paying CPC advertisement in their search engine and in gmail or orkut web application. The payout needs to be improved. Let’s see if they increase the payout in order to compete with Microsoft.
What is the minimum payout for pubcenter?
Finally an Google ad alternative, I wonder how different it will be from Google Ads?
TechFilipino
wow…great info…this tutorial ver helping me
I tried AdSense both as a publisher and as an advertiser and it sucked so bad I will never try them again. I am a Google fanboy about 90% of what they do, but advertising is something they suck at.
Not a huge MS fan, but I really do hope they win this fight. The advertiser I currently use pays four times as much as AdSense, but it takes awhile to get things going sometimes. Using an automated system that pays just as much would be very cool.
Any idea about when it will get out of beta?
For adsense like service, GOOG already trumps YHOO. Do you think MSFT can do better than YHOO without burning more cash?
Last I read… MSFT burning lot of cash on online services. MSN page views are down and live search is a joke.
publishers are desperate for a viable alternative to adsense. long overdue.
No kidding @ etoile’s comment.
The problem has been a virtual monopoly outside the US where Yahoo! Publisher Network is simply not available to people (been in beta for 3 years) and other networks just don’t have the scale to be viable.
Simply put there is a gigantic number of publishers (no exaggeration), some who’ve fallen fowl of Google – many quite innocently, some who simply want an alternative, who will jump at the chance of a viable Microsoft option.
I echo the comments about bCentral which was terrible, now Microsoft gets a second kick at the can and this early publicity is brilliant inertia to build on. Don’t be put off by any negative comments Microsoft… work hard, work fast, work brilliantly. There is massive demand for this.
On behalf of all web publishers outside the US I urge you to move quickly to open this up internationally (US only applications right now – why can’t you at least take non US ‘applications’ to gauge demand?)
Finally… The simple act of competition (non-existent previously) will spur huge rewards for web publishers worldwide.
Bravo.
P.S. One other thought… The biggest criticism leveled at Google Adsense by publishers I know is their ’secret service / police’ mentality. Frankly you’d get more help out of a Kremlin security guard. This is an area where a more friendly, informative and accessible customer service (incl phone support – premium rate if needed) would be a very smart move. Sorry Google – I’m a shareholder – but monopoly has led to complacency and dare I say… arrogance.
i agree with jeff
Microsoft the old software monster is really in desperate need of a tools that could balance the war between Google and Microsoft, this could be a win or olse game for Microsoft. So far for me Google still the best here, the only remaining stronghold for Microsoft is the Halo, you can check my site about MIcrosoft.
I so badly needed it…
I’m getting sick of adsense..the revenue is declining every day
Any idea when this will be public? Is there any chance of getting a beta invitation?
I wonder my self with microsoft.is it about advertiser or publisher?for me if I were microsoft my priority is my advertiser because they give me “money”and if it is about online advertising base on relevancy,I think the best converter for advertiser is to have the “best search result” rather then The best”networks.cause inside the head of blog writer I dont think they press there “buy mode “ON
It is very intresting to know how many can signup for Microsoft adsense ,publishers can compare the revenue they get from Microsoft and Google.
Good News for Publishers.
Good move but very late ….
Advertisement wars… i hope that this will destroy google’s monopolism, but should not turn into microsoft monopoly as usual.
>>One beta tester we spoke with said PubCenter is paying significantly more than Google
I really don’t think this kind of feedback is significant from a beta. They can test the system, the software, the targeting, the workflow. But whatever pricing, bidding, and yield they’re experiencing is completely artificial, shielded from the larger market. We won’t know anything about the economics of this thing until it opens up. spins a while, and finds the floor. It’ll have to be significantly better than Google – there are switching costs baked in at this point.
Good luck, Microsoft, you’ll need it.
…thirty party..
Does that mean they’re all over thirty?
didn’t notice the typo till you mentioned it…:D
The empire MSFT strikes back again.
Never under estimate the power of the empire MSFT.
If Microsoft comes with a better deal and better results, then Google is in real trouble.
Quote Leena “Google AdSense only allows publishers to change the color of the ads”
Not strictly true – you can also select the type face (from a very limited selection)
They must be loosing money on it in favor of increasing their publishers revenue. It seems Microsoft is following Yaron Galai’s suggestion…
It says, Open only to participants in US. Sad. I hope they pay-out using Paypal. That could really work. Btw, Google Adsense sucks these days.
Its a good try lets c what happens in future:)
When will it be open to Europe? The same goes for yahoo’s 3rd party ads.
Have any of you ever tried Chitika?
We have over 30,000 publishers running our ads in addition to AdSense. In most cases we are bringing 30% more revenue per page.
I’m no MS Lover, but Google’s has way too much power on the ad space, competition is healthy.
Wonderful! Need more competition to the big G in this space.
There is also noticeable decline in ecpm rate , which resulted in low revenue generation despite the fact my site traffic has increased five time more.
About time MS started offering something rather than pilleging.
why use a product from ms when a site like msnbc’s home page doesn’t even use ms sponsored listings?
call me when they believe in it themselves.
Nice article
Nice report and thanks for it. Your title seemed to be encouraging to me but after reading the details and after visiting the Microsoft pubCenter website, I again realized why Google Adsense is the market leader.
There is hardly any information about Microsoft pubCenter in their website except “Open to US participants only at this time”. This alone perhaps is enough to conclude that Microsoft will not be able to dent in the monopoly of Google in this field. In fact, what I understand is that Microsoft is not keen to challenge Google in the international market at all at least for the time being.
No information on payment method either.
“One beta tester we spoke with said PubCenter is paying significantly more than Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher.” I really hope that Microsoft can continue this trend in the time of economic recession.