Microsoft’s AdCenter (or AdQuality) is a competitor to the Google Advertising programs like AdSense. After the integration of the Yahoo-Microsoft search allinace and the advertising framework, it is still a distant No. 2 behind the Google offerings. It makes sense to study the Microsoft offering from the perspective of the 4P Marketing Mix. It would help in determining the unique selling point of the product or offering.
Product
For the Microsoft Ad Quality group, the anti-malware product would interact with the customers who include the advertisers, publishers and end users or customers. They are important to the sustenance of the AdCenter business.
Advertisers:
The UI displayed to the advertisers should be simple to use and navigate. It should have a feedback mechanism built in to guide the user in case of any errors. The system should have a online tool that checks for
a) Prohibited Items (guns, marijuana) and alert the advertiser if the ad text matches any of these.
b) Check for landing page URL against a blacklist. If the page is found to be malicious, the system should alert the user and prohibit further ad creation. The system may have an option to have an online ticket to be raise from the advertiser account so that a manual review be scheduled
c) The system should display a policy guideline to the advertiser. This would include what can be advertised and what are the action steps if an ad is found which does not comply to these guidelines
Publishers:
a) The product should provide guidelines to the publisher to guard against malwares
b) An option to filter out ads that so not match the publisher preference in the UI
c) The publisher can be provided about the summary statistics including malware scan reports for the ads displayed on their sites
End Users:
a) An option to report ads shown to the user. The user can click on an option next to the ad and fill up a report. Based on the report elements, the automated scanning can run to flag issues.
b) Option to hide ads that the user does not wish to see. This can be displayed in the case of bounce backs as well as in a management page.
c) To increase the credibility, it adds value to have a PR campaign around the malware protection available in Bing ads. A secure batch in collaboration with the partners can be displayed in Bing results page. Such partnerships can be looked into (esp. Symantec AdVantage etc.)
d) The ads should not be displayed to the users unless they are scanned by the automated system.
The system has to undergo vigorous testing for UI and backend functionality. Integrating statistical updates and reports in a smartphone friendly format can also add value to the customers. Addition of graphic elements like charts depicting revenue information depending upon CPC rates, expected customer volumes, keyword rates etc. can help the customers make better decisions while making the application easy to use.
Price
The product pricing has to be competitive. This has to factor in various elements like competitor pricing, market share, customer demographics, publishers etc. If a premium is to be charged, it has to be backed by logical reasons like – publisher repute, exposure required, level of anti-malware protection that Microsoft offers compared to competitors, type of display etc. Differential pricing approach can be employed. This would include difference in pricing for a corporate user vs. a personal user, location of the user, past transactions with Microsoft Advertising, reputation score of the user, targeted customer group for the user etc.
Place
The place for utilizing the anti-malware solution of the Ad Quality group is the tool for advertisers and publishers. The features of the solution can integrate seamlessly in the ad creation experience. The anti-malware solution can act when the ad is created and served and the originator is offline as well. The tool is exposed to the end user as well in form of an interface to report spam, scam or malware ads.
Promotion
The promotional events for anti-malware offering should be integrated with the Bing promotions. The objective is to showcase Bing as one of the safest ad platforms for its customers. The promotion events may include option to reward users who report malware ads, find security holes in the advertising UI. Sponsorship of hacking events, secure computing forums, multimedia advertising consisting of online, in print and TV media focusing on the security features etc. can help in building brand credibility about the protection features of Bing Advertising.