Microsoft adCenter blows

Posted by Administrator

December 29, 2006

I recently received this ad for Microsoft’s adCenter service, setup a new account and get $200 in free clicks. I figured I could promote Fiendish Fables with the service, so I decided to go for it.
The initial form gave me an issue, but it had to do with word size which was easily fixable. Then I got to the billing page, entered my info and the promo code. That’s when it all went to crap. I entered the wrong security code for my credit card so adCenter bounced me back to the billing page, easy fix, I rekeyed the correct code and clicked submit.

“This promotional code has already been used.”

Odd, so I tried it all over again. Same thing, it seems that either A) The promo code they claim works until Jan 15, 2007 expired or B) they record your usage of it during the REGISTRATION process. So after several unsuccessful tries I closed my Firefox tab to the page.

Update: It appears the code was only for the first 2000 users. (Read the comments) Why no mention of that at all Microsoft? Or maybe…shutting down that marketing page after you got 2000 users? Here’s the pseudo code.

If (select count(*) from users where promocode=’SOMECRAP’)>2000 then
Write ‘Sorry this is over…please use Google’s Adsense or Yahoo’s Overture products’
Else
Write displayStaticMarketingPage
End if

As per usual Microsoft you’ve guaranteed I won’t use yet another one of your crappy products.

Here’s a blog entry on other adCenter issues.