Microsoft PubCenter, Microsoft’s competitor to Google’s AdSense and Yahoo’s Publisher Network, is being beta tested through ad network and layout optimization service, YieldBuild, and receiving positive results. We recently wrote about the encouraging reports we received from beta testers of PubCenter, which is a a self serve third party ad publishers platform similar to AdSense and Publisher Network.

YieldBuild is launching a new program for publishers which provides premium text ads to websites using Microsoft PubCenter (which is part of Microsoft’s AdCenter) as the source of high-quality text ads to run alongside existing text and display ads. YieldBuild uses computer algorithms to automatically optimize a website’s ad spots with the most profitable combination of ad layout, style, and network.

What’s interesting is that YieldBuild’s beta testers of the new text ad program with PubCenter ads have seen improvements of over 100% in effective CPM rates for clients, according to the company. But Paul Edmondson, CEO of YieldBuild says that the optimal ad plan for publishers is to have a mix of AdSense and and PubCenter ads on their sites because both networks are highly complementary to each other. Some of the publishers who have tested the program already have AdSense ads, so the PubCenter ads are integrated with the AdSense ads. Edmondson says that the addition of PubCenter Ads increases publisher CPM rates across the board, with one publisher increasing the CPM rate by more than ten times.

Now qualified publishers have a back door to start using PubCenter Ads, which has been in private beta testing since last summer. Edmondson confirms that PubCenter is an incredibly strong ad network that rivals AdSense. Google has dominated this space in the past (and all other contextual advertising) because it offers publishers higher fees for ads. But this might change when Microsoft unveils PubCenter to the greater publisher community, particularly if Microsoft is aggressive in revenue splits to gain market share. And this is the second report of high quality ads and higher CPMs with PubCenter than with AdSense.

As we said in our last post about PubCenter, we’ve heard that PubCenter is being tested by a small subset of web publishers and that one pilot publisher is receiving four times more in revenue from Microsoft than Google AdSense. Our source also said that PubCenter’s advertisements are higher quality than Google’s ads and equally as targeted towards the content. We also heard that Microsoft is allowing publishers to get creative with ads by allowing them to set background images. Google AdSense only allows publishers to change the color of the ads.

The YieldBuild partnership and beta results only seem to reinforce the strength of Microsoft’s PubCenter. And while they may be anecdotal, all signs point to a head-to-head competition between PubCenter and AdSense. Anyone want to take bets?

YieldBuild, an ad optimization platform that helps users manage multiple ad networks and position advertisements on their webpages, has launched its self-service program to the public. When we last covered the company, YieldBuild was still in private beta and only sites with more than 500,000 monthly visitors were eligible to participate. Now, web publishers of any size are welcome to join, and the installation process has been streamlined to require only a few snippets of JavaScript.

YieldBuild helps publishers maximize their ad revenues in a number of ways. To begin, the publisher ties their accounts from Google AdSense and similar services to their YieldBuild account. Next, they designate a number of hotspots on their page where ads can appear, but don’t necessarily have to (for example, I could tag five possible ad spots on a page and let YieldBuild figure out the ideal configuration). YieldBuild will automatically display different configurations to different visitors until it figures out where each ad should be placed for optimal results. The service also takes into account ad appearance, adjusting font size and color as needed. In the past the system would take around 100,000 visitors until it had ‘learned’ the ideal settings, but the new algorithm needs only a fraction of that traffic.

YieldBuild has also recently introduced support for CPM ad networks, and allows users to not only perfect the placement of their ads, but also which ad networks should be used at a given time to maximize revenues. Other players in this space include Pubmatic and Rubicon Project which also offer management for multiple ad networks, but focus less on the actual placement and formatting of the ads.

. . . uses computer algorithms to automatically optimize your site’s ad spots with the most profitable combination of ad layout, style, and network. The system continually tests alternative configurations of layouts, networks, and color, looking for the highest performing ones.

YieldBuild competes with the Rubicon Project, which has raised $21 million so far.

There are several engines out there already, including YieldBuild and The Rubicon Project. Now TechCrunch 40 finalist Pubmatic is hosting a contest to draw more publishers to their platform. Every month, the two publishers who see the greatest gains using Pubmatic will receive thousands in free advertising on top “web 2.0 web sites” (i.e. blogs). The amount is still unknown because they are still finalizing the sites they are advertising on. You can sign up for the program here.

PubMatic’s ad optimization engine is similar to YieldBuild and the Rubicon project. Unlike these earlier two, Pubmatic is actually live with 1,300 sites and open to anyone else. The engine serves as a meta ad server that serves the highest revenue ad network for each visitor given the time, geographic, demographic, and layout aspects of your site. It currently supports ad networks like Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Network and Value Click. They also provide them with a central dashboard to track all their ad networks and ad configurations. Below you’ll find more information from their TechCrunch 40 video.

Pubmatic has already picked the November winners WinCustomize and BikerOrNot, which they claim have seen over 100% increases in their ad revenue since using PubMatic. YeildBuild and The Rubicon Project have boasted similar increases for their publishers. To a degree, it all just depends on how poorly monetized your site was to start. However, Pubmatic is looking for sensible successes from fairly well trafficked sites and will double check your previous monetization metrics to ensure the increase in revenue is real.

YieldBuild, a new service from the company that launched HubPages, will take a stab at optimizing those ad units for you. It’s similar to the Rubicon Project, a highly rated ad optimization platform in beta that finds the best mix of ad network and demographic data. However, YeildBuild has a focus on layout and design.

It uses computer algorithms to automatically optimize your site’s ad spots with the most profitable combination of ad layout, style, and network. The system continually tests alternative configurations of layouts, networks, and color, looking for the highest performing ones. You can see a timeline of the system substituting ads below. It takes about 100,000 impressions to train the system. As users become unresponsive to the ads, the system is supposed to switch in a more profitable combination of layout and networks.

They’ve been privately beta testing the system with some fairly well known startups and saw improvements of 50% to over 100% in effective CPM rates on user profile pages. They’re currently looking for more beta testers to try the system out on.