This is part 3 of the adcenter certification series. This topic covers the next topic in the certification “Getting Started”. The different parts of the topic include:
- Creating an account
- Campaigns and Ad Groups
- Keywords
- Dynamic Text
- Effective Ads
- Importing Campaigns, Ads and Keywords
Creating an Account
- Accounts contain monthly bill and multiple campaign
- A company can have multiple accounts. An account can contain campaigns. Campaigns can contain ad groups. Ad groups can contain keywords
- adCenter accepts Master, Visa, PayPal, American Express
- Credit cards are charged when they reach the threshold or once a month
- You can create your first ad campaign before activating an account
- You can add an agency to manage your accounts. The agency should also have an account in adCenter. It can find its customer number from company information sub tab
- One business can have several accounts. You can sign into adCenter using Windows Live ID
Campaigns and Ad Groups
- Allow organize ads and keywords
- Monitor the performance of ads and keywords using the adCenter reporting tools
- Campaigns are created around themes (e.g. Mexican cruises, Europe flights, etc)
- Descriptive names: Name your campaigns and ad groups descriptively
- Conversion tracking and campaign analytics to monitor the effectiveness of your campaign
- For a campaign, you should specify the default time zone
- Targeting: Campaigns can be targeted based on demographic, geo location, device, day of week, hour of day
- Exclusions help prevent your ads to customers who are unlikely to click them
- Negative keywords prevent your ad to be displayed to keywords that are not related to your ad
- Website exclusion: Exclude websites that prevent that do not advance your advertising goals
Keywords
- Keywords are single or a group of words that cause an ad to be displayed when a user searches for it.
- It helps more customers see your ad and drives traffic to your website
- Use adCenter keyword Research tool to find similar keywords, search websites for more keywords, view performance and demographic data by keyword and add negative keywords
- Ad preview tool provides generated keywords, searches, CTR, average CPC
- To learn more about negative keywords, match types, demographic information, charting keyword performance information, look at help
Dynamic Text
- Is a word, phrase or other information automatically inserted into an ad that allows customization of an ad?
- It displays the keyword that a customer has used during a search.
- A parameter is variable information that you can update based on the keyword.
- E.g. Keyword “roses” can be associated with parameter “15% off till Valentine day”
- Keyword “tulips” can be associated with “free shipping”
- Character limit for ad component still apply. Ads will not be displayed for keywords that violate the limit.
- An easy way to prevent an ad from exceeding character limits is to add default text to each type of dynamic text that you use.
- The keyword status column displays an error if a dynamic text variable causes your ad title/ad text to exceed character limits.
- For dynamic text, include the default text. You can include parameters in the ad text also
Effective Ads
- An ad contains 4 parts – title, text, Display URL, Destination URL
- Landing page must be relevant to your ad text and keyword
- Must be accessible and functional
- Cannot generate pop-up ads
Make your ads relevant
- Be specific
- Use compelling action words
- Highlight your company’s product and benefits
- Ensure that the landing page prominently displays your offer
- Keep your customer in mind
- Keep your ad concise, relevant and specific
- Review and understand the adCenter Editorial Guidelines
- MS does not inform the advertiser if an ad is approved or not. You will need to check the status for it.
Importing Campaigns, Ads and Keywords
- Use the campaign import wizard to bulk import ad group, ad and keyword data.
- You can export from other search engines
- Download and fill out an import template
- You can stop and resume the import process at any time