MSN To Compete With Google In Search Marketing

MSN is to take on internet search rival Google in the search targeted marketing business, with its new MSN adCenter product seeking to steal the limelight from Google’s hugely successful Adwords.

MSN’s new offering debuted in Singapore last month, but only went into official use this week, with the company’s French operations the first to see its use, while America will roll out paid-for search results next month.

AdCenter allows advertisers to target campaigns at users of specific age, gender and geographic location, as well as being able to exclude users based on the same demographics. Keyword specific ads can also be planned to run only at certain times and on certain days.

The new system will replace MSN’s current search-targeted marketing results, which are provided by Yahoo!

Advertisers using the new system are presented with a simple interface, offering detailed user profiling through data culled from MSN’s 9 million subscribers.

Commenting on the launch, Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division, said: “We’re excited by the positive feedback we have received from advertisers thus far. The launch of adCenter in France and Singapore is a great first step to delivering on our global vision to connect advertisers to consumers in a much more meaningful way.”

MSN: 020 7465 7700 www.msn.co.uk