On December 4, 2011, Microsoft hit the tech community with an exciting announcement that Xbox Live will now support voice searches on the MSN/Yahoo search engine www.Bing.com.  Consumers who own an Xbox 360 have recently seen a software update for their gaming console.  Additionally, those who also enjoy the Microsoft Kinect accessory will now be able to take advantage of the Kinect voice recognition capabilities to perform spoken searches on Bing through their Xbox 360 console.  According to Microsoft, this new feature is the next step in the evolution of television and entertainment.  They are hoping to be the frontrunners of this new era of entertainment by bringing games, movies, television shows, music, sports and the internet together in one place.

So what does this mean for the 87.7% of global online advertisers who are NOT advertising on Bing?  It means that they might want to think about allocating some of their PPC budget to Bing.  Migrating Google AdWords accounts to the MSN/Yahoo! platform can be a tricky task because the platforms tend to not play nicely together.  There are many nuances that make straight Google to Bing migration difficult for people who don’t do it regularly.  So, if this is something you are interested in doing with your AdWords campaigns, please consult a professional before you attempt it yourself.

It will be interesting to see how this Bing voice search functionality will evolve.  I am excited to see whether Bing will allow advertisers to build voice search PPC campaigns or whether voice search data can be analyzed separate for traditional type and click data.  There are so many possibilities and so much potential for this new functionality.  I can’t wait to see what the future brings.  Only time will tell – so stay tuned!

MSN is supplying the results of the search, but Yahoo is handling all the billing. What that means is that all charges will come from Yahoo on your credit card statement, not from MSN. On its own, that’s confusing enough – I’ve had quite a few confused emails from my clients who wonder, if Yahoo is “going away” why are they still getting charges from them? But the nightmare end of it is what’s happening on those client’s credit cards – multiple, crazy billing charges.

Yahoo billed on a prepay plan (money in an account which click charges were taken from, like a checking account). MSN billed on a post-pay plan (accrue the charges, then MSN would charge you for them later, like Google AdWords). And that’s where the craziness is coming in – Yahoo is switching all these clients from post to prepay, and charging clients to build up their account so they have money to withdraw from.

One client I have was billed $1 on 10/1 and $25 on the 3rd, 7th, 11th, 14th and 17th. And I’m sure they’ll be hit again on the 21st.

A bigger mess is what happened to the client I heard from yesterday. They were billed $500, $400 and 13 times for $25 on 10/18. And yesterday they were billed another $600. That’s $1825 in two days.

The charges are legitimate, but the large amounts charged so fast are difficult for some to afford. Plus the $25 is such a low number and so many times.

While poking around in MSN, I was able to find a setting on the account details page for the Auto Recharge Amount. Looks like the default setting is $25. You are able to change that to whatever you would like. Why they picked $25, I don’t know. Why they didn’t require the client to select that amount, again, I don’t know.

We’re also having issues with clients where we’re unable to enter a billing credit card. Doesn’t seem to matter what we do, the card just won’t go in. It’s not that the card is declined, it’s just technically able to be entered successfully.

I am hoping that this merger will prove beneficial to my clients, but the confusion and amount of time being spent on fixing crazy issues is definitely beneficial to noone. Thankfully, the customer support is coming from Yahoo, which I’m grateful for. We have a fantastic dedicated Yahoo rep named Lynda who is doing her best in a really crazy situation. We’re talking to her multiple times a day with all these issues, and she’s really going to bat for our clients. I’m sure it will turn out okay, but for now, what a mess.

When working on Microsoft adCenter Desktop, have you ever attempted to “Sync” your account after adding new keywords to a campaign, only to receive an error that there are duplicates in the account?

I receive this error quite often, but in my case, it is not a matter of adding two of the exact same keyword. Often times, it is because I am trying to enter two forms of the same keyword that the Microsoft system has “Normalized”.

Normalization is the process by which Microsoft adCenter removes extraneous characters from user queries. An automatic scan finds and removes duplicate forms from the search query to help minimize redundant content.

