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11 items tagged "MSN and adCenter"

Related tags: Microsoft [+], Search, ContentAds, Bing

Search Engine Roundtable

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  Microsoft adCenter Reports Impressions Drop Bug?

  Posted: October 29th, 2010, 3:55pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  There are two threads on the topic of a possible bug with Microsoft adCenter. It seems like some advertisers are reporting seeing a major drop in the impression reports displayed for their search ads. A Microsoft Advertising Forum thread and a WebmasterWorld thread have reports from two advertisers.

  Here is one report:

  In the last few days several of our adcenter accounts have suddenly stopped generating spend. These are accounts with hundreds of adgroups and thousands of keywords. It's a sudden issue, but I suspect its somehow related to the migration. My reps have said they have other clients facing similar issues, but I can't find anything on the forums about it.

  My server logs show short bursts of traffic for maybe an hour in the early morning and then not a single impression the rest of the day. Bids are not the issue, as I've tested raising some bids to 400% of their current levels and the ads still aren't showing.

  In the Microsoft Advertising Forum thread, a Microsoft representative did reply telling the person to call in. The person did and was given information stating this is a bug, but the forum rep said it likely isn't a bug. Let me quote them.

  Just got off the phone with a support engineer - this is a known system-side bug impacting a subset of advertisers. Starting this week, and occurring "randomly and intermittently", some accounts had their Ad Distribution setting set to "Not set", basically pausing all ad groups and campaigns in the account. This can be seen in the Medium column on the Ads tab. Unfortunately manually setting ad distribution to Search Network or other does not fix the problem. No known estimate to fix this...sigh...

  Microsoft's forum representative replies:

  There may be another reason as to why you are not receiving impressions or clicks in your account. When the Ad Distribution dispalys "Not Set" it means the distribution has not been determined as search or content yet because you have not received impressons in the adgroup. The Ad distribution in no way causes your adsto not show, there will be an underlying reason as to why this is occuring.

  I understand our support team may have provided misguided information previously but I will have to recommend that you contact them again to have them look more in depth as to why your account is not performing.

  So who is right? Microsoft or Microsoft? Oh wait?!

  Of course this is a bigger issue now, cause Microsoft gobbled up Yahoo and now powers about 30% of the search ads in the US.

  Forum discussion at Microsoft Advertising Forum thread and a WebmasterWorld .

  
  

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  Gobble Gobble: Microsoft Bing/adCenter Swallows Yahoo Completely In US & Canada

  Posted: October 28th, 2010, 3:00pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  As you know, Yahoo was planning on migrating everyone in the US and Canada over from their search ad platform to Microsoft adCenter by the end of this month. As Yahoo said, mission accomplished, Yahoo has successful handed themselves over to Microsoft on a platter. Ironically, well before the Thanksgiving holiday, which was their goal. Gobble Gobble!

  I summed up the news and what this means at Search Engine Land but I'll bullet point it here.

  • US/Canada organic and paid search on Yahoo now fully powered by Bing.
  • CPC prices will increase, as we have seen, on Microsoft adCenter due to increased competition
  • You will be able to access your Yahoo reports in read only mode for 5 months at Yahoo
  • Historical data will remain for 13-months
  • Those spending a nice amount still will have their Yahoo reps, everyone else gets managed by Microsoft
  • Mobile ads will be migrated by the end of this month, which is now

  Those are the key points.

  I do have to commend Yahoo and Microsoft for completing this transition smoothly and well before the major holiday shopping season. But as you all know, I am still bitter about the whole deal.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  55% Say Yahoo/Microsoft Deal With Increase CPC Prices

  Posted: September 30th, 2010, 3:14pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  About a week ago, I ran a poll asking if CPC prices will increase after the Yahoo/Microsoft search ad deal transitions over.

  Most those who replied said yes. 55% of the 71 responses, yes, not our largest poll, said the prices of the keywords on a cost-per-click level will increase. 30% said the prices will remain about the same. Only 7% said the prices will decrease and 8.5% said they really don't know.

  Here is the break down:

  • CPC Prices Will Increase: 55%
  • CPC Prices Will Remain About The Same: 30%
  • No Idea: 8.5%
  • CPC Prices Will Decrease : 7%

  Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

  Note: This post was written earlier this week and scheduled to go live today.

  
  

• 

  Will CPC Prices Increase With Yahoo & Microsoft Search Ad Deal?

  Posted: September 21st, 2010, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  Now that Yahoo and Microsoft are beginning to migrate Yahoo advertiser to adCenter, there are some concerns that the prices of a click will increase when all is set and done.

  A WebmasterWorld thread points to a press release where GroupM Search said advertisers should see a 78% increase in cost-per-click prices. Why? "Increase competition."

  My big question is, are the CPC prices on Google 78% higher than those on Yahoo or Microsoft?

  Do you think prices will increase that much? Take my poll:

  Will Microsoft/Yahoo Search Ad Deal Increase CPC?online surveys

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  If Microsoft / Yahoo Deal Goes Through: adCenter Will Replace Yahoo Search Marketing

  Posted: January 14th, 2010, 2:14pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  There seems to be a lot of confusion out there in the paid search ad space. If the Microsoft & Yahoo do end up closing their deal, which seems likely to me, Yahoo Search Marketing will no longer exist.

  The Yahoo Search Marketing console and campaigns you currently run will be either automatically imported into Microsoft adCenter or you will have to manually make that change. Microsoft adCenter will power the ads on Yahoo, Yahoo won't power those ads.

