Msn Ppc

[brandonre]

Does anyone use the msn ppc? I have been doing google and yahoo for years but and was wondering if msn is worth trying. It will hard keeping track of three of ppc campaigns and I know msn is not going to give anywhere the number of clicks that google does but maybe they are possible better quality clicks that convert at a higher rate. If anybody can tell me there experience with msn it would be much appreciated.

[JimOlenbush]

I forgot they had their own PPC. They used Overture in years past, right? It wouldn't hurt to try it since it would have to be cheap compared to Google PPC. Post your results if you give it a try.

[RonnieG]

I have done Overture (now Yahoo Search) in the past, and found it pretty lame in its poor and confusing admin processes, and way more expensive than AdWords, on a cost per lead registration basis. Things may have changed, but to me, it just wasn't worth it, and ate up a lot of my time to manage. Haven't tried MSN, but with great AdWords results, why bother? That too may change in a few years, but I am just too "here and now" at this point to even try.

[u2man]

My 2 cents. I do all the ppc including msn. I get very little traffic from msn even though it's a huge campaign. Funny thing is that not much changes as far as placement or cost. I maybe go into that account every month or so for about 30 minutes to adjust etc. The plus side is that clicks are half the cost of adwords.

I think alot of people dont bother because there "really" isn't a ton of traffic but it brings me an additional 100 clicks per month at and it's cheap. I suggest giving it a shot.

[brandonre]

Thanks U2 for the feedback I think I may try it out, I guess it wouldn't hurt just as long as can can keep up with it.

[RonnieG]

Cost per click has absolutely nothing to do with value of one PPC vendor over another. Of those 100 clicks a month, how many register? If only two ever register on your site, but 5 out of every 100 clicks from Adwords result in a lead registration, then Adwords is the better bargain, even at twice the cost per click. The two MSN registrations would cost 100 clicks, say at .50, or $25 per lead. The five Adword leads from the same 100 clicks, say at 1.00, would be $100, or $20 per lead. That is basically what I was seeing when I compared actual cost per lead. The key is that you absolutely must be able to track the source of every lead, and measure the cost per lead effectiveness of your advertising.

[brandonre]

Ron I agree, It is all about your ROI. But without any data from msn ppc there is no way to compare how effective the msn campaign compared to adwords or yahoo. 100 extra clicks with no conversions does you no good. But you will never know until you try. Just don't know how to make the time to manage it.

[RonnieG]

... But without any data from msn ppc there is no way to compare how effective the msn campaign compared to adwords or yahoo. ...

Actually, after a few months of running both, what I did for 30 days was turn off AdWords, and run only Yahoo Search. Then I turned off Yahoo, and ran AdWords only. While there may have been some minor natural variations from one month to the other, the differences were still pretty easy to measure. You could do the same to get MSN only results.

Also, with each of the PPC systems these days, they provide ways to measure conversions from their ads. Unfortunately, not all IDX plug-ins support the necessary personalized conversion tracking code in their post-registration processes. Mine does, so I am pretty luck in that regard. My IDX also saves and stores the lead source url in the lead's database record. So if I had different landing pages for my MSN and AdWords ads, I could see that in the prospect's lead source url info. If you have a custom IDX from REW, I know they can do that for you, as well as incorporating whatever conversion tracking code you need in the registration process in the "Thank you for registering" page.

[brandonre]

I am having a problem with that as my idx does not track the signups. I only can capture the lead if they register on one of my forms that directs to my thank you page. I contacted my idx provider about tracking the leads and they don't have the capabilities, I am also having a problem with spam being register on my forms so the conversion numbers are not going to be correct.

Ron who is your idx provider? Is it custom?

[RonnieG]

My current IDX provider is not custom, just an IFramed plug-in, and is very limited as to the MLSs supported, mostly just Colorado and a small number of others. Unfortunately, not anywhere in Florida.