For example, let’s say you are trying to add the following keywords in your account:

“jump fly”

jump & fly

jump fly/

jump-fly

jump’s fly

the jump fly

Each form of the keyword ‘jump fly’ above will be normalized to be read by the system as ‘jump fly’.

After attempting to sync your account with these new keywords, you will get an error message telling you that you are trying to create duplicate keywords, even though visually the keywords are very different.

Don’t get frustrated, here’s the explanation from MSN.  If you are looking for the latest release notes on what changes have been made to the adCenter Desktop tool, you can find that here.

As always, if you need assistance with Bing PPC Campaign Management, contact a qualified professional at JumpFly.

Katherine Egbert, an analyst at Jefferies & Company, says that Microsoft is planning an advertising blitz to publicize its search efforts, stating, ”Microsoft is set to spend $80 million to $100 million to advertise ‘Bing’… The budget for the ad campaign suggests that Microsoft plans to go head-to-head with the Google brand.” They need to do something if they actually intend to compete with Google, which commands about 70% of all search queries, while Microsoft currently serves less than 9% of searches, a number that has been shrinking. However, advertising alone cannot ensure success, as learned by those behind Cuil, the last new search engine to receive significant media and advertising exposure. Unfortunately for everyone involved, users decided it was not so cuil after all.

Is Yahoo on Microsoft’s Agenda? 

Several sources indicate that just last week Microsoft registered a limited liability company (LLC) in Delaware, a move that often precedes acquisitions or joint ventures. Microsoft also raised $3.75 billion in its first-ever debt offering this month. Coincidence? “The timing of the registration and recent debt raise indicate to us that it might be more likely Microsoft uses the LLC to force a partnership or to boost the amount of traffic flowing through its search engine,” wrote Katherine Egbert in a note released Tuesday.

The newly registered LLC could be the precursor to a Yahoo! deal. Just yesterday, when questioned about a possible Microsoft alliance, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz confirmed ongoing Microsoft-Yahoo talks and stated, “if there’s boatloads of money, and there’s the right technology, and the information we would have to have, then yeah… it’s that simple.” Of course, there is also speculation that Microsoft is interested in various other potential acquisitions as well.

So what does Bing promise to bring? Well, that remains to be seen. In the meantime, we’ll see if Microsoft can first push Bing.com’s traffic past that received by bingo.com or even bingcrosby.com, each currently receiving considerably more traffic than Microsoft’s new proposed venture (view stats). To date, Microsoft’s search platforms failed to achieve wide public appeal, with Google basically controlling the market. Microsoft is desperately trying to challenge Google’s dominance. Is Bing the answer? And will Yahoo somehow be part of it? Internet history and the search marketing landscape continues to evolve and develop before our very eyes.

More about Brad

According to regulatory filings, Billionaire investor Carl Icahn increased his position in Yahoo by 6.78 million shares between November 24-26 (at about $10 per share), raising his total to 75.58 million shares (about 5.5% of the company). I saw a recent presentation he made where he stated that he continues to believe Yahoo shares are undervalued, but admits that he also thought they were undervalued when he was last purchasing shares near $25 per share. So far, he is down about $1 billion on his investment. Ouch! He is still looking for some type of partnership with Microsoft on their search efforts which he believes could help save Yahoo a great deal of money. While there are no alleged talks going on at this time, I suspect these two will eventually work out some type of agreement. With Yang stepping down and both Icahn and Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer expressing interest in a search deal getting done, I think something will eventually develop. I would also like to mention that I very much hope that Carl Icahn is a better investor than speaker because quite honestly, listening to him speak was a little painful. Sorry Carl, but it’s the truth.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Both Posted Impressive Increases Year Over Year

Sales during Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, saw an increase of 3% over the prior year. Last year’s sales of $10.3 billion on Black Friday increased to $10.6 billion spent this year. Though this gain appears promising for the economy, many fear that the increase in sales was at the expense of profitability. And though spending was up on this day, it may still be down for the Holiday season. One Gallup Inc. poll suggests that spending on gifts will be down 29% from a year earlier. We’ll soon know for sure.  

