Microsoft adCenter advertising on TV
Last year Microsoft did quite a bit of TV advertising for their search products. These TV commercials didn’t seem to dent their online query share.
Ask.com has also gone down the same route, and didn’t see a large query share change.
I just saw a commercial for Microsoft adCenter on Sci-Fi. Interesting demographic, those who are watching random movies on the Sci-Fi channel at 10am (I only turned it on as I wanted background during breakfast. I have no idea what the movie is about, but had to look up when I heard adCenter).
Like many commercials these days, they are using a different link to their product, presumably to track sign-ups via their TV efforts: goadcenter.com which redirects to goadcenter.com/TV.
Microsoft believes in their adCenter product. It’s biggest downfall is the query share. It will be interesting to see how this affects their total advertising base.
adCenter Dynamic Link Information Updated and Other Notes
Microsoft supports dynamic link insertion. I did a full write up about it a week ago. Microsoft was kind enough to go through the documentation and make suggestions of where clarification was necessary.
I’ve just updated the Microsoft adCenter Dynamic Links article with all of the appropriate information.
In addition, I also found where one can go through all of the adCenter FAQs without being logged into adCenter.
If you follow this link; and the click on ‘View More Questions’ you can access all of the adCenter FAQs (and search through them) without being logged into your account.
Microsoft adCenter Supports Dynamic Parameters for Links
Dynamically adding variables into a destination URL string such as keyword, AdId, match type, etc can help send much needed information to your (or a 3rd party) tracking system.
Google supports dynamic parameters in URLs (also called valuetrack); and Microsoft adCenter supports a similar feature (although, there’s two on Microsoft which Google has never supported – the actual search query string and match type).
These variables can be added to the destination URL.
{param1} – see Param1 note below.
{keyword} – Please see keyword note below.
{MatchType}
{QueryString}
{OrderItemId}
{AdId}
Essentially, you can have your destination URL look like:
bgtheory.com?kw={keyword}&match={MatchType}&query={QueryString}&id={OrderItemId}&id={AdId}
The AdId is great for split testing conversion rates by ad type.
Keyword Note: When using the {keyword} paramanter; you can only use it for single word keywords. If they keyword is multiple words (in this example I’ll use ‘ewhisper blog’ for the URL bgtheory.com?{keyword}) the URL would become bgtheory.com?ewhisper blog. Notice the space?
The space breaks the URL so the page will be ‘not found’. However, if you were to use the actual space code (%20), the keyword would have to be ‘ewhisper%20blog’ and since that’s not a word, it’s going to be disapproved. So, until adCenter fixes the spacing problem with keywords, don’t use this param in your link unless you’re bidding on single word keywords.
Param1 Note: Param1 IS the destination URL insert. So you could have a destination URL of {param1}{OrderItemId}. However, you can’t have the destination URL of bgtheory.com?{param1} as essentialy that would become bgtheory.com?bgtheory.com.
Query String: I think the query string will be the most sought after piece of information. Right now, it’s almost impossible to tell what user query caused your ad to be displayed. With this parameter, you will have access to that information.
The query string is very valuable info. Understanding the user query string allows you to see when you don’t want your ads to show and need to add negative keywords. It also allows you to see what ads are being triggered by which keywords so you can refine or change your keywords.
The relationship between actual query sting to triggered keyword to conversions is valuable to understand. Kudos to Microsoft for finally allowing advertisers to find this information.
Microsoft to Offer Free Analytics
Microsoft is full of announcements today, and the most recent one is offering competition to Google Analytics. It’s amazing to think that there is growing competition for free programs. Analytics have traditionally been an expensive proposition, but Google and Microsoft are changing this.
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Microsoft adCenter to Launch Contextual Program This Fall
Microsoft plans to launch their own contextual program this fall. It will be a US only invite pilot, however, one can request to be invited. What’s going to be interesting to see is how many features they plan on porting into contextual. For instance, they plan on supporting demographic targeting.
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adCenter Top Tool for Vanity Related Keywords
There are three main types of vanity related keywords, and each has it’s own unique characteristics. Understanding keyword relationships is critical to both PPC and SEO.
