adCenter Advertiser

Reap the benefits of high quality ads: how to deliver a high quality experience to your customers on Live Search

2008-07-03T17:00:00Z

We've heard our customers asking for more information about how adCenter determines quality. So today, we’d like to share some tips with you to help improve the quality of your advertising campaigns as well as some resources from adCenter Help that you can use. First off -- the primary goal of Microsoft adCenter is to help provide an effective advertising experience for our advertisers with relevant ads that create a positive experience for our users. Our users are your potential customers who...(read more)

Meet The Team: US Ad Services Part 2

2008-07-02T19:54:00Z

We wrap up our US Ad Services Meet The Team series with a sit down with Sarah Reagan , Alan Amerault and Lauren Taft-McPhee , all Media Specialists on the US Ad Services Team. They share their insights on the industry, what it's like to work at Microsoft, and some other useful tips and tricks that can possibly help you with your adCenter experiences....(read more)

UK Search & Display Research Plus adChamps Europe 2008

2008-06-26T11:53:00Z

Two pieces of European adCenter news today! Firstly, further to my post on UK PPC Research a couple of weeks ago, we've released some more compelling research into the effect of combining search advertising with display ads in online marketing campaigns. Working with a high street bank who wanted to drive traffic to their site and increase user engagement, we enlisted comScore to help us measure the effectiveness of users just seeing display ads on the MSN homepage, just seeing search ads served...(read more)

Survey: What would you like to see on the adCenter Community?

2008-06-24T20:07:00Z

We started the adCenter Community site 3 months ago as a place for customers to easily find all of our community information, blogs, and forums related to online advertising. The response from our customers, partners, and industry influencers has been gratifying. The feedback we received from well-knowns in the industry has been helpful and much appreciated. Especially gratifying is that people are using the site. There have been more and more great examples of advertisers, developers, and web publishers...(read more)

Language and market distribution vs. targeting on adCenter: what’s the difference?

2008-06-24T12:50:00Z

When creating a new campaign in adCenter, do you find yourself feeling a bit confused when it comes to understanding ad distribution by language and market (figure 1 in screenshot below) versus geographic targeting (figure 2 below)? Are you wondering what the differences are between selecting "English – United States" and "English – UK"? Do you know whether or not you should apply targeting after selecting your distribution site? If any of these questions have entered your mind...(read more)

Quick and easy keyword expansion tips for your paid search campaigns

2008-06-20T13:50:00Z

Whether you’re a novice or seasoned PPC marketer, a pivotal part of your paid search campaigns will lie in keyword selection. Casting a wide, yet well-targeted net to attract the right audience is a bit of an exercise in guess-and-check, but there are certainly best practices to explore. Keep the following tips in mind when expanding upon your current list as they may help to improve and refine your target customers: Focus on the high performers Charles Thrasher recently posted about optimizing keyword...(read more)

adCenter billing: payment methods and what to do if your credit card is declined

2008-06-19T18:34:00Z

As a follow up to yesterday's post about adCenter billing thresholds and the monthly billing date , here's more on billing. adCenter customers frequently have questions about payment methods and credit card declines, so here's a Q & A overview of this information. Please note that this information is also available in adCenter Help (specifically, the About using credit cards and About billing topics). What payment methods are available? adCenter accepts Visa, MasterCard and American...(read more)

adCenter billing: thresholds vs. monthly billing date

2008-06-18T17:03:00Z

adCenter customers often have questions about billing processes , so we'll be blogging more on this topic to make sure you have the info you need. Let’s start out by defining the topics being discussed today: Threshold – similar to a credit limit. When the account’s balance reaches the threshold limit, the credit card on the account is charged. Monthly Billing Date – the date that the adCenter account was created (A.K.A. anniversary date). Also sometimes called "billing cycle date"...(read more)

adCenter campaign optimization service from adCenter experts

2008-06-17T13:00:00Z

For those of you looking for assistance with your adCenter campaigns, the adCenter QuickLaunch or Performance Improvement services could be right for you. The program is designed for advertisers in the U.S. and Canada and has two options. QuickLaunch offers free help from a dedicated search expert and is designed for new advertisers who'd like to jump-start their search advertising at adCenter. For customers with existing adCenter accounts who are looking to optimize their campaigns, Performance...(read more)