Online shopping saw a more dramatic increase in sales. According to data released by ComScore Inc., online sales for Cyber Monday, the Internet’s equivalent to Black Friday, jumped 15% from a year ago as Internet sites lured millions of consumers with offers of free shipping and dramatically reduced prices. Online sales increased from $733 million on Cyber Monday in 2007 to $846 million this year. Forrester Research expects 12% year-over-year growth for online holiday sales, or $44 billion in this November and December.

The US Economy Searches For Stability 

The US Economy continues to look a bit frightening and unstable. However, some good things are also taking shape. Gasoline prices are the lowest they have been in years, with prices at about $1.70 per gallon here in Illinois. That’s a far cry from the $4+ getting charged just 6 months ago. Additionally, mortgage rates are dropping and refinancing is rapidly picking up, enabling homeowners to lock in lower rates and lower monthly payments. Though we are clearly not out of the woods yet, there does seem to be shared hope that the economy will stabilize and business will pick up by the end of 2009. I suspect it’s going to be an interesting year.

More about Brad

Yes, MSN does indeed have a search engine.  I’ll be the first to admit that the volume isn’t huge and the management interface for their PPC platform can be quite tedious to work with, but it can deliver some incremental traffic for your business. 

One valuable change they just made in the Microsft Avertising adCenter is that they now allow you to pause keywords or ad copy (learn how here).  Prior to this change, you had to actually delete keywords or ads to stop them from running.  This made it difficult to keep track of which keywords or ads you had tried that were not working as well as you had hoped they would.  Before this change, you had to go in and delete the keyword itself instead of just pausing it.  This would also remove any history that the keyword might have had in the account from the keyword tab screen.

The biggest advantage of all this is just the increased flexibility you now have in how you can manage your keywords and ads in adCenter.  To me, that’s the best part about this.  Sure, you will always be deleting keywords and ads that you don’t want, but it’s nice to have the flexibility to pause keywords or ads that are seasonal or might see the light of day in the future.  You might run a new sale perhaps, or revise a landing page to make it a stronger converter.  Again, it’s just nice to have more flexibility in your PPC advertising strategies than to always have to use the final axe chop.

More about Jack

Perhaps it’s time for both sides to calm down, digest the situation and reconsider working together. After all, it sure looks like Yahoo! needs Microsoft’s help just as badly as Microsoft needs Yahoo!.

Let’s take a look at some recent search query data provided by Compete.com and see who really needs who here. When comparing June, 2008 search traffic numbers to those from June, 2007, there was a 12% decline in actual search queries performed at Yahoo! while Google realized a 44% surge in traffic; That is pretty staggering. Microsoft’s search queries increased, but very little. Based on the 9.1 billion searches performed in June, Google currently dominates search market share receiving 69% of all search queries, followed by Yahoo! with 19% and Microsoft with 8%.

Yahoo!’s one time search query empire has been gradually deteriorating as Google takes over the market. Yahoo! is dominant in other areas, but could certainly use strategic and financial support from Microsoft. Microsoft could be a great ally in trying to prevent Google from further expanding their reach into all areas of technology. I do not necessarily think a buyout is the best solution, though it might be, but I sure think a partnership like the one that had been previously discussed might be wise.

Microsoft needs to increase its Internet presence in order to survive in the future and Yahoo! offers a unique opportunity. Google is already encroaching on Microsoft’s core software business via their free online applications. Microsoft is well aware of Google’s threat in various areas and must do something soon. With Yahoo!’s stock price back to pre-discussion levels and the influence of Carl Icahn who now sits on Yahoo!’s Board of Directors, renewed talks would certainly not surprise me.

Google has already prepared an argument regarding the possibility of Yahoo! and Microsoft partnering, which is a bit ironic since Google has gone on to partner with Yahoo! themselves. We’ll still have to see if the Department of Justice decides to let that deal go through. Until then, I suggest that the powers that be at Microsoft and Yahoo! regroup and reconsider. Hey guys, you both need to do something. The Google Empire has arrived. Clearly, resisting independently has not been working. Perhaps it’s time to try something new.

