We hear from some adCenter customers that they'd like more traffic; in this post I'll be sharing some tips to maximize and potentially increase your adCenter traffic to make the most of the time you spend in adCenter.

Some advertisers optimize their pay per click campaigns for other engines and then export them with little change to adCenter. This may save time, but it doesn't always optimize for the distinctly different character of Microsoft's traffic. In other words, you may be leaving a pile of money on the table.

In the real world there's a substantial difference between
running a campaign with a thousand keywords
or a half million.

When the Long Tail is Short

Everyone's heard of the long tail. Loosely translated, it means low volume sales can still be profitable if a lot of different items are sold. In search, that means campaigns with huge keyword inventories where each keyword receives precious little traffic individually. In aggregate that traffic becomes substantial.

The profitability of the long tail assumes a low cost of sales. In the real world there is a substantial difference in the investment of time required to run a campaign with a thousand keywords or a half million. Here's a short list:

• Keyword research (positive and negative)
• Configuring URLs with tracking parameters
• Refreshing creative
• Bid management for ad position
• Segmenting traffic by demographic, geographic, and day part
• Bid boosting for qualified traffic
• Optimizing CTR and CPA
• Identifying highest value leads
• Testing changes to landing pages
• Analyzing web analytic data by PPC keyword

And the list isn't even definitive! The costs associated with campaign management make advertising to the thin end of the long tail less attractive and less profitable.

Some advertisers may find that Microsoft may have less traffic but, as I've said, it tends to be profitable traffic. The difference in conversion rates is dependent upon market vertical (your mileage may vary) but it is consistent.

Microsoft's traffic shouldn't be ignored,
just treated differently.

Optimizing for Microsoft adCenter

When exporting your campaigns from another engine into adCenter I'd suggest you favor your core keywords -- keywords with high volume and high CTR. The high volume ensures the keyword is a head term; the high CTR ensures it's a keyword relevant to your business. When working with your long tail terms, make sure they're worth the cost of maintenance. If you don't maintain them, if you don't continually refresh and optimize your campaigns, they're going to be less effective no matter where you advertise.

Secondly, adCenter represents an opportunity to bid aggressively on more general keywords -- one or two words with broad match type enabled -- qualifying your traffic with negative keywords, a clear value proposition in your creative, targeting, and bid boosting.

Let's say, for example, you're an online florist. You've probably bid conservatively in the past, typically on keyword strings of three or four words, typically with exact match but sometimes daring to use phrase match, your ads placing somewhere near the bottom of the second page  but often pushed to the third or even fourth page. Now you want more -- more impressions, more clicks, more sales. More, more, more! (Queue the maniacal laughter.)

You're thinking about bidding on the keyword "flowers." You're not a big brand name, however. You're on a tight budget. On some platforms, aggressively bidding for first page ad placement on such a general keyword would likely devour your monthly budget in a matter of hours like some necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating bacteria, for the rest of us). If you're seeing lower volume on Microsoft, however, aggressively bidding on more general keywords might be more manageable; the higher conversion ratio might also make it more profitable. Again, your mileage may vary.

The Bottom Line

If you're focusing on the long tail of the snake with other engines, consider focusing on the head if you're seeing lower traffic with adCenter. In all cases, closely monitor your key performance indicators (CTR, conversion rate, and cost per acquisition) to avoid being bitten.

Increasing the number of impressions for your head terms may also reduce your CTR or increase the number of unqualified clicks, neither of which is desirable. There are several techniques you can use on any engine to qualify your traffic and some unique to Microsoft. I'll cover those in my next post.