However, the fun related keywords are when you can see what a search engine things about you (or your business, website, etc). When examining what the various search engines think about people, very obvious patterns exist – is there data or not? After going through several tools, Microsoft’s adCenter tool seems to be the most capable keyword tool. So, what does MSN think about you?
Microsoft adCenter Tracking Code Fixed
Microsoft adCenter’s conversion tracking code did not function between July 8th-14th due to an upgrade to their system. Hence, if you use the code, you will not have any conversion data inside your adCenter account for that time frame.
The code has since been fixed; however, Microsoft recommends that you update your code by doing the following:
- Sign in to https://adcenter.microsoft.com.
- On the Campaigns tab, in the Campaign column, click an existing campaign for which you have conversion tracking enabled.
- On the Select an order page, in the Order name column, click an order.
- Click the Order Settings tab.
- If the Enable conversion tracking check box is not already selected, select it.
- In the conversion tracking code snippet window, click Copy Code.
This will temporarily copy the revised https://adcenter.microsoft.com code snippet to your computer clipboard.- Re-paste the code snippet within the HTML of the Web pages you want to track.
You can paste the code snippet anywhere between the HTML body tags. We recommend placing the code toward the bottom right of the page so it does not detract from your page design.- Repeat steps 1-7 for any other orders that have conversion tracking enabled.
Note: Whenever a conversion script isn’t functioning for a few days, of course the data will not be transfered to your account. Therefore, when you run reports that include the affected date range, keep that in mind when you look at your cost per conversion data.
MSN adCenter Resources
MSN’s new adCenter is still in beta. However, there are already several excellent sources of information for this product.
Here’s my favorite resources to find additional information:
MSN Official Resources:
- adCenter Blog
- adCenter Official FAQs
- Converting PPC accounts: How to convert Yahoo Search Marketing or Google accounts into MSN accounts
Unofficial Resources
- Webmaster World: MSN adCenter Forum
- adCenter Insider
- Search Engine Watch: MSN adCenter Forum
In the forums, keep on the lookout for the nick ‘adCenter411′. She is an official MSN resource for helping the community to utilize adCenter effectively. (She’s also a very nice & helpful individual who is usually hanging around the conferences).
AdWords Demographic Targeting NOT MSN adCenter Killer
Google’s new demographic targeting is for Site-Target only. I keep hearing that it’s better than MSN’s targeting and that’s it’s the new killer application. Please remember these items:
- MSN’s demographic targeting is for PPC
- MSN’s targeting includes passport data, user registration data, and additional channel based information. They own much of this information
- Google’s demographic targeting is based off of 3rd party data that anyone can buy (comScore).
- Google’s targeting is strictly for site-match (i.e. their CPM buy)
While it’s a great step towards where Google needs to go – it’s very different from MSN’s PPC. It’s more similar to Yahoo’s Marketing Services, which allows these options:
- Demographic Targeting
- Geographic Targeting
- Behavioral Targeting
- Time-of-Day / Time-of-Week
- Database Targeting (match multiple databases)
- Yahoo also has filtering options
I was hoping that one could edit a current site targeted campaign to add the new targeting options, but it’s not possible – one must create a new campaign from scratch.
Here’s a view of the major demographic options:
(Sorry for the screen shot looking a bit odd, based on Google’s layout, it was the easiest way to show the options.)
So, please don’t think of this as a comparison of MSN’s adCenter and Google
AdWords.
- They are very different.
- Act very differently.
- Reach people differently (banner vs search)
- They will convert differently.
Yes – it’s a good offer from Google AdWords.
No – it’s not an adCenter killer.
MSN adCenter Increasing Traffic another 70%
adCenter is again increasing the percentage of MSN search results which display MSN ads as opposed to Yahoo Search Marketing ads.
Snippet of one of the emails I received via MSN about this announcement:
I want to share some good news regarding the adCenter pilot – we’re now ready to increase traffic to adCenter campaigns. We’ll be increasing traffic by approximately 70% from our current levels.
If you’re a pilot user, this means that your budget may be impacted due to the increase. Also, as more traffic is directed to adCenter, you should expect a decrease in traffic from your Yahoo! Search campaigns. You will be notified about the size and timing of additional traffic increases as we move towards launch.
The traffic increase is scheduled to begin on Monday February 27th. Pilot users should begin to see an impact on Tuesday February 28th, however, it may take several days to perform the increase.
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