Happy new year, adCenter advertisers!

If you're like me, you probably have a laundry list of personal and professional goals that you'd like to accomplish this year. You might also be like me and not have written them down anywhere, nor started thinking about how you'll accomplish them.  The good news is I may be able to help point you in the right direction with the goals you have for your adCenter campaigns.

What are your goals for your 2009 adCenter campaigns? Are you hoping to get more impressions, reach new markets, or find new advertising channels this year? If so, I'd encourage you to take another look into adCenter's content advertising network. The number of high-quality publishers continues to grow and you may be surprised at both the number of impressions and low cost of CPCs you find.

Here are a couple of tips and tricks that should set you up for success right out of the gate.

1.) Separate Content Campaigns From Search Campaigns

It's easy to think that because content ads and search ads look the same and function the same it you should treat them the same, but if there's one thing I ask you to remember from this post, it would be that you don't think of them as the same. In reality, they are very different.

I could write an entire blog post about these differences, but one of the most important differences is that the users on our content network are in a completely different mindset than those on our search engine and adCenter's approach at understanding what they are looking for is completely different.

In search, users are in information research mode; they're looking for something in particular and are actively making queries to tell adCenter what it is they are looking for. adCenter then uses those query terms to serve up the most relevant ads.

In content, no queries are being made; the only thing users are telling us is that they are interested in the content of the page they are viewing. adCenter then extracts the keywords and themes of that page and looks for ads that are relevant matches.

As a result, the keywords you select, the bids you set and the ads you write for your content ads campaigns should be completely different than those you use in search and should be managed and tracked separately.

2.) Find the Right Keywords

I frequently run across advertisers who create new campaigns for their products by simply placing fairly competitive bids on content match for all of their paid search keywords and then become frustrated when only a few of them get more than a couple of impressions in a month's time.

The secret to running a successful content campaign is to realize that the keyword inventory in content is drastically different than in search. There are no users inserting long-tail, custom made queries. Instead, our content matching engine is pulling the top keywords from each of our publishers' pages that match the overall themes and ideas pulled from the content of those pages. Those keywords are then used to match advertiser keywords and ads in adCenter. As a result, the shorter and more general terms match to most often and are ranked higher.

When taking that crucial first step in building out a keyword list for your content ads campaign, try to keep these guidelines in mind:

a. Include the most relevant/best performing general keywords from your paid search campaigns.

b. Include keywords about topics that users interested in your products read about online.

c. Include keywords that are related to recent news items surrounding your product.

d. Do not include longer, more specific keywords that could be covered by your more general keywords and remove the non-performers.

e. Focus on getting a smaller list (30-50) of top keywords performing well before adding more keywords, this allows each of those keywords to quickly build up a good history in adCenter which may, in turn, drive down your costs and make you more competitive in the auction.

3.) Make Your Starting Bids Competitive

Another major difference between content and search that many advertisers overlook is that for each potential impression, on average, only 4 positions are available. Each piece of content ads inventory normally only has 3-4 slots for a text ad to show. That's more than half as many opportunities than the 1st results page of a search query. If your bids are not competitive enough to get you into the top 4 positions, you will never show and never get an impression.

Also worth remembering is that those 3-4 spots are not being auctioned off to advertisers with ads matching to one keyword only, but to advertisers and ads that are matching to various keywords pulled from the page, resulting in increased competition.

Remember: Keep your bids competitive from the start and establish a good CTR history to get the most out of adCenter's content ads network.

4.) Keep Ad Copy Fresh and Enticing

Now that you have done the work necessary to start getting impressions on the content network, let's focus on getting the most out of those impressions. As I mentioned earlier, users on adCenter's content network are in a different mindset than those actively running search queries on Live.com; instead of searching, they are browsing.

This may seem like Advertising 101, but in order to capture their attention and interest them in what you're offering, you need to stand out from the content of the page and from your competitors.

Here are some ad copy creation tips for content ads:

a. Focus on including the unique selling propositions your product has to offer; what makes you different enough from the other ads and content on the page that you deserve the extra attention?

b. If possible, include any highly-recognized brand terms in your ad copy that would create trust and/or interest with users.

c. Create urgency wherever possible: include the details for any specific coupons, discounts or deals you have running (i.e. “50% off” “This week only…”).

d. Challenge those reading your ad to learn more -- be sure to include a call to action.  For more information, be sure to look over Shefali Singla's post, Constructing an Effective Call to Action for Your Ad Copy.

5.) Do Not "Set it and Forget it"

Revisit and update your keyword lists and ad copy often. I would say every 3-6 weeks. People don't read the same thing over and over again nor do they want to see the same ads over and over again. News items change, the content of our publishers pages change and these changes happen daily, sometimes even hourly.

If there are new things being discussed on the web related to your product add those keywords. If you have new coupons/prices/discounts, update your ads. Keeping your keywords and ad copy updated and relevant will keep people interested and clicking.

Content ads aren't for every advertiser and every product. Those advertisers with specialized products or high ticket items may find users browsing our content network are not as likely to make a purchase as those in search.  There is also the change that those advertisers with extremely low CPA goals may find it hard to meet those goals on some of the more heavily extracted keywords on the network, but for the vast majority of advertisers the potential is there, waiting for your business.

If you're looking for a great way to jump start your advertising this year, I'd encourage you to give our content network a try. Follow these guidelines and you'll have a great chance at success.