Beware of Microsoft AdCenter, et al.
I was excited to try out Microsoft’s free $200 promotion for new signups at AdCenter. In all, I discoved some serious problems with the service and figured I’d pass them on to you.
Highly untargeted leads
I ran simutaneous campaigns on Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing. Using the same series of keywords, the same ad copy and the same budget, I found that Google referrals were as much as 10 times more likely to make a purchase than MSN or Yahoo. In some cases, the numbers came out to be over 20 times more likely for certain keyphrases. So I’m now highly skeptical of Microsoft’s claim that their traffic is highly targeted.
Incompatibility with Browsers
Lots of bugs creep in when using an alternate browser to Internet Explorer in AdCenter. It’s a major pain to try to navigate their control panel in Firefox, Opera, or Safari. I found that Firefox worked best of these three, but as AdCenter is all Ajax-ified, the user interface is poorly designed and you have to click way to much to get around. Not a comfortable experience at all.
Billing and Promotion Problems
The only and I mean only service that has billed me correctly without any issues is Google. I am currently in a dispute with MSN over their billing system. For two weeks after I paused a campaign it continued to suck out money for which I have to fight for it back. A full two days after I issued a complaint I got an automated email response and I’m still waiting (it’s been over a week now). Well over $200 has owed me, and I’m really ticked about it. Yahoo Search Marketing did the same, but they would not refund me one dollar. I’ve decided to never do business with Yahoo ever again. Google on the other hand, has been very receptive to billing questions, has responded promptly, and has even listened to inquiries about PPC spam refunds.
Conclusion
Both Microsoft and Yahoo are really rushing to get their PPC services ahead of the pack, and I find their services to be laden with bugs and problems. They’re just not there yet. Once again, Google has out done their rivals. Beware of the Microsoft and Yahoo products because you’ll likely find errors all over the place. I personally wish to dissuade all of you from using these services until significant improvements have been made.
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