Microsoft Advertising Community

It's the Audience, Stupid. Why Advertisers just want to Target and Go

JJ Richards MSFT — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:05:00 GMT

In this post I'm going to explore in more detail a theme I've touched on a couple of times before in Facts Are Stubborn Things and Games Advertising Takes Center Stage. And at the risk of sounding insulting - my apologies in advance! - I'm also going to continue paraphrasing past Presidents by saying games advertising is no different to any other form of digital advertising inasmuch as it's primarily about the audience, stupid. Advertisers just want to target and go.

Let me clarify what I mean by that and why it's important for both advertisers and for Microsoft Advertising.

One of the most common questions asked of me and many others in the industry is: How big can games advertising really get when it's simply not appropriate to include ads in some of the most popular franchises, such as Halo and World Of Warcraft?

It's a fair question because millions of people have spent billions of hours playing those games. But it's taking too narrow a view not only of games advertising in particular, but of digital advertising in general.

Think of movies. In films like Avatar you will never see billboard ads in the jungles of Pandora, but the 1.3 billion movie goers annually in North America are a valuable audience for advertisers. While in-movie ads doesn't work for every movie, advertisers do run spots and trailers before the main feature to the tune of more than half a billion dollars a year in the US. And there are also myriad other ways marketers align themselves with movies without intruding on the story or interrupting it for commercial breaks.

Massive is enabling publishers to add inventory so that advertisers can reach the large audiences of games that preclude advertising. This happens in "around-game" environments like Xbox LIVE lobbies and on leaderboards, plus traditional Web sites, just as advertisers reach movie goers in the environment of the cinema but not during the film.

This of course is in addition to dynamic in-game advertising and fixed product placement in titles in which ads are absolutely appropriate and add realism, such as sports games or those set in contemporary urban environments. (Here's an example of the power of combining our in- and around-game offerings across the Xbox LIVE and Massive platforms.)

But back to the original point about audiences . Advertising and media spend follow the eyeballs and many indicators - such as this, this and most recently this - point to the growth of games as an advertising medium. (Even as sales dropped off last year, time spent gaming increased.)

Increasingly, the eyeballs of the elusive male 18-34 audience can be found among our unparalleled reach of 50 million gamers in 31 countries, whether in-game or around-game, across the Massive and Xbox LIVE networks.

And network is the operative word. We're very proud of the publishers we partner with and I blogged about Massive's "blockbuster line up" of Fall/Winter titles to highlight the breadth and depth of our network. It is this breadth of offerings and the reach of our network that means advertisers - whether they are QSRs or auto makers or entertainment brands - can find their audience and engage with it in new ways. The vast majority of our advertisers understand it's unlikely they will find their complete audience among the players of a single game, or for that matter successfully run an entire campaign in a single title, no matter how big. Consequently, only a small, single digit percentage of them buy media in specific titles.

This network effect is present in all forms of digital media, allowing ever more targeted, efficient and cost effective advertising. We've seen this in the long tail of the Web and through the rise of online ad networks. We're beginning to see this in TV too, and I'd encourage you to take a look at what my colleagues at Microsoft Advertising's TV Media Group are doing to allow advertisers to buy audiences across the breadth of NBC Universal's network, delivering increased relevance, performance and efficiency for advertisers while simultaneously unlocking value in NBC Universal's inventory.

For the same reasons advertisers are unlikely to find their audience or achieve their objectives for a campaign in a single video game, or in one TV show, today they're also unlikely to want to engage with that audience through a single media channel or delivery mechanism. That's why Microsoft Advertising offers the ability to run multi-screen campaigns across the Web, mobile, and TV. Our role is to make buying ads in games - the jewel in this crown because of the unparalleled combination of Massive and Xbox LIVE - as easy as buying ads in any other digital medium.

The Microsoft Advertising platform allows advertisers to target and go, across content, devices and time. Check boxes and click to buy - it can be as simple as that. And what they're buying is the audience, stupid.

Thanks,

If you'd like more information about advertising opportunities available across the Massive network, please contact your Massive sales representative or email us at massinfo@microsoft.com.

Optimizing Your Microsoft adCenter Campaigns for Improved Health Results on Bing

Kyle Getz - MSFT — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Bing recently announced an improvement to certain health queries, meaning users are seeing updated organic listings for searches on topics like health conditions (try obesity or dry skin), medicines (try ibuprofen), and diseases (try diabetes). For health advertisers, now it's even more important to focus on keywords in the top of the search funnel. Unlike brand queries, people searching on general health terms are in research mode. With these new results pages, users could be spending more time on Bing searching, refining, and reading, which means more opportunities for them to interact with your ad.

To better understand how to optimize for these results, let's see how a user might navigate Bing's organic and paid health results pages (or skip ahead to the recommendations).

