adCenter is a simple bidding system, the higher you bid the higher your ad is placed (unlike the AdWords system where clickthrough rate partly determines position). Ads are set up in the usual way, the title can be up to 25 characters and the description a maximum of 70 characters which is rather short. There is the option to have a display as well as a destination URL which is useful. You can also direct visitors to different landing pages depending which keyword they used to search. All ads are subject to review before being going live. It was very quick since it's an automated system with ads that are declined then being subject to manual review.

Payment is in arrears (like Adwords) and the set up fee is £5 per campaign. Campaigns correlate with clients so if you are an agency running ads for a number of clients, the set up fee is £5 per client. So that shouldn't break the bank.

There are two interesting tools in the Manage Keywords section (there is also the usual find similar keywords etc). The first is 'Search the destination URL for keywords'. adCenter goes onto your site and comes back with all the keywords it thinks are RELEVANT, and I was told by adCenter support, that any word that comes back from this search will be approved if you want to use it as a keyword in your adCenter account, subject of course to trademark infringements etc. Keywords are listed by popularity of search on MSN last month (with accurate figures I was told!). The top keyword that was returned for the site I tried this out on was 'BBC news'. Considering it's a site about the Isle of Wight I was surprised but it seems that because the site had a link through to the BBC news site, it was considered relevant to that search phrase.

Another useful tool is 'Search this website for keywords'. This allows you to search any site for keywords, and obviously competitors' sites would be an extremely interesting source!

It's only one week on since the launch of Microsoft adCenter and, although we've now had a chance to try it out and see what it is like to use, it's a bit early for assessing the results but we'll keep you posted as to what we find in the ensuing weeks.

At the moment bids are nice and low since so few advertisers have opened accounts with adCenter, so our advice is get in quick and make hay while the sun shines!