adCenter Blog

SES New York 2010 – Hear Microsoft Speakers on Bing & adCenter

Mel Carson - MSFT — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:21:00 GMT

Just a week to go until Search Engine Strategies in New York! The conference looks like being one of the best yet with keynote speeches by David Meerman Scott, Google’s Avinash Kaushik and our very own Yusuf Mehdi . Yigal Elnekave , Robyn Raybould...(read more)

SXSW Panel: Is App-vertising the Answer?

Hung Truong - MSFT — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:25:00 GMT

I am in Austin, Texas at the SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Festival this weekend attending panels and moderating one of my own. I had a chance to sit in at a panel about “App-vertising.” The premise of the panel was the large and increasing...(read more)

Financial Services in 2010: Credit Cards - Trends and Seasonality

Sean Cohen - MSFT — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:26:00 GMT

Credit Card debt had a large impact on the breakdown of the economy and causing many Americans into bankruptcy. Because of this, major reform hit credit card in February passed down from the government. Most consumers see this as change for the better, while banks and lenders are expecting huge financial losses due the impact from these changes. 2010 will be a rocky period for credit cards, with a lot of media exposure pushing research search traffic due to the credit reform thus making successful marketing harder to accomplish. On the bright side, the end of 2009 ended very positively for credit cards, clicks were rising while average CPCs continued to stay low as many smaller advertisers stayed away. For 2010 stay focused on driving highly qualified traffic through proper ad copy and keyword coverage.

Falling CPCs in 2009

CPCs fell throughout 2009, lower than any time in 2008. The economy was the biggest driver of this trend and this also impacted impressions as they dropped off by mid April. On the flip side clicks started improving in late 2009 due to the increase in people looking to save money through rewards program. This helped bring a positive trend into 2010. Reward/Loyalty terms such as "rewards", "gift cards", and "cash back" all saw major click gains the second half of 2009. Alternatively the term "credit" saw major impression drops from the first half of the year to the second, dropping millions of impressions due to all the impact from the credit card fall out. Make sure to leverage this increase in reward keywords in 2010 as people are looking for ways to save money. Other than keywords, driving top positions is key to success in 2010. Outside of position 1, clicks and performance fall off significantly. Over 80% of clicks for the top 10 credit card keywords are served at position 1, though the costs are severely higher. Max bids increase significantly as positions increase, sidebar bids average around $1.00 while mainline ads range from $4.00-$6.00. Fighting for positions in the credit card verticals requires a high max bid threshold.

Hitting the Target Demographic

Ad copy is just as important as position in the credit card vertical as advertisers with high brand recognition drive performance. A combination of using "Official" and a trademark in the title creates significant lifts in CTR. Both these qualifiers in the title push brand recognition when competing against lead aggregators and small credit card resources. Using keyword insertion also leads to improved CTR, by increasing the relevancy of an ad. When pushing keyword insertion make sure to leverage branding in the body of the ad copy. The demographics on the credit card vertical is not that much different than financial services as a whole. Top searchers for credit cards are females 35-49, with click spikes for females in the 18-24 age group and the 25-34 age group. In the older demographic of 65+ traffic drops significantly. Demo-targeting opportunities exist to help lower cost and improve ROI by removing the older and younger demographics from high volume high CPC keywords.

Credit Card Reform

The Credit CARD Act went into effect on February 22^nd 2010. There were many sweeping changes to credit card rules and regulation. These changes affect both the consumer and the credit card companies. Here are a few highlights from the bill:

. No retroactive interest rate increases on existing card balances. Credit card issuers can't interest rates for the ensuing 12 months after an account is opened. If your rate does go up after 12 months, it will apply only to new charges, not an existing balance.

. Consumers now have the right to opt out of -- or reject -- certain significant changes in terms on their accounts

. Credit card issuers will be banned from issuing credit cards to anyone under 21, unless they have adult co-signers on the accounts or can show proof they have enough income to repay the card debt.

. Credit card issuers would have to give card account holders "a reasonable amount of time" to make payments on monthly bills. That means payments would be due at least 21 days after they are mailed or delivered.

Bing UK TV Ads – Video Interview with Ashley Highfield

Mel Carson - MSFT — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:22:30 GMT

Last night saw the first Bing TV advert go live in the UK. In November, Bing UK reached an important milestone: we removed the beta tag having added innovative features like Visual Search , Categorised Search and Twitter Integration . Our user base has...(read more)

U.S. adCenter Customers: Help us improve your adCenter Reports and Analytics tools and get a $100 adCenter credit

Carolyn Miller - MSFT — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:25:00 GMT

Hi everyone, a call for reporting feedback from the adCenter Team. Please note that at this time, only U.S. adCenter customers are eligible for the ad credit. Full details below. We want your feedback! Microsoft® adCenter is working on our next-generation...(read more)

Brand Best Practices: Highlighting Your Brand in Your Microsoft adCenter Campaigns

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:59:00 GMT

Following on today’s post on the Microsoft Advertising Blog, New Whitepaper: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Digital Advertising for Brand Campaigns , today I’m going to address some best practices for incorporating your brand into your search...(read more)

Editorial Review in Microsoft adCenter: Common Disapprovals and How to Fix Them

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:00:00 GMT

It’s a fairly common scenario. You’ve amassed your keyword list with Microsoft Advertising Intelligence , written stellar ads and uploaded your new campaigns to adCenter. You wait a few hours and then perform a few searches for your keywords...(read more)

Keyword Normalization: What You Need to Know Before Uploading to Microsoft adCenter

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Keywords can be tricky things. You think you’ve got the most relevant, robust keyword list on the planet, but you run it through the keyword expansion wizard in Microsoft Advertising Intelligence (MAI) just to be sure no stone was left unturned...(read more)

Research you can use in search marketing efforts from SMX West panel

Chris Norred - MSFT — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:50:00 GMT

Microsoft Advertising publishes a fascinating library of research and case studies in the online Research Library . I’d recommend that you spend an hour browsing there if you’re trying to learn some new best practices that will help in your...(read more)

SMX West Search Marketing Boot Camp - Paid Search Fundamentals

Michelle Honeycutt - MSFT — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Now that we're on to our third and final boot camp session, we know that 1) keyword research is the first step to getting your message right and 2) content is king and there are several ways to enhance copywriting for success with search marketing. In this last session, we will review some basic information around paid search and important tips shared at SMX West.

There are a few things to keep in mind with regard to Paid Search:

1. While Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are complementary, with PPC you can:

Get going quickly (you don't have to wait for the search engine to index your site)
Discover what words convert (you are in control of which words you use in your ad campaign)
Manage the risk of algorithm changes (with PPC your placement is not affected by algorithm changes to the search engine)
Rely on predictable, dependable flow of traffic (you have more control over how and when your site is served up within search engine results pages [SERP])

2. PPC Allows you more control over messaging

You write the ads that appear
You determine what pages visitors first land on
The top 3 search engines cover 96% of the market, so be sure to get it right on these three!

3. Some key terms (with definitions) you will hear as they relate to Search Engines and Advertising Networks

Keywords: words and phrases that trigger ads to show
Ads: really, really short text (or graphic) sales pitches
Bids: how much you are willing to spend to show your ads, get clicks and conversions
Targeting: options include geographic, time of day/day of week, demographic, and browser/mobile devices
Landing pages: the pages you want people to see first and "land on"
Process: Managing all of the above plus tracking results, conversions, return on ad spend plus testing and improving leveraging tools and resources

How do paid search auctions really work?

Keep in mind that Search Engines want their results to be relevant to the searcher. For this reason, the highest bid doesn't necessarily get the top spot.
Ad Rank is the order (or spot) an ad appears on the SERP and is determined by Quality score X Max bid. This was intentionally left off of the key terms/definitions list as it's only important to know that ad rank exists - your biggest focus should be on creating great PPC campaigns.
Quality score is made up of relevancy (keywords, ads, landing page) and historical performance (CTR)

When setting up and managing a campaign, there are a few things you should keep in mind and answer to guide your behavior with search advertising:

What is the primary goal of your campaign? Is it leads, sales, brand building, driving traffic, etc?
How do you define success? Offline or online sales conversions, steps on the path towards sales conversions, something else?
How do you measure success? Do you use the free conversion trackers offered by the top 3 search engines, use a third party web analytics tool, gauge success by how much the phones ring, or measure the increase in total company sales and profits? There are several ways to measure success - just be sure you are measuring it somehow.

Tips:

Where you have an advantage...exploit it! Improve your ad position and ROI with targeting - bid on time zone and demographics that make sense for you
Search Engine ads (direct "pull" advertising) work differently than Content Network Site ads (indirect "push" advertising), so manage them accordingly
Measure actions - don't manage just CTR or CPC! It's important to actually track conversions (since this is what you are doing all of the work for, right?) and not click-throughs! Important to note that Google and Yahoo! ad optimizers only optimizes CTR.

I hope you enjoyed this boot camp series fresh from SMX West and can leverage these fundamentals to realize much success with your search marketing!

You Want More? SMX West Search Marketing Boot Camp - Copywriting for Search Success

Michelle Honeycutt - MSFT — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:34:00 GMT

They claim it's "pretty simple". You can be the judge of that. Personally, I find copywriting almost as painful as my original thoughts of what "boot camp" would entail (see SMX West Search Marketing Boot Camp anyone? Keyword Research Tools and Techniques). That said, if you are a copywriter, like copywriting or just want to know how to tailor your writing for search success, this session provided tons of tips and tricks to improve your site through copywriting. I've tried to pare it all down to one page of highlights.

Why should you care about copywriting for search success?

The best SEO is great content
Copywriting is where the rubber meets the road in terms of SEO
Search engines key off of text, not images

What is good content?

Content is best when it is written for users, while also keeping search engines in mind - it's all about balance between these two
Always start with keyword research (uncover words that people are using to find sites like yours) and build content that matches the needs of searchers. Choose keyword phrases that are most relevant and specific.
Base your copywriting around those words and answer their query on your web page
Keep in mind that every page must include plain language that naturally uses keyword phrases
Remember that each page must make sense on its own (when a person generates a search on a search engine, they may land anywhere within your site - their visit doesn't always start at the home page)

A few Dos and Don'ts when it comes to SEO Writing. I found these very detailed and helpful, so wanted to pass along.

SEO copywriting myths debunked; SEO copywriting is NOT:

Writing a certain # of words
Bolding/italicizing keywords
Writing to a specific keyword density
Optimizing for just one phrase
Repeating keywords a certain # of times (there is no magic number, use the word as it makes sense within your copy/don't force it)

SEO Writing Tips:

Be Descriptive
- Not "our product"
- Instead try "our Hawaii meeting planning services"
Edit your current text by finding generic words and replacing with keywords (where appropriate)
- Barn vs. Classic barn
- Structure vs. Carriage house
- Design vs. barn house design
- If you'd like to contact us, fill out this brief form vs. If you'd like to contact us for help with your next meeting planning, fill out our special event planning request form
No single words; expand into phrases
- For example, "furniture" can become:
  - Rustic wood furniture
  - Solid wood furniture
  - Wood bedroom furniture
  - Barn wood furniture
Don't fake real content - fix your site!
- Write clearly and descriptively to your target audience
- Don't add useless articles
Professionally written copy is key
- It brings highly targeted visitors that want exactly what you offer and converts them into customers

If you're reading these Boot Camp posts, I'd love to hear from you. As we offer new/updated content and plan for future posts, it's helpful to know whether or not you find it useful, so please let us know. All feedback is welcome - both positive and constructive. Do you want to see more/less/same amount of detail? Are there other Boot Camp / Fundamentals topics you want to see covered?

Stay tuned for the final post in this Boot Camp series - Paid Search Fundamentals - which is coming soon.

Search advertisers quiz the paid search reps at SMX West

Chris Norred - MSFT — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:58:00 GMT

What’s new in mobile ads? How can advertisers exclude ads from displaying in legacy browsers? What improvements are planned to make international advertising easier? When will Microsoft allow more negative keywords? When will adCenter provide a...(read more)

Search and Display at SMX West - 1+1=3 (or 4, or even 5)

Rimma Gounares - MSFT — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:40:23 GMT

Much research has been done to demonstrate the combined power of search and display. Here are some links to ClearSaleing, Eyeblaster and Microsoft research, for example. What made this panel at SMX West 2010 interesting is the best practices and advice shared by the speakers - Dax Hamman of iCrossing, Brian Kaminski of iProspect, Justin Merickel of Efficient Frontier, Jonah Spegman of Scripps Network Interactive, David Oliver from Yahoo!, moderated by Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.