Sample User Scenario

Kevin wants to know more about causes of diabetes and get prevention tips, so he searches Bing for 'diabetes':

He sees 'Type 2 Diabetes' listed under 'Related conditions', so he clicks to refine his search. Kevin then clicks on the first organic link and is taken to a Mayo Clinic article on Type 2 Diabetes within the Bing user interface:

The article stresses the importance of maintaining a healthy weight, so he goes back to Bing and searches for 'weight loss':

At this point, Kevin might continue researching, look for a weight loss program, or simply go for a run. During this process, he saw four different search results pages, so your ads had four unique opportunities to get his attention.

Optimize for Bing Health

Now that you know the general user experience for Bing health queries, here are some tips on how to optimize:

1. Secure Top Positions: In articles like the Mayo Clinic article on type 2 diabetes, there are usually only two ads in main line, and the yellow shading helps ads in positions 1 and 2 to stand out. Check your adCenter keyword performance report to make sure you're in position 2 or higher.

2. Expand Keyword Coverage: The improved organic results give users lots of options for search refinements. For example, a user that searches for acne will find a list of related conditions and medications. To expand, do a search on some of your generic health keywords and add to your keyword list any relevant deep link located under the improved organic listings.

Also, skim through any articles you find to see what your potential customers are reading. For example, the article on diet pills discusses BMI, specific weight-loss drugs, and calories, which are just a few of the searches that might follow a reading of this article.

3. Increase Ad Copy Relevance: Bing users searching on topics like skin care, high blood pressure, or pet allergies might not know how your product relates to their search. They also might not be ready to purchase a specific product yet. Use {param2} insertion and action words like "research," "find out," and "discover" rather than "buy" to align with their search intent.

Feel free to leave comments or questions below. If you want to know more about Bing Health, check out Tina Kelleher's recent post, Bing on 2010: Health, Fitness and What They Mean for Microsoft adCenter Advertisers, and keep up with new posts by becoming a fan on Facebook or by following us on Twitter.

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SES London 2010 – Microsoft Speaker Line Up

Mel Carson - MSFT — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:39:00 GMT

With just over a week to go till Search Engine Strategies in London, our team have been putting their finishing touches to their presentations. Peter’s session on Bing on the 1st day is really one that’s not to be missed. From the conference website: “This session will look at search trends among consumers and changes in the search landscape: How consumers have influenced the development of Bing, Microsoft's search engine, and how this benefits the advertiser. Peter Maxmin will share key consumer...(read more)

From the Bing Blog: Enhanced Cooperation with Facebook on Search

Carolyn Miller - MSFT — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:18:00 GMT

The Bing Blog has the latest on Facebook and Microsoft . From their post: Facebook has been a close and valued partner of Microsoft for a number of years. We have worked together on several fronts all designed to create great experiences and services for our users. As we begin 2010, we are stepping up that collaboration yet again. Here is a sense for what we are up to: First, we have deepened our joint work together on web search to provide even more compelling experiences to Facebook users with...(read more)

Introducing The Atlas Ad Assignment API

Andrea Sharfin - MSFT — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:59:46 GMT

This week, Atlas took another step towards offering an end-to-end trafficking API with the release of the Atlas Ad Assignment API.

The Atlas Ad Assignment API will enable Atlas clients and partners to manage and update the assignment of ads to placements within Atlas. In addition to the Ad Assignment API, we’ve also recently released some enhancements to our existing API for Creative Management that improve the service’s speed and performance.

This means that you can now create, edit, list and get properties on all of your campaigns on Atlas—from the media plan level all the way down to the placement level— and then assign ads to those placements via an API connection.

The Atlas Ad Assignment API is part of our continued efforts to offer an open and flexible platform that works for the changing needs of marketers. For technical information, point your team to our API documentation on MSDN. And for any other questions, including how you can use our APIs to your best advantage, please contact your Atlas representative.

Cannes Lions Creative Contest Leads to World Premiere!

Ginny Musante - MSFT — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:45:00 GMT

What began as a contest for young creatives at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival has resulted in a world premiere video on World Cancer Day!

Last June, we gathered some of the best young creative minds in the industry at our Games Advertising Workshop at Cannes. During the session we challenged 3 teams to come up with their best idea for a pro bono campaign for for Stand Up to Cancer. The winning concept featured a celebrity gamer doing a music video that debuted on Xbox LIVE and challenged gamers across the globe to Stand Up to Cancer. Today, World Cancer Day, that video premiered.

The Up2 You + Me music video features Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon Cooper on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. In the video which was created by Jesse and Zach Selwyn, Jim plays 13 different characters.

The point being, it's up to all of us to stand up to cancer. The campaign encourages users to support SU2C by texting, calling and visiting the organization's website to donate. Through the Massive Network these messages are targeted to gamers in-game across many Xbox game titles.

In addition, Xbox LIVE members are able to download the SU2C theme and gamer pics to show their support for the cause through the Xbox LIVE community. The Up2 You + Me Video will air throughout various popular Xbox LIVE games where users are able to donate via text.

Just as the fight against cancer requires teams of people working together, this campaign was very much a group effort. We teamed with DDB Los Angeles every step of the way. Executive Creative Director Matt Reinhard, who was on the ground in Cannes to judge the submissions, Jefferson Burruss, who in this capacity as director of digital and online and Janet Wang, Account Executive, helped see the campaign through from concept to execution.

