'Net Features : adcenter

No More Gender or Age Targeting in adCenter

Michael Garrity — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:15:00 GMT

For marketers, targeted ads were the next logical step in the online advertising space, and this was made clear by the rapid rise they have seen over the last few years. However, for many everyday Web users, the idea that advertisers were tracking them based on their personal information wasn’t quite as popular.

There are a number of issues inherent in attempting to target display ads to a specific set of customers, and none is more pertinent than the fact that one simply cannot know how accurate the information that a user submits actually is, and thus, whether the ads are actually reaching the desired audience.

Largely because of this, Microsoft has removed the ability to target ads based on age and gender in adCenter, which provides the pay-per-click ads seen on the Microsoft Network, most prominently on the Bing search engine.

According to a company employee in a Microsoft Advertising Help thread, “Some people add the information accurately, most don’t and even more don’t add the information at all. So if you use age and gender, your [sic] limiting yourself to what information was provided by the searchers when signing up for Windows Live.”

Finding Lost Impressions with Share of Voice Metrics

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:00:00 GMT

In November 2011, Microsoft AdCenter representatives indicated that impression share reporting would be coming soon; and, after much anticipation from the advertising community, it has finally arrived.

Advertisers on AdCenter can now create impression share reports and access statistics about the percentage of ad impressions they may be losing because of factors such as relevance, rank or budget.

The impression share reports on AdCenter provide advertisers with some insights into why they may be missing out on some impressions. For example, budget limitations, relevance scores and rank issues all play a role and now advertisers can get a handle on the problem by understanding their specific lost impression share data.

Armed with this kind of information, advertisers can make some intelligent decisions on how to improve their ads’ relevance, improve their ranking or adjust their budgets to capture lost impressions.

Microsoft Adcenter Updates for January 2012

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:15:00 GMT

Those vested in cost-per-click advertising should know that there are some viable alternatives to Google Adwords.

While the search volume isn’t always present, Microsoft this week released several updates to its Adcenter platform that will make the offering more attractive to advertisers.

Microsoft rolled out their January 2012 release with a few noteworthy additions. The first is that the platform now supports long ad description lengths which resolve issues related to importing campaigns from other ad platforms – Microsoft is looking at you Google.

AdCenter now also has a new budget gadget on their dashboard which provides a simplied overview of campaign budget – without addition plugins or programs (Silverlight).

Microsoft has also made some headway into mobile ad targeting with this release. Advertisers are now able to target ad campaigns to specific smartphones and tablet devices.

Find more within Website Magazine's Internet Advertising channel.

adCenter Gets Trendy with Analytics

Michael Garrity — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:30:00 GMT

If you’re using Microsoft adCenter and think that it can be a bit difficult to understand exactly how your campaigns are performing, you’re not alone.

Never fear, however, as Microsoft has heard your concerns and decided to include a new multi-metric trend chart on the Home and Campaign tabs in your Web interface to provide “a rich visual snapshot of your campaign performance.”

And these aren’t just any old trend charts; they were designed to provide you with control and access to metrics most important to you. The charts will present up to five performance metrics (out of a possible eight) at once to allow users to compare their most important metrics simultaneously. Finally, you’ll be able to get actual visible data through adCenter so you can tell just how effective your advertising efforts have been in areas like impressions, clicks, CPA, etc.

While this is very good news for adCenter users, one has to wonder what took so long.

Here's an example of what an adCenter mutli-metric trend chart will look like:

Bing adCenter Radius Targeting

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:53:00 GMT

Bing (and yes, Yahoo!) search advertisers are now able to target advertising to appear when consumers search around a specific geographic location - up to a 100 mile radius.

Bing expects radius targeting (which enables advertisers to create local ads around an address, the center of a zip code or a lat/long coordinate) to increase relevancy for users - and it's easy to see how. It will likely have some positive effects for campaign efficiency and ROI as well.

Expect savvy advertisers to jump on board in droves. Bing provided a few examples of how the feature might be used, from "encircling the competition" to "driving shopper loyalty" and repeat visits.

Matching Logic in Bing adCenter

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 02:00:00 GMT

Last week Bing announced that the ad matching logic used in Microsoft Advertising adCenter has been updated.

Advertisers bidding only on the singular or only on the plural form of a keyword, adcenter will serve ads for both singular and plural forms of the keyword. adCenter will automatially deliver the plural version of campaign keywords even if advertisers don't already have the plural version included in their campaign.

For example, if your account has the term :car" but does not contain the term "cars," adCenter will now apply and serve the “car” keyword bid and ad copy for “cars”. The same matching behavior will apply if you bid only on a plural form of the keyword, adCenter will still serve ads for both singular and plural forms of the keyword.

Bing was careful to note that only a subset of keywords where the meaning of the keyword is preserved in the singular and plural form will experience this matching update.

Microsoft adCenter Upgrades

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:39:00 GMT

Microsoft made several noteworthy upgrades to its adCenter advertising platform this past weekend. In addition to a new interface, changes include:

- Campaign Management: Advertisers now have the ability to pause and resume ads and keywords. Geo-targeting enhancements and improved performance reporting on the Ads page are also accessible with advertiser accounts.

- Editorial Improvements: Faster reviews, dynamic feedback about why ads and keywords were disapproved, and inline notification when dynamic text causes ads to exceed character limits will now be provided within advertiser accounts.

- User Management: If advertisers were previously only able to have one user, now they can create multiple account users

- Content Ads: Advertisers in the U.S. can receive keyword bid suggestions and performance estimates for content ads

Moving Into adCenter

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Perhaps signifying the beginning of a shift away from Google AdWords (albeit only a modest one), PPC management firms are supporting their clients wishes and looking for alternatives outlets of paid traffic. Case in point, Acquisio launched full support for Microsoft adCenter today.

Acquisio SEARCH now allows agencies to automate all of their PPC management activities for all of their client accounts from one interface for the three major search providers -- namely Google, Yahoo and now Microsoft. This enhancement will result in significant time savings for agencies that in the past had to log into Microsoft adCenter separately.

"We will continue to integrate new search engines and ad networks based on our clients' needs. As we work closely with our customers toward future versions, some of the most requested integrations that we're evaluating include Ask.com, Business.com, Facebook, and shopping comparison engines," explains Marc Poirier, Co-Founder of Acquisio. "By offering simplified automated reporting, management and optimization from one interface, Acquisio SEARCH allows our customers to enjoy increased functionality along with ease of use which facilitates higher user adoption and satisfaction."

Most discussion surrounding pay-per-click advertising focuses on Google Adwords and for good reason - that is where advertisers receive the majority of their traffic. But it is widely known in certain Web circles that adCenter produces a competitive (if not better) return on ad spend. You can learn more about Microsoft adCenter at their newly launched learning center.