Getting started with adCenter: creating campaigns

2008-06-13T13:10:00Z

Logging in to adCenter for the first time can feel overwhelming. Where do I go? What do I do? No need to fear. We’ve put together a few things to keep in mind when maneuvering through the wonderful world of adCenter. This will be the first in a series of four posts that will explore the adCenter UI in order of campaign structure. Creating campaigns is your first step to getting started advertising with adCenter. It’s always a good idea to give your campaign a name that quickly summarizes what the...(read more)

UK PPC Research & Retail Vertical News From adCenter

2008-06-12T00:12:00Z

More and more advertisers are switching on to the power of search advertising and how it can work for them, but with the current worries about the economy, advertisers are more aware of things like value and ROI. Search is obviously a very good medium in this respect, as the cost per click model avoids a lot of potential wastage in terms of views that don’t become leads. However, even taking that into account, there is still a degree of low-value spend – specifically, consumers who click on a paid search link but then don’t convert.

This degree varies by search engine, and the latest figures from Nielsen provide some interesting reading:

On average, 4% of clickthroughs* from a search engine results page lead to conversions – that’s about 1 in every 25 clicks. This differs by search engine, and rises to 7.5% on Live Search; in other words, 1 in every 13 click throughs goes through to a conversion. In fact, when we look at clickthroughs from Live Search to retail sites, that rises to 1 in every 5 clickthroughs going through to a conversion, massively increasing the value of your search ad and increasing the ROI.

*- Using NNR Jan-March 2008 data showing how many clickthroughs from each search engine go to secure pages on the destination sites.

Also, a couple of weeks ago we held an event for advertisers interested in learning more about search and the retail vertical.

You can check out the agenda and presentations here: Microsoft adCenter Retail Event

To coincide with the day we've launched a knowledge centre - adCenter For Retail - to help our advertisers with their retails PPC campaigns.

No matter how well your campaigns are running, there is always room for improvement.

adCenter For Retail is designed to help you go that one step further and enable you to optimise your adCenter retail campaign by providing bidding advice, targeting tricks, increasing relevancy tips and keyword libraries.

In addition you can view retail trends to understand what profiles of people are clicking and when - then fine tune your campaigns accordingly. Plus browse the research articles to give you insights about our highly engaged audience and top conversion rates.

AdCenter Optimization Quick Reference Guide

2008-06-11T16:31:00Z

I'd like to share the checklist I use daily for quick optimization tips for my adCenter clients. Here are some common scenarios and possible steps to address them. Low CTR? Test multiple ads Repeat ads that have higher CTR Remove poor performers Static ads: Capitalize the first letter in keywords and ad copy Insert {Keyword} or {param2} in ad title, description or display URL Unfocused orders: More detailed orders More keyword coherence Tightly targeted ad copy Try demographic targeting Increase...(read more)

Finding your ad on Live Search

2008-06-10T17:12:00Z

Did you find your ad in live search results? Yes? Great—the rest of this post isn’t for you. If you answered no, then let us help. A few weeks ago I told you about a new section of the Microsoft Advertising website that can help you find your ad . One of the most popular items to help track down your search ad is a handy checklist you can download and print. The "Where's My Ad?" Checklist offers step-by-step instructions through different tasks to help determine if your ad is live or...(read more)

Increase ROI with the hockey nation: adCenter in Canada

2008-06-09T16:00:00Z

Do you conduct business in Canada? Whether you ship products or provide services, don’t forget to include the great white north as a part of your paid search campaign.

Canada is no longer just a large land mass north of the border. Rather, it has matured into a mid-sized market with high adoption in broadband Internet, sophisticated online banking users as well as pioneers in other technological areas.

