If you are a U.S. or Canadian advertiser with fewer than 100,000 keywords in your combined adCenter accounts, the next time you sign in, you may notice a “What’s New” banner that contains an invitation for you to download the Microsoft adCenter Desktop (Beta).
If you’re unfamiliar with adCenter Desktop, it’s an offline tool that enables seamless integration with adCenter online; you download your campaigns to work on them and then upload new changes or additions to your adCenter account at your convenience. Whether you want to perform bulk edits, monitor performance data or research keywords, this free, easy-to-use new tool may be just what you're looking for.
Building on the convenient and intuitive "Ribbon" user interface of Microsoft Office, the adCenter Desktop lets you perform different functions through a set of tabs that group similar functions together.
Home Tab:
The Home tab is where you can perform some of the most basic tasks, such as importing, exporting, downloading, uploading and previewing changes.
Manage Tab:
As its name suggests, the Manage tab is where you'll be able to manage your account; you can create new campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords. You can also migrate negative keywords to different levels in the campaign heirarchy and perform time-saving editorial checks before uploading to adCenter.
Research Tab:
Keyword research and expansion is a snap with the adCenter Desktop Tool. From discovering new keywords based on an entered keyword or web address to displaying the estimated average bid amount for your selected terms to reviewing the search query percentage by age and/or gender, there's plenty of data for you to dig into when it comes time to optimize your campaigns.
The Dashboard:
NOTE: There is no data in the above screen shot for confidentiality reasons, this is just to show you what it looks like.
The Dashboard houses gadgets that show your favorites, any alerts that you've set up, and offers visual overviews of campaign performance in bar charts and pie charts.
For more detailed information, visit the Learning Center where you can check out the adCenter DesktopBeta FAQs, read the feature guide and watch video tutorials on campaign creation, campaign management and tips and tricks for using this powerful new tool. You can also take a look at the adCenter DesktopBeta Help.
If you’re in the UK or France, we’re in the final stages of wrapping up the details for your markets’ beta release; there will be an announcement like this one within the next few weeks, so stay tuned for updates as they become available. If you haven’t already done so, you can keep up with notifications of new posts by becoming a fan on our Facebook Page or by following us on Twitter.
For advertisers with keyword totals that exceed the 100,000 limit, please be advised that we are actively working to accommodate your needs and look forward to your participation in the not-too-distant future (we’re hoping for summer 2009).
If you've already been using the adCenter Desktop, we'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Does it do everything you need it to do? If not, what improvements would you like to see in future releases? We're always on the lookout for feedback from our customers, so feel free to post your comments here or over on our forums.