The DDB team worked closely with our account teams across Microsoft Advertising to get the Stand Up To Cancer campaign delivered to the Xbox LIVE and Massive communities in a compelling way. And to all the creatives who took part in our Cannes workshop, thanks for joining in to learn more about games and entertainment advertising at Microsoft. I hope to see most of you again at Cannes 2010!

Contacting Microsoft adCenter Support: Email, Phone, Forums and Help Files

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:52:00 GMT

Questions about how to get in touch with adCenter support are among those most frequently asked by our advertisers. You can access support through scrolling to the bottom of the page on both the adCenter site… … and here on the Microsoft Advertising Community site: You can call or email adCenter Support according to your market U.S (English) - 06:00 - 18:00 PST Monday - Saturday Phone: (800) 518-5689 / TTY (800) 877-9580 Email U.K. (English) - 08:00 – 18:00 (UK) Monday –...(read more)

SMX West 2010 – Interview with Danny Sullivan

Mel Carson - MSFT — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:54:00 GMT

With the search engine marketing conference season well under way on both sides of the pond , I caught up with Danny Sullivan – editor in chief at Search Engine Land – to chat about his team's upcoming event in March in Santa Clara. What are you most looking forward to at SMX West this year? That’s easy, doing the keynote conversation with Steve Ballmer! I mean, there’s lots I love about the show overall. I think we have one of the best agendas we’ve ever done, with...(read more)

SEM Intermediate Series: Strategies for Improving Ad Position in Microsoft adCenter

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:00:00 GMT

This is the 2 nd post in the SEM Intermediate Series , a collection of posts intended for search engine marketing professionals looking for guidance in monitoring and adjusting the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine the success of a PPC campaign. This series is a continuation of the SEM Beginner Series . If you haven’t already visited the SEM Beginner Series post on this topic , position refers to the placement of your ad on a search engine results page (SERP). Position is determined...(read more)

Why Everything You Were Told SEO Was About Is Now Wrong

Dixon Jones - Guest Blogger — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:40:00 GMT

Over the last few years (in-fact year after year), website owners with traditional businesses have always felt that there must be "free" web traffic out there. Most have heard of the phrase "Search engine optimisation" (SEO) and probably even more fell into one or more of the snake-oil companies promising the earth.

It is well worth the non-SEO expert, with a root in the real world, taking the time to read this article, to understand that SEO in 2010 is nothing like SEO of a few years ago and to see why modern SEO is both simple to grasp and incredibly complex - if not impossible - to master in 2010.

It should help you change you approach to SEO and take your strategic view beyond many of the companies still promising the earth for "little or no money down".

The roots of SEO and why they do not work in 2010

As soon as search engines started to exist, back in the 1990s, their business model was typically advertising related. Some companies tried to build search engines where you paid for the service, but the public gravitated towards the free services like Yahoo and AltaVista. The problem was that the adverts - typically banners - where nowhere near as sophisticated as the search engine algorithm itself, so the search results were WAY more targeted than the banners.

Users very quickly learnt to ignore the display advertising of old. Seconds later, SEO was born.

At that time - the search engines were based on understanding (predominantly) the content of the web page they were indexing. In particular the TEXT on the page. They weren't interested in pictures, so much, and certainly the web was growing so fast that there was no effective way for search engines to properly understand how a web page sat in relation to every other web page on the internet.

This meant that people developed the notion that there must be "some" kind of magic formula that would put their web page at the top of the search engines, if they just built the page in the right way. This was great. After all, if users were looking at the top results, instead of the untargeted adverts, then a "free" top results was worth fortunes. These were the days of "Keyword stuffing", moving on to "H1 tags" and ""Title Tags".

It did work - for those that stayed ahead of the curve - but the pace of change and the increase in complexity of the search engines have made this partly a fool's errand - at least when treated in isolation. (This coming from a leading SEO company, so you know there's a "BUT" at the end.)

The search engines increased their relevancy, ultimately, by not by relying on the text on the page any more. This first manifested itself in the 90s with a company called "GoTo", later called "Overture" who - for some years - changed the face of search results by allowing advertisers to buy - on a per click basis - the top few results on many of the search engines, including MSN.com.

Then Links became a significant factor in a search engine's understanding of a web page's authority in context - so that a page could not be an authority across too many keywords at once. Link building remains highly important to users to the algorithms to this day, in the traditional results... but now the game has changed again. Twice.

What's different today?

If you look at a modern day search engine, like "Bing", then the old "text based" results are not as important as they used to be. The modern search engines have reduced the effect of any manipulation of these results in part by better understanding the USER's requirements, rather than the web page's profile. In doing so, one of the first questions a search engine asks itself (in a mathematical sort of way) when a user types in a search are questions like:

- What do I know about this user? (How can I use this to help give better results?)

- Where in the world are they? (And does this make a difference?)

- Do they want Pictures? News? Video? A Map? (None of which apply to the old school SEO techniques above)

- Are they using a mobile device? If so will they want something different?

