Testing the MSN Adcenter desktop tool

Recently MSN finally released their beta version of their desktop PPC tool. I have been wanting this for about 2 years, and as I have said before, this will basically change the whole landscape of Adcenter. Their clumsy online interface was really the only thing holding them back (other than the obviously lower volume). So with this new tool, I expect a flood of competition on Adcenter.

I had downloaded the new Adcenter desktop beta before my trip, but only got a chance to really test it last weekend. I have to say, I am impressed. They took a lot of cues from the Google desktop tool. The operation is similar using the tabbed design for campaign elements so it doesn’t take very long to get up to speed. Building and managing your campaign is a breeze.

One feature I really like is the “view in excel” button which launches the campaign instantly into Excel. There you can make changes quickly and re-upoad the new sheet.

But where they have really jumped past Google even is with the offline keyword research features.

Using the research tab of the program, you can access a very robust research tool to expand and refine your keyword lists. Then its just a simple matter of applying the changes and uploading.

There are a few bugs here and there, like the stats downloading which seems flaky. But it is still a beta version. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a shot!