A former Google employee who is backed by Venture Capital funding and a staff of 30 officially launched a new search engine last Monday. The newcomer’s name is Cuil, pronounced “cool,” after the Gaelic word for “wisdom.” Cuil’s index spans 120 billion Web pages, which they claim represents “more pages on the Web than anyone else — three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.” They believe they have developed a more comprehensive and efficient way to scour the Internet. Some went as far as to call it the “Google-buster” search engine. Though Google may not officially “index” as many pages, they do claim that their system reviews over 1 trillion unique URLs.

I checked it out and was not overly impressed. I do not think Google has anything to worry about here, but I guess you never know. Check it out and see for yourself.

Cuil does not currently run any ads. I wonder how they ever intend to make any money? Regardless, if they somehow do ever become a large player, that would actually impact the PPC advertising landscape.

Microsoft Exec Leaves After Yahoo! Debacle:

A little more than a week ago, Kevin Johnson left Microsoft to become the CEO of Juniper Networks. Johnson was the driving force behind Microsoft’s unsuccessful bid for Yahoo! and was head of the Platform & Services Division, the largest group at Microsoft, containing Windows, Live and several other components. He has been trying to beef up the software giant’s Internet presence and targeted Yahoo! as a way to possibly compete with Google. I could see where he might be feeling a bit uncomfortable at Microsoft after the failed buyout effort, which required a great deal of time, effort and money.

Newspaper Industry’s Online Advertising Efforts:

NYTimes.com recently launched a self-service display-advertising platform, enabling small businesses to reach the New York Time’s affluent online user base. They offer user-friendly features and some nice options. This program could likely have positive results for the right advertisers, but the question becomes, how many different accounts is it efficient to setup and manage? Is it worth it to run a campaign at NYTimes.com when hundreds of newspapers’ websites can already be accessed via Quigo.com? And on that note, should any money be spent on these display ads rather than PPC advertising? Is there enough traffic to justify the effort? The only way to find out is to test. This is still a relatively new area of online advertising.

Per a Microsoft statement, “In the past week we have had the opportunity to discuss with Carl Icahn the prospects for a possible agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo!. Despite working since January 31 of this year, as well as in the early part of last year, we have never been able to reach an agreement in a timely way on acceptable terms with the current management and Board of Directors at Yahoo!. We have concluded that we cannot reach an agreement with them. We confirm, however, that after the shareholder election Microsoft would be interested in discussing with a new board a major transaction with Yahoo!, such as either a transaction to purchase the “Search” function with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the whole company.” That sure sounds a lot different than “We’re not interested in buying Yahoo!,” stance recently taken by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
 
This also comes on the heels of last week’s news that Yahoo! is potentially involved in talks with Time Warner and News Corp regarding potential alliances, mergers or partnerships.

Yahoo! has a unique asset. Yahoo! CEO & Founder Jerry Yang knows it. Carl Icahn knows it. Microsoft knows it too. The plot thickens. Will Jerry Yang be able to keep his baby independent or is Yahoo!’s destiny to be absorbed by a giant or maybe even get dismantled? Good luck Jerry.

Economic conditions here in the U.S. continue to deteriorate. Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there was a net loss of 62,000 payroll jobs in June, marking the 6th straight month of job losses, now totaling over 400,000 for the year. On that, my next blog will likely discuss the PPC advertising environment during recession.

Microsoft indicated they are no longer interested in an all-out Yahoo! buyout, but would still like to strike a more limited deal. Microsoft needs to do something if they want to compete in the search industry. Further complicating this high stakes chess match, Microsoft indicated that they were willing to offer $8 billion for a 16 percent stake in Yahoo! (at $35 per share) and $1 billion to buy Yahoo’s search business. This was rejected by Yahoo!, but certainly seems like an intriguing proposition.