- How should I mix and match results of different types of data?

These kinds of questions are not things that a web page can easily influence. Most of these questions change the very data sources that the search engine displays to the user. How can you expect to get the "number 1 slot" on a web result if - for one user - this is a map and for another user it is a trusted newspaper report? Of course, you cannot. Or at least, your only way to do this is to reach BEYOND the search engines, to get into the mind of your ideal user.

That means that modern Internet marketing strategies have to play to the traditional marketing theories as well.

Your BEST bet in search is to convince the user to not type in a generic phrase in the first place. But rather to type in your brand.

Failing that, you need to go WAY further into your customer's mindset than saying "I want to be number one for...[add keyword here]. Your customer isn't typing that word into the search engine in EXACTLY that way. They may capitalize the first letters - did you take into account that this might suggest something about their age? They may frame their keyword by adding a region. So many things change the datasets being used in the results, that - like doubling a single grain of rice on ever square on a chessboard - you soon find that all the rice in China will not be enough to fill the beast.

I promised a "but" though.

The "but" is that in diversifying the data sets, the search engines have given smaller companies renewed possibilities to shine. I don't think that it can be denied that the quality and relevance of search results in 2010 are a world away from the quality of (say) 2005. At times, in a given industry, it appears a single company dominates a market - but even if they do, the search results generally endeavour to provide diversity.

Bing - in particular - is helping users to make an informed choice before they click. SEO still has a huge value - but in much more targeted situations. It needs to be preceded by a clear understanding of your target users on a one-to-one level and also the internet marketing needs to be aligned with other marketing, to closely associate your brand with a particular type of user journey - a journey where the website itself may be only a transitory step to purchase or conversion.

Yes - SEO is still hugely important. But now every visitor from organic traffic is important because every visitor represents a person - not a number.

Thanks

Dixon Jones

www.receptional.com

Mobile Display Ads - Announcing Full HTML Device Targeting

Raj Kapoor - MSFT — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:30:00 GMT

Today we have launched full HTML device targeting, which allows advertisers to easily target mobile display ads to the group of all handsets that have the capability to render full HTML sites including those sites developed for the PC web. These phones include iPhone, Android, and full HTML browser Windows phones and Blackberry devices.

Targeting full HTML mobile devices is appealing to advertisers for many reasons. Some advertisers wish to reach this audience segment simply due to their increased consumption of mobile media products. Other advertisers wish to use full HTML targeting to target Rich Media ad campaigns to devices that support these advanced mobile ad units, or simply to drive consumers to a more engaging full HTML page designed for mobile screens.

Still other advertisers wish to enter the mobile advertising space but have not yet optimized their website to render on feature phones or other less featured mobile browsers. While these advertisers recognize that the ideal consumer experience is to create a dedicated mobile web site for all mobile users, including those with devices capable of displaying sites originally created for the PC web, full HTML device targeting allows them to easily extend their online campaigns into mobile and reach this engaged mobile audience by driving these sophisticated users to their online destinations.

Previously, accomplishing this level of targeting required advertisers to keeping an up-to-date list of all the hundreds of mobile devices with full HTML mobile browsers, and then individually target each one of them to a campaign's targeting profile. This feature frees advertisers from the hassle of remembering which handsets are capable of rendering full HTML, and advertisers can now spend less time worrying if they missed any full HTML mobile device and more time optimizing their campaigns.

For more information on these and other Microsoft mobile advertising solutions check out our Mobile Advertising site or send through an email to MoAd U.S. Sales.

Thanks,

Raj Kapoor, Microsoft Mobile Advertising team

Changing the Exception Handling for .NET adCenter API Examples

Scott White - MSFT — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:19:00 GMT

Just letting you know that we'll be changing the exception handling in our adCenter examples for C# and Visual Basic to reflect the WCF recommended approach for exception handling. Please consider doing the same with your implementations if you are not already doing so.

Currently our examples use try/catch/finally and release the client (call the Close() method) in the finally block. The problem is that Close() can throw exceptions. If Close() throws an exception, you must call the Abort() method to ensure that all resources are released; otherwise, you could be leaking resources on the server. The recommended practice is to call Close() within the try block, and call Abort() from the caught exceptions.

For example,

        static void Main(...)
        {
            try
            {
                service = new CampaignManagementServiceClient("BasicHttpBinding_ICampaignManagementService");
                AddAdGroupsToCampaign(service, ...);
                service.Close();
            }
            catch (CommunicationException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);

                if (service != null)
                {
                    service.Abort();
                }
            }
            catch (TimeoutException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);

                if (service != null)
                {
                    service.Abort();
                }
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);

                if (service != null)
                {
                    service.Abort();
                }
            }
        }

        static void AddAdGroupsToCampaign(service, ...)
        {
            try
            {
                ...