Sound exciting? You can be a part of the action by selecting "English - Canada" (or "French - Canada" if you are targeting French Canadians) in the "distribute your ads by language and market" settings under ad group settings. A word of caution, there is a difference between selecting "language and market" and geo-targeting. Simply geo-targeting an ad group to Canada will not reach Canadians searching on www.msn.ca or www.live.ca, MSN’s Canadian property. (To learn more about geo-targeting, please see the related adCenter Help topic.) Below is a step by step of how to reach Canadians through the country site:

To import a brand new campaign to the "English – Canada" market, use the "Import campaigns" function from the "Campaigns" tab:

Or to add an ad group under an existing campaign, courtesy of adCenter Help:

1. Select a campaign.

2. On the Select an ad group page, click Create ad group.

3. Under Target your customers, in the Distribute your ads by language and market list, select a language and market.

4. When you are finished with the other settings on this page, click Continue.

Your language and market settings are now saved for this ad group.

Still not convinced? How about 2 more reasons; an average PPC of $0.12 and higher CTR than the US market in most verticals can potentially provide you with higher ROI. As well, you can possibly be the first in your industry to tap into this under-explored, newly expanded market.

You can no longer afford to ignore this powerful market -- get in on the action today.

Ask questions or discuss this topic in the adCenter forums.

Refining Your Audience

2008-06-05T15:17:00Z

In previous posts I've made the case that your adCenter campaigns might profit from focusing on your core keywords rather than long tail terms (Different Engines, Different Tactics), improving the size of your audience, while warning that the technique was not without risk. Negative keywords are an important tactic in qualifying that larger audience (Qualifying Traffic with Negative Keywords). Negative keywords help prevent your ads from being displayed to people who aren't interested in your products or services. A more qualified audience is more likely to click on your ad, increasing your CTR which consequently improves your ad's position on the page at no additional cost.

There are several additional ways of qualifying your audience.

Ad copy
Geographic targeting
Demographic targeting
Dayparting

Targeted Ad Copy

Your ad copy needs to appeal not only to the right people, it needs to dissuade the wrong people. It should clearly state the product or service that your site offers. Ads that are clever but vague may boost your CTR but cripple your conversion rate. Be aware of any audience your keywords might attract that isn't specifically your audience. For example, a campaign advertising the Hilton Hotel in Paris is likely to attract some very tangential traffic. You'll usually uncover these "similar but different" markets during your negative keyword research.

Geographic Targeting

Geographic targeting is about excluding traffic from outside a specific geographic area that you designate. It makes sense to prevent presentation of your ads to people in the UK or Argentina if you don't ship outside of the US. If you sell only in a single state, a single city, or a single neighborhood, it also makes sense not to waste your budget on clicks from outside your sphere of commerce. Realize, however, that your traffic volume will fall as you apply increasingly granular targeting. That's a good thing if the traffic you receive is increasingly qualified and likely to buy.

Demographic Targeting

Targeting by demographic is about age and gender. Right now demographic targeting is available only in Microsoft adCenter. It isn't exclusive like geographic targeting where you prevent people from seeing your ad. Rather, it allows you to incrementally increase your base bid for people who meet your demographic target. If 30 year old women are your ideal audience, you can configure your adCenter campaigns to increase your bid by 20% when women are searching for your keywords and another 10% for people between the ages of 25-34. (These increases are arbitrary.) Your bid remains the same for everyone else.

Dayparting

Dayparting is the practice of displaying your ads during certain times of the day or days of the week. Like geographic targeting it can be either exclusive, ads either are shown or not shown, or you can incrementally increase your base bid for specific dayparts.

Research published in Search Conversion Rates by Daypart (Atlas Research, Spring 2007) offers a tantalizing insight into this technique.

"Sponsored search marketers can realize performance gains by managing their keyword bids by daypart. By reducing their bids at poorly performing hours and reallocating those funds to hours with better conversion rates, advertisers can expect to see greater conversion volumes and better returns on advertising spend."

For more information about these targeting options please see the adCenter Targeting Flash Tutorial.

The Bottom Line

Bidding aggressively on your core keywords as described in Different Engines, Different Tactics can increase your share of the available adCenter audience but that audience is likely less qualified. The use of negative keywords described in Qualifying Traffic with Negative Keywords can help prevent displaying your ads to that part of the wider audience who simply aren't your customers. And finally, explicit ad copy, targeting, and dayparting can further refine that audience, resulting in high CTR, high conversion rates, and increased audience share.