Yahoo! instead opted to partner with Google, which will immediately increase income and reduce expenses. Though Yahoo! Investors would apparently prefer to see a Microsoft buyout, Yahoo! CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang said, “We believe that the convergence of search and display is the next major development in the evolution of the rapidly changing online advertising industry. Our strategies are specifically designed to capitalize on this convergence — and this agreement helps us move them forward in a significant way…”

So is Microsoft really going to let this happen? Not only have they failed to buy Yahoo!, but they have succeeded in strengthening their archrival. I suspect Microsoft may still make a play for Yahoo! yet.  In the meantime, Microsoft and others are pushing for the U.S. Justice Department and lawmakers to take a hard look at the arrangement to make sure it doesn’t give Google too much control over the PPC Advertising industry.

It looks like Google is the big winner here. Big big big winner.

The reality is, Microsoft really could benefit from Yahoo!’s 500 million+ worldwide users. That is a lot of users. Microsoft knows they need to do something drastic to compete with Google’s enormous, and constantly growing search query dominance. According to ComScore, Google again increased its leadership position in April, capturing 62% of all U.S. search queries – roughly 6.5 billion searches. 20% were performed at Yahoo! and 9% at Microsoft Sites.

Last week, Microsoft launched an initiative to reward their searchers with cash back if they buy something online. This may prove successful, but is not likely going to provide the answer Microsoft is looking for. So, has Microsoft really walked away from the Yahoo! deal?

To add to the current mix, in walks billionaire Carl Icahn. This guy has an impressive track record, and just picked up 50 million shares of Yahoo! He intends to wage a proxy battle to fire the current Yahoo! board and get the Microsoft deal completed.

Yahoo! argues that the buyout may not be in their best interest and that they are considering a partnership to run Google’s PPC ads alongside Yahoo! content. Testing has been completed and both parties are excited. Yahoo! can potentially earn far larger income from Google’s ads and save a small fortune on running their own PPC platform. Hmmm.

So how will this all play out? Time will tell, and likely soon. I am thinking Microsoft ends up buying Yahoo!. It would certainly be nice to see Yahoo’s new and improved platform replace the current Microsoft adCenter platform. Microsoft no doubt spent substantial time and effort in determining that they wanted to buy Yahoo!. I suspect that will still be the end result. Plus, it does not seem wise to bet against Carl Icahn. One thing is for sure; change is on the way.

The bottom line here is that Microsoft plans to pay visitors who search and then buy products through Microsoft’s Live Search engine. More specifically, we are talking about Microsoft’s comparison-shopping engine appropriately known as MSN Shopping.

According to Microsoft, “The program rewards consumers with a cash back rebate for a purchase, and gives advertisers the opportunity to sell on a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) basis.”

This isn’t the first time that Microsoft has offered a “Cash for Search” incentive to consumers. For several months in 2006 the company offered almost $1 million in prizes for keyword searches, as well as a rewards program last summer. During both of these periods Microsoft’s search market share increased.

Ironically similar to Google Product Search, Microsoft Shopping also allows advertisers to upload their product database in an XML feed. Inclusion is completely free, and there are no charges for uploading your items or charges for the traffic you receive. However, if you join the BETA testing of “Live Search cashback” then you will most certainly pay a Cost-Per-Action every time somebody buys your product.

So, you may be asking yourself, “Why would I want to pay for traffic that I can get for free?”

Funny, this is the same question that I heard back when PPC Advertising came in to play.
Still, it is a good question.

The answer is competition. If your competition is offering the same exact product, however it comes with a nice cash back incentive, guess who’s going to get the sale.

According to Microsoft, some big ecommerce players have already opted into the BETA program including eBay, Sears, and Barnes & Noble.

If you would like to qualify to advertise with Live Search cashback advertisers must be:

• Headquartered in the United States
• A retail site with e-commerce capabilities
• Able to fulfill the physical shipment of a product
• Able to create and maintain a product data feed
• Able to implement a standard tracking pixel on your website’s order confirmation page

BETA programs are not right for everybody, and depending on your business model this program may or may not be right for you. JumpFly has dedicated representatives at all of the major search engines including Microsoft and we can help advise you on the requirements and possible pitfalls of these type of programs.