                AddAdGroupsResponse response = service.AddAdGroups(request);
            }
            catch (FaultException<AdApiFaultDetail> fault)
            {
                ...
            }
            catch (FaultException<ApiFaultDetail> fault)
            {
                ...
            }
        }

The following links provide the details from the WCF docs:

Accessing Services Using a WCF Client

Handling Exceptions

Handling exceptions in client applications is straightforward. If a channel is opened, used, and closed inside a try block, then the conversation has succeeded, unless an exception is thrown. Typically, if an exception is thrown the conversation is aborted.

Expected Exceptions

Avoiding Problems with the Using Statement

Thanks and enjoy!

Valentine’s Day 2010: Optimize Now with Insights From the National Retail Federation

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:53:00 GMT

Now that it’s officially February, those of you who have PPC campaigns that could benefit from increased traffic related to Valentine’s Day have scant few days left to optimize your campaigns . If you’re looking for some insights and research to help you plan and prepare, here are some of the key takeaways from The National Retail Federation ’s recent survey: Couples plan to spend an average of $63.34 on their significant other or spouse (down nearly 6% from last year) The...(read more)

Using the WCFTestClient Tool to Test Service Operations

Scott White - MSFT — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:41:00 GMT

Hello

In case you didn't know, Visual Studio ships a handy tool called WCFTestClient.exe that you should try. It's a great tool for discovering and testing WSDL operations without writing any code. You can view the request and response messages in a formatted view or in XML. For details, see WCF Test Client (WcfTestClient.exe). There is one catch… it is available only with Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

If you use the default Visual Studio install folder, you can find the tool in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ folder.

After starting the WCF Test Client tool, click File->Add Service, and enter the endpoint address of the service you want to open. For a list of adCenter sandbox addresses, see Microsoft adCenter Web Services Addresses (when you play with this tool, make sure that you use the sandbox addresses and not the production addresses).

The left pane of the WCF Test Client main window lists all the available services, along with their respective endpoints and operations.

When you double-click on an operation in the left pane, the operation is opened in the right pane. The operation's tab shows the request and response properties in either a Formatted or XML view. When you click Formatted, you can enter arbitrary values for the properties to test the service. To send the request to the service, click Invoke.

There is one trick that is not documented or obvious when working with arrays. To specify an array in your request, enter length=n in the Value column, where n is the number of elements that you want in the array. You can then expand the list (click the + sign) to add the values of the array elements.

The following snippets show the progression.

Thanks and enjoy!

Calling adCenter API Operations Asynchronously

Scott White - MSFT — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:51:00 GMT

Hello

Some of you may be aware of this already but I want to make sure that you know that you can call the CampaignManagement, Administration, and Reporting service operations asynchronously in C# and Visual Basic. For details on calling service operations asynchronously, see the WCF documentation: Synchronous and Asynchronous Operations, How to: Call WCF Service Operations Asynchronously, and Asynchronous Programming Design Patterns.

Asynchronous operations are typically used to perform tasks that might take a long time to complete, such as opening large files, connecting to remote computers, or querying a database. An asynchronous operation executes in a thread separate from the main application thread. When an application calls methods to perform an operation asynchronously, the application can continue executing while the asynchronous method performs its task. Basically, use asynchronous calls when your application can continue doing useful work while the method call runs.

If you use the svcutil.exe utility, include the /async and /tcv:Version35 switches. If you use the Add Service Reference wizard in Visual Studio, click the Advanced… button and check the Generate asynchronous operations checkbox in the Service Reference Settings window (along with the Always generate message contracts checkbox).

You can use event handlers or delegates to receive notification of when the asynchronous call completes. Event handlers are easier to write but delegates offer more flexibility. If you need to pass context information to the callback, you should use delegates. For example, when printing the string that indicates that the group was added, it might be nice to identify the campaign to which the group was added. If you use an event handler, you would need to come up with some external mechanism for keeping track of which campaign goes with which async call result. However, with the delegate model, the context information (in this case, the campaign ID) is passed through to the callback.

I've included examples for both callback models.

The following is a simple example that shows how to call the AddAdGroups operation asynchronously using an event handler.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.ServiceModel;
using AsyncExample.CampaignManagement;

namespace AsyncExample
{
    class Program
    {
        private static Exception asyncException = null;
        private static AutoResetEvent AsyncResultsDone = new AutoResetEvent(false);
        private static CampaignManagementServiceClient service = null;

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            if (args.Length != 5)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("usage:\nAsyncExample campaignid username password devtoken accountid");
                return;
            }

            try
            {
                service = new CampaignManagementServiceClient("BasicHttpBinding_ICampaignManagementService");
                AddAdGroupsToCampaign(Convert.ToInt64(args[0]), args[1], args[2], args[3], Convert.ToInt64(args[4]));
                service.Close();
            }
            catch (CommunicationException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);

                if (service != null)
                {
                    service.Abort();
                }
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);

                if (service != null)
                {
                    service.Abort();
                }
            }
        }

        static void AddAdGroupsToCampaign(
            long campaignId,
            string username,
            string password,
            string devToken,
            long accountId)
        {
            AddAdGroupsRequest request = new AddAdGroupsRequest();
            request.CustomerAccountId = accountId.ToString();
            request.DeveloperToken = devToken;
            request.UserName = username;
            request.Password = password;