  A WebmasterWorld thread seems to have a lot of confusion over this point. Advertisers seem to not want to spend too much time on either adCenter or YSM optimizing their campaigns in fear that the deal will go through and that time would be wasted. I for one think that this is still going to take a really long time, so go ahead and optimize the campaigns. But if the deal does go through and they do begin the migration, the migration will be from Yahoo to Microsoft, not the other way around.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  Microsoft adCenter Offering Free Search Ads Over New Years?

  Posted: January 4th, 2010, 2:03pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  A WebmasterWorld thread and adCenter Forum thread have reports that Microsoft adCenter is reporting that clicks are not being charged. Yes, the adCenter reports are showing a $0.00 cost per click in their reports.

  Here are some of the reports from the advertisers:

  Whilst I'd love this to be real, looks like a bug as clicks priced at 0.00 aren't so common!

  No matter which report I call up - I'm not being charged (according to the reports) for clicks.

  Yes, I'm seeing the same thing. All reports yesterday and today show $0.00.

  I'm guessing we'll see this resolved Monday morning. On the other hand, it might be Microsoft's way of thanking us for our business in 2009 ;)

  Many suspect this is some sort of reporting glitch. I suspect so to. But it would be nice if it was not a glitch and Microsoft gave some of their advertisers a nice New Years bonus.

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and adCenter Forum.

  Update: I guess this is a bug, @adCenter tweeted:

  
  

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  Microsoft Sends $750K Warning To Click Fraudsters

  Posted: June 17th, 2009, 2:54pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  The New York TImes reports Microsoft has filed suit against Eric Lam, Gordon Lam and Melanie Suen, of Vancouver, British Columbia. The suit comes after a year of investigative work by Microsoft in tracking down reports of click fraud.

  According to the NY Times, these defendants allegedly:

  Microsoft said it found a pattern of click fraud on its search pages, where lists ranked by relevance and popularity appear alongside a handful of paid results. Advertisers bid on what they will pay to appear in the paid-search results for certain keywords. The more an advertiser pays, the higher they are in that list, and advertisers usually pay for each click on their ad.

  Why is Microsoft doing this? Maybe to send a warning to those who are involved in click fraud to stop doing it or else. Or maybe Microsoft wants more buzz about their search ad network, adCenter?

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

  
  

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  New to Microsoft adCenter: Custom Dates on Campaigns

  Posted: January 12th, 2009, 2:05pm CET by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  Discovery in a Search Engine Watch Forums thread reports that Microsoft adCenter now gives advertisers the basic feature of allowing advertisers to plug in custom dates into the reporting engine.

  To see the custom date range option, go to the campaigns and at the top right of the report, click on "change." Here is a screen capture:

  Then, it will open up to let you enter in a custom date range:

  Discovery said, "Well it's one of those "features" you would expect to have because Google has had it for so long now. However, Adcenter just got this into their system."

  I am sure advertisers will appreciate this small, but important addition.

  Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

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  Microsoft Plans adCenter Upgrade in Fall 2008

  Posted: October 6th, 2008, 2:24pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  The adCenter blog announced that they will be releasing an update prior to the holiday season. The update will include the following features to their search ad product, adCenter:

  • Expanded your billing and payment options
  • Simplified your campaign management experience
  • Improved the way you create and analyze reports
  • Updated your keyword research capabilities.

  If you want a sneak peak at these features, you can apply to the adCenter beta program over here.

  Forum discussion at adCenter Community but there was a thread at Search Engine Watch Forums that was removed.

• 

  Microsoft adCenter Desktop Beta Feature Requests

  Posted: September 12th, 2008, 3:22pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  Yesterday we talked about how Yahoo is lacking a desktop editor for their search marketing platform. Today, there is a nice thread at Search Engine Watch Forums on the topic of improving the adCenter Editor Beta application.

  Search Engine Watch Forums moderator, Mel66, said offered up five pieces of advice:

  1. Don't require us to hit "save" to save the changes, it is too easy to forget
  2. Add help content in the tool
  3. Give better warnings as to why something might not be working
  4. Enable status changes from "draft" to "active"
  5. Allow us to mass edit the parameter based keyword destination URLs.

  Of these five suggestions, the official adCenter representative confirmed items number one and two are coming soon.

  Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

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  Tracking Search Traffic Versus Content Traffic in Microsoft adCenter

  Posted: July 17th, 2008, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick

  Tags:  MSN Microsoft adCenter  

  Since the tide seems to be shifting and more and more advertisers are opting for Microsoft adCenter over Yahoo Search Marketing, I thought I share with you a recent adCenter related thread from WebmasterWorld.

  Let's say you wanted to track your adCenter search traffic differently from your adCenter content network traffic. How do you do it? Well, in Google, it is easy. You just add {ifsearch:} and {ifcontent:} parameters to the URLs and it is done. With adCenter, it may not be that easy.

  The official Microsoft representative, adCenterRep, said this cannot be done with Microsoft. Instead, you need to set up two different adGroups for each campaign. Let me quote you:

  At this time, the only way to keep the data seperated is by having two adGroups. Although I have submitted your feedback and will have the developmental team review the idea.

  May I suggest that you use the 'Give us Feedback' link from within your account requesting this as well?

  So if you want this feature, login to adCenter and suggest it by clicking on "Give us Feedback."

  Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.