Back again..

Well, after what seems almost an age, I'm back to writing this blog again. As is to be expected, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote a few lines here --- the Yahoo-Google "size of search index" claims have grown a little louder, Google has made changes to its Adwords program (and tried to make it simpler) and here in Singapore, MSN has launched its own AdCenter.

A few random searches on MSN Singapore seemed to indicate that the take up of its PPC offering is quite slow--- not quite unexpected considering the relatively small size of the market, as well as the overall slack in search marketng/advertising so far in this part of the world. In a way, that was perhaps MSN's strategy anyway --- to roll out the product in a relatively smaller market and ironing out any potential issues before it faces more PPC-savvy online advertisers. Considering the high stakes involved in the PPC search marketing area, and intense rivalry between Microsoft & Google that seems to just get bitter by the day, MSN could ill-afford to start on the wrong foot. Thus its real challenge is this month (October) when it is expected to finally mount its challenge (after the brief warm-up in Singapore--- it almost seems like the off-season games in Asia that the big football teams from Europe come to) against the big two -- Gooogle & Yahoo! Search Marketing..

Whether it can cause any dent in the market share of the big 2 PPC players remains to be seen. More importantly, from an advertiser/ online marketer's perspective, the question would be whether MSN can provide additional value ---- in the form of lower click costs that are increasing by the day (and of course better conversions !)

Manoj
On Target Media & Marketing Services, Singapore