AdGroup[] adGroups = new AdGroup[1];

// Force batch errors by not setting the properties of
// the ad group object.

            adGroups[0] = new AdGroup();
            //adGroups[0].Name = "Skis";
            //adGroups[0].AdDistribution = AdDistribution.Search;
            //adGroups[0].BiddingModel = BiddingModel.Keyword;
            //adGroups[0].PricingModel = PricingModel.Cpc;
            //adGroups[0].LanguageAndRegion = "EnglishUnitedStates";

            //Bid bid = new Bid();
            //bid.Amount = 10.25;
            //adGroups[0].ExactMatchBid = bid;

//adGroups[0].StartDate = null;

            //Date endDate = new Date();
            //endDate.Day = 31;
            //endDate.Month = 3;
            //endDate.Year = 2010;
            //adGroups[0].EndDate = endDate;

request.AdGroups = adGroups;
request.CampaignId = campaignId;

service.AddAdGroupsCompleted += new EventHandler<AddAdGroupsCompletedEventArgs>(AddAdGroupsCallback);
service.AddAdGroupsAsync(request);

// Blocks until the operation completes; released in AddAdGroupsCallback.

AsyncResultsDone.WaitOne();

            if (asyncException != null)
            {
                throw (asyncException);
            }
        }

        static void AddAdGroupsCallback(object sender, AddAdGroupsCompletedEventArgs args)
        {
            // If you need the service object, cast sender to CampaignManagementServiceClient. For example,
            // CampaignManagementServiceClient service = (CampaignManagementServiceClient)sender;

            if (args.Error != null)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("The following error(s) occurred while performing the AddAdGroups operation.\n");

                try
                {
                    throw (args.Error);
                }
                catch (FaultException<ApiFaultDetail> fault)
                {
                    ApiFaultDetail detail = fault.Detail;

// Display the service operation errors.

                    foreach (OperationError error in detail.OperationErrors)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Message: {0}\nError code: {1}\n", error.Message, error.ErrorCode);
                    }

// Display the service operation batch errors.

                    foreach (BatchError error in detail.BatchErrors)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Message: {0}\nError code: {1}\n", error.Message, error.Code);
                    }
                }
                catch (FaultException<AdApiFaultDetail> fault)
                {
                    AdApiFaultDetail detail = fault.Detail;

// Display the generic API errors.

                    foreach (AdApiError error in detail.Errors)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Message: {0}\nError code: {1}\n", error.Message, error.ErrorCode);
                    }
                }
                catch (Exception e)
                {
                    // This will likely be the CommunicationException or TimeoutException
                    // exception. Need to get this exception back to the calling thread to
                    // handle; using the asyncException member for this purpose. The asyncException
                    // member is checked in the calling thread and is thrown if set.

                    asyncException = e;
                }
            }
            else if (args.Cancelled)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("The AddAdGroups operation was canceled.");
            }
            else
            {
                AddAdGroupsResponse response = args.Result;

                foreach (long id in response.AdGroupIds)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("AdGroup {0} was added", id);
                }
            }

            AsyncResultsDone.Set();
        }
    }
}

The following is a simple example that shows how to call the AddAdGroups operation asynchronously using a delegate.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.ServiceModel;
using AsyncExample.CampaignManagement;

namespace AsyncExample
{
    class Program
    {
        private static AutoResetEvent AsyncResultsDone = new AutoResetEvent(false);
        private static CampaignManagementServiceClient service = null;

                if (service != null)
                {
                    service.Abort();
                }
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);

                if (service != null)
                {
                    service.Abort();
                }
            }
        }

// Packages the request object and calls the AddAdGroups operation
// asynchronously.

AdGroup[] adGroups = new AdGroup[1];

// Force batch errors by not setting the properties of
// the ad group object.

            //Bid bid = new Bid();
            //bid.Amount = 10.25;
            //adGroups[0].ExactMatchBid = bid;

//adGroups[0].StartDate = null;

            //Date endDate = new Date();
            //endDate.Day = 31;
            //endDate.Month = 3;
            //endDate.Year = 2010;
            //adGroups[0].EndDate = endDate;

request.AdGroups = adGroups;
request.CampaignId = campaignId;

// Begin the asynchronous call. Use the RequestState object
// to provide context for the call.

RequestState state = new RequestState(service, campaignId);
service.BeginAddAdGroups(request, new AsyncCallback(AddAdGroupsCallback), state);

// Blocks until the operation completes; released in AddAdGroupsCallback.

