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Microsoft's Ad Network Quality Problem

Microsoft's deal with Yahoo shows that the company isn't ready to roll over and surrender the lucrative Internet advertising arena to Google. Still, the MicroHoo ad network is far behind Google when it comes to the size of its ad network. The result is that Microsoft ad inventory is sparse and ads are not of the best quality, as the Sunbelt Blog discovered.

Sunbelt's Alex Eckelberry correctly points out that Microsoft Office online help pages like this one and this one are really an extension of a paid product. From that perspective, it's surprising to see ads, especially poor quality ads, on the pages. In my own visits to the site, I saw the following:

• Auto insurance quote requests;


• A drug for adult ADHD;


• Dumpster rentals;


• Email marketing services for small business;


• A virtual voicemail service;


• Disney vacations;


• MSN text ads for services like tech support and web site design.

Yes, there are definitely some clunkers in that group. All in all though, I would say that there were more decent and relevant ads than bad ones, so perhaps it's not so bleak. Perhaps Microsoft is dealing with a chicken-and-egg problem. Their ad network is nowhere near the size of Google's, and it doesn't have the broad subject reach of Google's network. That makes advertisers reluctant to buy in the network. Microsoft needs some high-quality web sites to enroll in their advertising network to provide more inventory.

But wait! Microsoft has plenty of page views on high-quality sites. There are lots of reference pages on Microsoft.com that don't yet have ads on them. There is also the promise of an ad-supported Office suite that would provide even more inventory for their ad network. Even better, this kind of ad inventory is easier to police against click fraud because Microsoft owns both the network and the content. Google is constantly fighting a battle against scam sites that are little more than a shell to display ads, often using content stolen from other sites.

The concept of having ads on the online help sites that support paid applications doesn't bother me. Done right, Microsoft's ad-fueled sites and applications could serve to improve both applications and web site content. That's the challenge, of course; if it's not done right it could be a disaster. Microsoft needs to be sure that the ads delivered to consumers ion their web sites and ad-supported apps are relevant and tasteful.

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