Microsoft Tests Paid Search Ad Format

James Colborn, director at Microsoft Advertising and long-time adCenter veteran, believes the market is ready to experiment with more creative options. These options stray from standard text ads in search. Consumers next year will start to see a richer ad experience in search results, he says.

Microsoft has seen a rise in query share, and a nearly 40% increase in click-through rates, according to Colborn. Still, getting consumers to switch their favorite search engine, such as Google or Bing, has been a challenge. Microsoft executives are the first to admit that more searches on Bing will increase the amount advertisers and media buyers allocate for campaigns on the engine, which morphed from Live Search. "If you had to sit advertisers down and asked them what they wanted from Live Search, many would have said 'more searches,'" Colborn says. "We've seen momentum in consumer activity on Bing, which should ultimately increase ad budgets."

Google Search remained the No. 1 search engine in August -- growing 2.6% to 7.0 billion searches with a 64.6% market share -- but Bing also increased searches from 9.0% in July to 10.7% during the same month, according to Nielsen's monthly search engine rankings.

Colborn says Microsoft has seen a rise in query share, and a nearly 40% increase in click-through rates. And while the new site design aims to help people search on keywords to find information faster, it's not clear if those benefits also help advertisers. The related searches allow advertisers to explore new keywords they may not have thought about in the past.

External Source - For the complete article click here

Source - MediaPost

Logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Tweet