AsyncResultsDone.WaitOne();

            // If the call failed, throw any exception that the callback did not handle;
            // the callback handles the fault exceptions, so this is likely a communication
            // or timeout exception.

            if (state.UnhandledException != null)
            {
                throw (state.UnhandledException);
            }
        }

// Defines the state object that gives context to the asynchronous call.

        class RequestState
        {
            object context = null;
            Exception unhandledException = null;
            CampaignManagementServiceClient service;

// For this example, the context object is the campaign identifier
// to which the add groups are being added.

            public RequestState(CampaignManagementServiceClient service, object context)
            {
                this.service = service;
                this.context = context;
            }

            public object Context
            {
                get { return context; }
            }

// The exception that the callback did not handle.

            public Exception UnhandledException
            {
                get { return unhandledException; }
                set { this.unhandledException = value; }
            }

// Completes the asynchronous call.

            public AddAdGroupsResponse GetResult(IAsyncResult result)
            {
                return service.EndAddAdGroups(result);
            }
        }

        // Implements the AsyncCallback Delegate. This is called when
        // the operation completes. The delegate processes the response.
        // The delegate handles any fault exceptions but lets the calling
        // thread handle any others.

        static void AddAdGroupsCallback(IAsyncResult result)
        {
            RequestState state = result.AsyncState as RequestState;

            try
            {
                long campaignId = (long)state.Context;
                AddAdGroupsResponse response = state.GetResult(result);

                foreach (long id in response.AdGroupIds)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("AdGroup {0} was added to campaign {1}", id, campaignId);
                }
            }
            catch (FaultException<AdApiFaultDetail> fault)
            {
                AdApiFaultDetail detail = fault.Detail;

Console.WriteLine("The following error(s) occurred while performing the AddAdGroups operation.\n");

// Display the generic API errors.

                foreach (AdApiError error in detail.Errors)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Message: {0}\nError code: {1}\n", error.Message, error.ErrorCode);
                }
            }
            catch (FaultException<ApiFaultDetail> fault)
            {
                ApiFaultDetail detail = fault.Detail;

Console.WriteLine("The following error(s) occurred while performing the AddAdGroups operation.\n");

// Display the service operation errors.

                foreach (OperationError error in detail.OperationErrors)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Message: {0}\nError code: {1}\n", error.Message, error.ErrorCode);
                }

// Display the service batch errors.

                foreach (BatchError error in detail.BatchErrors)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Message: {0}\nError code: {1}\n", error.Message, error.Code);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                // Need to get this exception back to the calling thread to handle;
                // using the UnhandledException property of the state object for this
                // purpose. The UnhandledException property is checked in the calling
                // thread and is thrown if set.

                state.UnhandledException = e;
            }
            finally
            {
                // Release the wait in the calling thread.

                AsyncResultsDone.Set();
            }
        }
    }
}

Thanks and enjoy!

ESPN promote Premiership Football on Pro Evo Soccer 10

Mel Carson - MSFT — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:03:00 GMT

Following on from our announcement of the 1st ever Silverlight ad on MSN UK last week, I wanted to showcase another innovative use of technology to reach audiences while they play games online.

Targeting 15-34 year old male demographic, the advertising agency Carat recently worked with Microsoft Advertising to display ads inside the Pro Evo Soccer 10 game to inform gamers when ESPN would be screening their live coverage.

Advertising in games is a growing industry as JJ Richards, the GM for Massive, wrote last October.

If you want to learn more, check out all our posts about games advertising and find more information on how to reach millions of gamers on our advertising site.

Cheers

Mel

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Posts You May Have Missed: Health, Weight Loss, Travel, Winter Sports and SEM Beginner

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:20:00 GMT

With February starting next week, I’d like to take a minute to highlight some of the posts we’ve done over the past month with specific focus on advertisers in industries that typically see a seasonal spike with the new year. If you fall into any of these categories and have yet to fine tune your campaigns to capitalize on the opportunity that comes with the increased traffic volume for your keywords, there’s still time to do so if you start optimizing now. Bing on 2010: Health...(read more)

Sandbox still having issues

Jeff Dillon - MSFT — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:38:00 GMT

We are continuing to work on ongoing Sandbox issues. Currently the CustomerManagement service is not available, which means that the GetAccounts and CustomerSignup methods are not available. If you attempt to make a call to GetAccounts, you will receive "Unauthorized Access".

We hope to have this resolved soon, and apologies for the inconvenience. This only applies to the Sandbox environment, the Production environment is not affected.

Jeff Dillon, API SUpport

Campaign Optimization At-A-Glance: Troubleshooting and Fixing Common Problem Areas

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Since it’s been a while since we’ve had a post with an at-a-glance view of typical optimization strategies for trouble areas, I thought it was time we revisit this topic. As this is meant to be useful to readers across a wide spectrum of experience in search engine marketing, I’m keeping it brief with additional detail available by clicking on the links below. PROBLEM : Low CTR • Test multiple ads • Use dynamic text • Make ad groups more focused • Make ads more...(read more)

1st Ever Silverlight Ad on MSN for EA Games Mass Effect 2

Mel Carson - MSFT — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:45:00 GMT

Today, at 3pm GMT, the MSN UK Gaming Channel saw a bit of advertising history - the first interactive rich media ad built completely on our Silverlight platform.

In true “One Microsoft” style, Microsoft Advertising in the UK has worked with the Silverlight team and specialist agency Metia, to bring a truly unique campaign for EA Games to the online masses.

The launch of Mass Effect 2 was thought to be the perfect opportunity for such a hi-spec, hi-def execution which uses Silverlight’s Smooth Streaming and Deep Zoom technology to let users interact, drill down and zoom into the content and watch HD video seamlessly.

