MarketingWeek reports Microsoft is giving away a free month of search ads to both new and current customers. The free ads can be placed on “any online Microsoft Live service including Messenger, Hotmail and the MSN search engine,” said MarketingWeek. Cedric Chambaz, marketing manager for Microsoft adCenter, said: “the aim is to make brands realise that we can deliver better results than competitors like Google.”

AdWords is also giving away a free PDF version of the AdWords Editor Guide. The guide contains quick overview of the product and a cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts.

The Microsoft deal is in celebration of their two-year anniversary. They are also launching a new loyalty scheme for its customers.

I currently do not see a way to sign up for the free ads or loyalty scheme at Microsoft. I will try to learn more about this and update the post.

Postscript: I spoke with Microsoft about this and they told me the MarketingWeek story was “factually incorrect.” I was told that adCenter UK “is offering some incentives to existing customers to celebrate its 2nd anniversary,” but I don’t have those details yet.

Postscript 2: Microsoft adCenter UK sent me more information about the real details of the promotion. To learn about them, see my new story More On adCenter UK Promotion & Free Search Ads.

Related Topics: Google: AdWords | Microsoft: adCenter | Search Ads: General

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz