While brainstorming possible topics for the blog, it ocurred to me that we've done several posts on Microsoft Advertising Intelligence, an indispensible tool for keyword expansion and monetization, but haven't paid a whole lot of attention to basic keyword research using the adCenter user interface (UI). Perhaps it's because the UI method lacks the depth offered by Microsoft Advertising Intelligence -- of course we want to make sure you, dear Avertiser, have the most robust tools at your disposal -- but I think there's something to be said for making sure those new to search engine marketing are aware of some of the beginner resources that will help them get familiar with keyword expansion. If you are one of these SEM newbies who feels a bit apprehensive about using Microsoft Advertising Intelligence and would like to expand your keywords through the UI, this post is for you.
After logging in to adCenter, click on the "Research" tab in the blue bar along the top:
In the research tab, you'll see you have a few options in searching for new keywords:
If you enter a keyword: adCenter will return results related to that keyword that may be of interest to you in expanding your keyword list.
If you enter a web site: adCenter will search that site for terms that would be wise to include in your list if you don't have them already.
Once you select your search method, you can further refine your search by language and market, gender, age group and business category if any of those specific options appeal to you. To keep the results generalized, leave the defaults in place.
For the sake of providing an example of what to expect in the results, let's take a look at what would come back if I were a costume retailer working on expanding my list to meet the increased demand presented by Halloween. Doing a keyword search for "costumes" brings back the following sample of top results out of 101 suggestions:
If you're interested in employing demographic targeting in your campaigns, relevant research data may be available for some of your suggestions. If it is, you'll notice a small "play" button after these terms; you can simply click on those buttons to display a drop down information box for more detailed information on each:
Once you've determined which keywords will be most helpful to add to your campaigns, go through your list of suggestions and check the box to the left of each keyword you'd like to include (the blue arrow). When you're finished, click the "Add" button (red arrow) to add these terms to your list of approved suggestions:
After doing so, your list of approved terms will appear to the right of the original list. From here, click the "Continue" button near the top of the search area:
On the next screen, you'll set your pricing. Although the minimum default bid (max. CPC) is .05, I'd recommend not setting a bid below .25 as anything lower than that can hurt your chances of participating competitively and could result in hindering your campaign's overall performance. Once you've set your max cost-per-click bid by entering your value and clicking the "Apply" button (blue arrow), move on to place your keywords into an ad group by clicking the "Continue" button (red arrow):
With your bids in place, your last step is to add your new keywords to the ad group you want. Simply use the drop down menus to choose the correct account (if applicable), campaign and ad group (blue arrow) and then click the "Add to ad group" button (red arrow):
After completing this step, you should see a dialog box letting you know that you have successfully added your keywords to that ad group.
I hope this has been a helpful, informative post for anyone new to adCenter. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions for other topics that you'd like to see covered -- thanks for reading!