As advertising gets more sophisticated, the demands of brands and agencies continue to push the boundaries of digital, insisting that technology keeps pace with the ever-growing desire of consumers to interact and be involved.

Last month, I blogged about our campaign for the 3D movie Avatar on MSN, and the need for marketers to think multi-screen in their approach to digital.

We believe this EA campaign demonstrates just how technology can be used to, not only resonate across devices, but make those experiences, deeper, richer and more immersive.

The campaign will run on the MSN UK homepage on Saturday as well, so check it and let us know your thoughts.

View the ad here!

Cheers

Mel

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Microsoft and Mediabrands Research Webinar: 5 Things Every Marketer Should Measure

Ginny Musante - MSFT — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:22:00 GMT

Today we conducted a webinar, 5 Things Every Marketer Should Measure, focusing on a pilot study we conducted last year comparing the impact and effectiveness on Xbox LIVE to the impact and effectiveness of traditional video and television ads.

The results showed there was more time spent, better ad recall, and higher levels of emotional and cognitive response in association with the Xbox LIVE campaigns than with traditional TV executions. But more important than the result is the methodology.

By combining survey data and behavioral data with biosensory measures, we believe we've found a compelling way to measure advertising impact and compare engagement cross media. It's important work that could help all marketers make the most of their media mix.

The subject attracted considerable media attention when we first released the results last month.

If you'd like to know more, you can download a whitepaper on the subject, Cracking the Code on Cross Media Engagement, or you can register to watch today's webinar 5 Things Every Marketer Should Measure on demand.

As I told webinar attendees this morning, this subject matter is near and dear to my heart and is quite possibly among the most important work I have done as a marketer; it has tremendous potential to truly change the game!

SES London 2010 – Interview with Mike Grehan

Mel Carson - MSFT — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:06:00 GMT

London is bracing itself for Search Engine Strategies this year. The conference and expo, which runs from 16th to the 19th of February, is always well attended by delegates and speakers from all over the UK and, indeed, the world. We’ll be there in force speaking and moderating a number of sessions on search, PPC, Bing and social media. Today, I caught up with Mike Grehan, VP and Global Content Director for Incisive Media who put the show together, to have a chat about his role, the industry...(read more)

SEM Intermediate Series: Increasing Click-Through Rate (CTR) in Microsoft adCenter

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:00:00 GMT

This is the 1 st post in the SEM Intermediate Series, a collection of posts intended for search engine marketing professionals looking for guidance in monitoring and adjusting the key performance indicators (KPIs) that determine the success of a PPC campaign. This series is a continuation of the SEM Beginner Series . If you haven’t already visited the SEM Beginner Series post on CTR , click-through rate is a measurement of the number of times an ad displayed on a search engine results page...(read more)

New Creative Kid On The Blo(g)ck

Jeremy Grubaugh - MSFT — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:57:00 GMT

So this is what writing a blog feels like :-)

The Who (as in "who the heck are you?")

My name is Jeremy Grubaugh. I'm currently the Creative Director for Microsoft's Branded Entertainment and Experience Team and primarily responsible for the creative output of original content & experiences brought on behalf of brands for the Microsoft audience.

I help facilitate the ideation and creation of industry leading branded experiences that are consumed by millions via the Microsoft network and platforms. Working closely with Brands and Agencies, we look to to engage audiences in a more relevant way by delivering quality content on their behalf.

For the last 6 years I've been helping to grow a team of talented individuals consisting of designers, UX researchers, and technologists in efforts to help navigate the ever changing landscape of digital advertising.

In addition, we partner closely with internal Microsoft product teams to better understand new ways to marry technology, brand & audience.

The What (as in "what are you doing here?")

I'll be looking to help spread some creative love.

One aspect of my role is to scour the "inter-webs" looking for creative experiences that excite both consumers and advertisers alike. I primarily look for what inspires.

Posts will showcase a range from the extremely smart, to the extremely cool - hopefully all will engage and encourage you take a few minutes away from your busy schedule to explore, inspire and learn.

First Up

Myspace music has stepped-up with a very creative use of Facebook connect.

Fanvideo invites user to "join the video" simply by connecting to Facebook, then creating a mash-up of their favorite artists. I would say more but it's best to see it for yourself. My favorite. 50cent.

Check back soon. More on the way.

Thanks

Jeremy

Upcoming Industry Events

Carolyn Miller - MSFT — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:16:00 GMT

Join the Microsoft Advertising Team for online and offline coverage at these events in 2010: we'll be blogging, meeting and Tweeting. Watch our blogs for more details. Search Engine Strategies (SES) London – February 16-19, 2010 Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West - March 2-4, 2010 - with keynote from Steve Ballmer! SXSW Interactive - March 12-16, 2010 SES NY - March 22-26, 2010 Digital Hollywood Spring - May 4-6, 2010 SMX Advanced London - May 17-18, 2010 SMX Advanced Seattle - June 8-9,...(read more)