03
2008
MSN Cashback successfully attracting visitors
This week MSN announced the launch of SearchPerks!, a new promotion that rewards visitors that use Live Search with tickets redeemable for various prizes. The latest endeavor is separate from the Live Search Cashback rebate program launched a few months ago, but certainly uses a similar tactic (pay for search) to reach the same goal (drive search activity) on MSN’s search properties (including both MSN Search & Windows Live Search). So far the question has been are people using Cashback? Is it a successful promotion – particularly with the launch of another?
One of the most common metrics discussed is the overall share of searches for each of the major search engines, and there we have not seen significant growth. However, an important (and optimistic) note is that we also have not seen a loss or decline in the share of searches. Everyone is aware that the share of searches on Google has continued to increase, but over the past 3 months, the share of searches on MSN’s search properties has remained consistent.
In looking specifically at MSN Cashback, we see an interesting trend where the share of visits to the Cashback section of MSN Live is increasing. Eleven weeks ago, MSN Cashback represented 3.75% of the traffic to Live.com and grew to 6.29% last week. This rise in Cashback’s traffic underscores the interest in the program, which is likely to be getting a boost from shoppers looking to save money and stretch their budgets given the current economic climate.
Who is visiting MSN Cashback? For the 4 weeks ending Sept. 27, 2008, the visitors to MSN Cashback were skewed slightly more female and represented 55% of traffic. Nearly half of the visitors were between the ages of 25 to 44: 22% were aged 25 to 34 and 27% aged 35 to 44. The majority of the visitors have a HH income of under $100k.
MSN Cashback on its own ranked #12 within a category of the top 50 search engines for the week ending Sept. 27, 2008. Not bad for a shopping search/rebate program!
Microsoft Cashback Working, Says Hitwise
It does pay to buy clicks, it seems! Hitwise says it’s seeing an increasing trend in the share of visits to Microsoft Live Search coming from its Cashback program. With Cashback, people get money back for clicking on and buying…
It will be interesting to see if this sets a precendence for the other search engines! It’ll be great for us as consumers!
I think they will work i can’t see why not. Like nick says it’s great for us customers.
Interesting blog. It’s gives me a good insight.
Interesting reports. It will be more interesting to see what Google reply will be since livesearch offered cashback.
Maybe I’m missing something but I don’t think so. The reason that Google has been able to so dominate the search market is quite simply that they provide the best, relevant, filtered free content to users. When I browse as I do for many hours on most given days I am seeking good information. That someone else would be offering gimmicky credits, points or real cash back for using them overlooks the high price I put on my time and ability to ferret quality information out of cyberspace which I then bill others for. I simply wouldn’t give up the quality of information I’m able to obtain through Google for a couple of bucks or the equivalent of a few frequent flier points.
Parker
It does pay to buy clicks, it seems! Hitwise says it’s seeing an increasing trend in the share of visits to Microsoft Live Search coming from its Cashback program. With Cashback, people get money back for clicking on and buying…