Is Yahoo slowly losing its #2 position to MSN?

We all know who the undisputed leader in the PPC world is, but is Yahoo in jeopardy of losing its long time grasp on #2? Recent feedback from seasoned advertisers is suggesting that the tide is starting to shift and MSN is closing the gap with Yahoo in regards to traffic & spend. Since the release of Adcenter in 2005, MSN hasn’t seriously challenged Yahoo – until now.

According to an article in Search Engine Roundtable (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/017638.html), there was a noticeable increase in MSN traffic & spend in June 2008. The article points out that click volume is not the issue with Yahoo, but it’s due to pricing – poor traffic/lead quality in recent months has driven bids lower.

It will be interesting to see how this battle for #2 plays out over the next few months. Is Yahoo doing something wrong, or is MSN doing something right? I personally don’t see this shift with all client accounts yet, but have noticed a recent uptick in MSN volume with select accounts.

One thing is for certain – MSN is the clear #2 when it comes to user interfaces and ease of daily campaign management.