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Frustrated - Is MS adcenter this bad or is it me?

• 06-03-2008 5:55 PM

  • dibbern2
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  Frustrated - Is MS adcenter this bad or is it me?

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  Perhaps I'm wrong, but I supposed that if I was fairly good at finding key words and writing ads at AdWords, I could pipe that experience over to MS AdCenter and somehow it would work.

  Now before I rant, I've got to say it could be just my inexperience in understanding how MS is different from G AdWords, and that would place the problem on my plate. Here's why I am writing:

  I took my client's AdWords campaigns over to MS pretty much in tact, ads and keywords, with bids that I guessed would give comparable placement.

  After a three month test, I'm seeing these campaigns that get about 500 clicks a week from Google, but delivering only 30-40/week from MS AdCenter. My client's good for $250/week a Google, $200 a week at Yahoo, and the MS spend -which was set at $100 week to test-- is around $20.

  So I tried it with another client, one with a larger budget (about 300% of the first client.) Same result.

  What I'm asking is, is this a typical experience? Should I expect about 10% -or less-- from a MS campaign vs the same at Google?

  If the groups answer is yes, then I'd be tempted to up the bids in hopes of grabbing a little more audience, but that smells of wasting my client's money just to get in a fight for #1 or #2 ad placement. (We have currently been very satisfied to hold a 3 to 5 postion.)

  Thank you for your thoughts or advice.

  Filed under: performance, ad center, budget5

  Categorized as:

• 06-04-2008 5:38 PM In reply to

  • Elizabeth - MSFT
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  Frustrated - Is MS adcenter this bad or is it me?

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  Dear dibbern2,

  I can understand the frustration that can happen when the product that you are advertising isd not displaying or performing as well as desired. I would like to help with this.

  Our sponsored search results are placed on a relevancy system and the more relevant the keywords (terms) are to the searcher, results in a better the exposure and placement of your ad will be. Our automated system will display the most relevant ad out of all the advertisers bidding on the term that is being searched and if we can have your ad and keywords as relevant as possible the ad has a better chance of displaying. One of the biggest factors in relevancy is the match type that is chosen for the keywords.   

  We have an option that inserts your keyword into the ad copy and thus increasing the relevancy enormously. Research shows that customers respond better to online ads that use the same terms that they used to search. For example, customers who search for "baseball gloves" typically respond more to ad titles that use the term "baseball gloves" instead of "sporting equipment."

  Microsoft adCenter also provides several options to help you improve ad exposure. If you want to increase the chance that certain parts of your audience will be shown your ad, you can adjust the following variables:- Geographical location- Day of the week- Time of day (morning, afternoon, or night)

  - Age and gender

  For assistance please feel free to contact support and they can assist you with any above mentioned items.

  Support Phone Number: 1-800-518-5689 - 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM PT

  Hope This helps!

   

• 06-04-2008 5:49 PM In reply to

  • BrianH - MSFT
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  Frustrated - Is MS adcenter this bad or is it me?

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  Hi Dibbern2,

  In additions to Elizabeth, there are also a few other things you can use to assist you that’s built right in to adCenter as well. Price Estimation and the Research tab. Price estimation will assist you with cost or potential position per keyword (there is also the Estimate to Position 1 button availabel as well). Using the Research tab, you can fnd out what the estimates impressions may be for the keyword you research as well as provide you with additional keywords to add if you wish.

  Your ad’s position is determined by a combination of things including its historical click-through rate (CTR), quality rating, and supporting keywords' bids. Ads keep their history even when they are revised. If an ad has a low CTR over an extended period, its potential to reach high ad placement position may be compromised despite updating your ad copy or increasing your keyword bids. The potential for your ad to achieve a higher position may increase by deleting ads with poor performance and introducing revisions in new ads. 

  Below I have provided a few links that you may find usefull for inproving your ads performance.
  Videos
  http://adexcellence.com/flash/ad%20copy%20best%20practices/player.html
  http://adexcellence.com/flash/microsoft%20adcenter%20ad%20delivery/player.html
  http://adexcellence.com/flash/Quality%20Advertising%20Experiences/player.html

  Content
  Bids and budgets: http://help.live.com/help.aspx?project=adCenter_keywords_LIVE_ss&mkt=en-us&querytype=keyword&query=yekld148
  About Keywords: http://help.live.com/help.aspx?project=adCenter_keywords_LIVE_ss&mkt=en-us&querytype=keyword&query=yekld77
  Effective ads: http://help.live.com/help.aspx?project=adCenter_keywords_LIVE_ss&mkt=en-us&querytype=keyword&query=yekld61

  Thank you,

  Brian H - MSFT

  Filed under: low performance

• 06-13-2008 1:43 PM In reply to

  • ZenMasta
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  Frustrated - Is MS adcenter this bad or is it me?

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  It's interesting. one of my keywords only gets about 300 impressions with adcenter and 3.04% ctr @ $.25 while the same keyword on google gets 15.3k impressions and a 1.16% ctr @ $.26.

  So that's nice and all that I get a better CTR with adcenter but I'd much rather have 180 clicks vs 9 clicks. I know 15k impressions might be small numbers for some but the fact is that ms doesn't generate as much traffic as google :(

  I compared adcenter vs adwords on several other items and found that in all but 1 ad group, ms had 1-8% ctr while google  was usually .25-1.2% ctr. But again in every case google had WAY more impressions too.

  I wish I had data on yahoo but I stopped using them due to how annoying their billing is. I don't like their deposit system. I'd rather my credit card just be charged monthly or bi-monthly so long as I stay under the budget I setup.

• 06-13-2008 2:49 PM In reply to

  • Elizabeth - MSFT
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  Frustrated - Is MS adcenter this bad or is it me?

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  Hello again ZenMasta,

  I am glad to hear that the Campaign/adgroup is performing better for you. I am also happy to help when I can. As for Google having a larger platform, I have heard this before and our independant study shows that even though thier platform and searcher base is larger, our platform shows a much higher conversion rate for our advertisers.

  The reason for this is because we here at Microsoft adCenter are very concerned with having the most relevant search results possible so that our searchers find exactly what they are looking for. By choosing to do this, Microsoft adCenter has increased the ROI for all of our advertisers as thier ads are only shown to the searchers looking for thier product.

  On the last note where you addressed how you would be billed, I am posting a new thread as explaining Billing is a long post.

  Have a great day ZenMasta

  Elizabeth - MSFT

• 07-10-2008 4:50 PM In reply to

  • Dizzle
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  Frustrated - Is MS adcenter this bad or is it me?

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   I experience something very similar to ZenMasta's experience w/ not seeing the volume of traffic. What i would add is that CPC is typically lower w/ MSN which means (at least for me) ROI is through the roof when compared to G & Y.  I've spoken to a few Adcenter reps and they preach relevancy which in the long run has the user experience in mind. I'm always looking for ways to spend more money in AdCenter but it doesnt matter how big my budget is because the traffic isn't there.
  

   Personally, my beef w/ Adcenter is when you bid on keywords w/ no advertisers and you still cant see your ad! This occurs in Adwords as well, but it doesn't make sense to me. Your losing money! 

  Dizzle

• 07-19-2008 7:57 PM In reply to

  • c0ldfire
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  • Joined on 07-19-2008
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  Frustrated - Is MS adcenter this bad or is it me?

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  MSN AdCenter has a much lower search volume than Google and Yahoo yes, But it can be very Profitable with the Correct Strategy and Campaign Management.
  

  Knowledge Speaks...But Wisdom Listens