adCenter Blog

Where's My Ad?: What Goes On After Submitting Ad Groups in Microsoft adCenter

posted Fri, May 07 2010

by Tina Kelleher - MSFT

10 comments

Based on some of the metrics we're seeing from our partners in Customer Support, it seems there are a significant number of calls made with questions around ad delivery (or lack thereof). In an effort to add some clarity around what happens between clicking the "Submit" button and when your ads start appearing on Bing, this post aims to detail each step of that process. If some of this looks familiar, it's because all content below is taken directly from the adCenter "Help" section accessed via the upper right hand corner of the adCenter UI (in the grey area, right next to the "Sign Out" link).

Step 1: Initial Review

After you submit your ad groups, they go through an initial review to ensure that they comply with the Microsoft adCenter Editorial Guidelines. These guidelines serve as a quality check to ensure that ads are well written and relevant to people's searches, which equates to a better experience not only for Bing users, but for advertisers as well. If your ads and keywords don't raise any flags, they're given the passing grade and will be live and active in the system; you should be able to easily find your ad.

Step 2: Additional Review

If an ad does not pass the initial review, an additional review takes place, which can take several hours based on the volume of reviews moving through the system at any given time. Several situations might trigger an additional review, even if the ad content and keywords are fine:

A word might have a double meaning that could be interpreted as offensive in a certain context.
The content might include terms that are registered trademarks, which require review for appropriate use.
A keyword is not in the editorial database

Ads and keywords with Active status

Ads and keywords that pass the editorial review are typically Active, or live and available to be displayed, shortly after being submitted. As long as your active ad content has at least one active keyword associated with it, your ad will be available for people to see. To minimize the number of e-mail messages you receive about your Microsoft adCenter account, active ads are published without e-mail notification.

Ads and keywords with Inactive status

In some cases, your ad content or keywords might require further review and are given Inactive status. This review can take a few hours or a few days, depending on the number of items under review. Ads with Inactive status are not live during the review process. If an Active ad is associated with some keywords that are Active and others that are Inactive, the ad is only live with the Active keywords.

Ads and keywords with Disapproved status

If ad content or keywords don't adhere to the Editorial Guidelines, the ad or keyword is given Disapproved status. In such cases, you will receive an e-mail notification that lists the items and their respective status. Microsoft adCenter sends notifications once a day and only for disapproved ads and keywords. It's a good idea to ensure that an e-mail notification wasn't classified as junk e-mail or otherwise blocked by your e-mail host.

Step 3: Fixing Disapprovals

If your ad has been disapproved, you can change the ad content and keywords to conform to the Editorial Guidelines and then resubmit the ad group by clicking Save on the Keywords page. You can also appeal a disapproved ad or keyword by contacting the Microsoft adCenter Support Team and then following the steps in Appeal disapproved ads and keywords. Note that if an ad or keyword is disapproved a second time, the decision is final.

For more information, see the Editorial Review tutorial.

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Filed under: editorial disapprovals, msa smb

Comments

Fri, May 07 2010 04:38PM

Sunil

This is great article. How Microsoft adCenter takes care of your ads after submitting. Advertisers just have to follow the guideline of Microsoft adcenter. Thanks Tina
Thu, May 13 2010 09:18AM

Vancouver Search Engine Marketing

great post. from now I am using this link when clients asks how it all happens :)
Fri, Jun 04 2010 06:07AM

Keith

Keep working on getting search traffic. Thats the big area that needs improving.
Mon, Oct 18 2010 08:45AM

Thomas Sowell

I signed up with Google and Microsoft the same day, Saturday, 10/16/1010. After about an hour and some fine tuning of my keywords, my ad appears EVERY time a search includes one of my Keywords, I am even getting clicks!

It has been two days, my account reads a big green ACTIVE, but my ad does not show. The stats say there have been impressions, but I can't find my ad on the first 5 pages of any search using ANY of my keywords. HELP!! what have I got wrong here???
Thu, Oct 28 2010 08:52PM

Sanjay

My campaign Shows active since yesterday and has about 14 impressions after I transitioned from Yahoo Search and now I dont see it anywhere even after going through several pages and numerous combinations of keywords. This sucks and I would have preferred to stay with Yahoo which came up before when I signed up - so we are losing business with this transitioning.
Thu, Dec 16 2010 04:26PM

Tina Kelleher - MSFT

Hi Thomas and Sanjay,

Have you contacted support for assistance with these issues? I apologize for the late response, but I didn't receive a notification that your comments came through (odd).

If your issues have not been resolved, please contact support (there's a link in the red bar at the bottom of this page) or else post in our forums.

Thanks!
Thu, Mar 03 2011 05:26AM

Larry

I'm not impressed. In fact, as a professional software developer with 25+ years of programming experience on MSFT platforms, I can safely say there's something seriously wrong at MSFT these days. I've never been a MSFT basher, just the opposite in fact, having staunchly supported them for most of my career. MSFT does a lot of great work, but in the past 5 years or so, there's been a serious decline in quality. I've have so many problems with MSFT software in fact, from the programming tools I use to products used by the general public, that I wouldn't even know where to begin describing it. In fact, I've officially posted many of these problems at the MSFT Connect feedback site (the official MSFT site for posting issues) and some even made it into MSFT service packs. Many others went unreported however (I don't have the time), so when I signed up for AdCenter just a week ago, I wasn't surprised when:

1) My ads didn't show up for almost 48 hours even though my account showed everything was fine (all keywords active, etc.).

2) The MSFT customer service rep I contacted about item 1 above warned me that my adds might not show up for up to 48 hours (I contacted them after 1 day since I didn't understand why my ads weren't appearing)

3) My account said nothing about a possible 48 hour wait, but instead showed everything as active. What kind of system indicates to a user that it's working even though it's not.

4) My keywords were still barely registering any impressions after a week, let alone any clicks, and my cost is (therefore) still zero. The same keywords using my Google AdWords account show all the time however. In fact, searching for anything on Bing related to the product I'm selling registers no relevant adds at all, for my product or any other (usually no adds). On Google, relevant adds appear almost everytime, frequently my own.

So what exactly is going on at MSFT these days. Why do I have so many problems all the time, real, verifiable problems and not "problems" reported by mindless individuals who often don't know what they're talking about. As a seasoned software developer, with a vast amount of technical experience on MSFT systems, I'm in a better position than most to judge. But you don't need to be an expert to see that my experience with AdCenter has been lousy. There's clearly a serious problem at MSFT in recent years, and my previously unshakable loyalty is now in serious decline (to my own surprise).
Fri, Mar 04 2011 12:15AM

Tina Kelleher - MSFT

Hi Larry,

Thanks for your feedback... can you please send me your adCenter account number and contact information to adcforumresponse (at) microsoft dot com? I want to get this in front of the editorial team for review.

Thanks!
Mon, Jul 04 2011 10:44PM

Jeanne

I agree with Larry. I was with the Yahoo AdSearch for since 2005 or 2006. My ad's were always in the # 1 or # 2 position. I can't find my ad at all now. HELP??
Tue, Jul 05 2011 12:54PM

Ricky Poole - MSFT

Hi Jeanne,

Can you please send me your adCenter account number and contact information to adcforumresponse (at) microsoft dot com? I would like to look into this for you :)

Thanks!