If you're a search advertiser and have never done display or successful display campaigns, I hope you will find these tips helpful:

1. Integrate your teams and your messaging for search and display - although you may choose search and display at different stages of the purchase funnel, these campaigns should not be run in isolation. If your banner ad talks about "chicken recipes during Thanksgiving", the keywords and search ad should be aligned to this message as well.

2. Increase search during heavy display spend - whether you're using display for brand awareness or direct response, you'd want to make sure "leaked" leads are converted through search.

3. Learn about and start using media exchanges - also called ad exchanges, they could deliver display reach on a high-quality inventory at auction-based prices.

4. Don't forget about the "art" component of display - the emotional and visual connection of an image plays a big role in the ad effectiveness. Partner with a creative agency or use tools for dynamic creative optimization that would allow you test which creative performs best at a relatively low cost.

5. Integrate search and display with the offline channels - while search must always be "on", display can be tied to events, PR and other marketing activities.

6. Examine the impact of search and display campaigns holistically - speakers gave several examples where display drove search and where search drove display. Attribution models are not always easy to build, but are very important for ROI measurement (P.S. Microsoft has a tool and service called Engagement Mapping through our Atlas platform).

7. Optimize display for inventory and audience - inventory optimization involves ad size, frequency, time, site, placement. You can optimize for audience by examining your own data more closely and by bringing 3rd party sources.

8. Follow privacy and data ownership discussions - your digital marketing might be affected by the developments in these areas.

Display used to be available only to advertisers with big budgets, but small and mid-size companies can start running display ad campaigns and align them with search and rest of marketing activities.

Thanks for reading!

Rimma

Technorati Tags: search,display,SMX West

How to Reach and Close Your Ultimate Customer - from SMX West

Rimma Gounares - MSFT — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:35:11 GMT

This is my first time attending SMX West and my first search conference ever. The Paid Search session from this morning focused on customer segmentation and brought together diverse, yet very experienced and interesting speakers. It was insightful to hear some of the stats about reaching specific customer segments - Youth, Gay and Lesbians, Blacks, Hispanics - and I encourage all of you to browse through the decks.

But, most importantly, it was good to hear every speaker reiterating several times the importance of looking at search as an integral part of the overall marketing plans which, in an ideal world, start with clearly defining target audiences. Investing in research to understand customer needs, preferences and profiles is something every business should regularly do regardless of size.

For example, Bobby Jones of Alloy Access spoke about a young female Black teenager and that, unlike conventional wisdom, her lifestyle preferences are more closely aligned to a Youth segment and less so to a Black segment. Companies should focus more on the emotional, lifestyle, needs and other nuances and less on the standard demographic segment as it's defined by the industry. One of the cheap and quick ways to start research for a small businesses is to leverage U.S. Census data to understand local or regional markets better; then the insights coupled with geotargeting could deliver a higher ROI of search campaigns.

How come then not much or even effort and budget are dedicated to customer segmentation, someone in the audience asked. The speakers thought that often advertisers are looking for efficiencies (especially in recent economic environment and in fragmented media environment) and tend to generalize the messages to reduce the number of ads, creatives, individual campaigns, etc. that need to be managed. Also some of the top 500 brands have a fear of alienating a core customer - Bill Carter of Fuse Marketing gave an example when Harley Davidson in an attempt to reach a younger male demographic initially rejected their suggestion of a messaging/creative for this audience for the fear of pushing away their established customers.

This is the first time the organizers ran this session and it was great overall. My only wish for next year is to bring more specific search advice and tactics when it comes to customer segmentation and targeting.

Rimma

Technorati Tags: SMX,SMX West,Search,segmentation

Bing Cashback program and customer success stories from SMX West

Chris Norred - MSFT — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:56:00 GMT

The Bing Cashback program now has 1,200 active merchants, 44 million offers, and has distributed over $100 million in earned rewards for consumers. Meagan Rochelle, search solutions specialist for Cashback, offered those statistics to the audience at...(read more)