Importing 3rd Party Campaigns to Microsoft adCenter Desktop: Import and Upload (Part 2)

I hope the previous post on preparing your import sheet for use in Microsoft adCenter Desktop (ACD)^beta was helpful. In this segment, we will address how to check your settings, how to import/upload your new campaigns, and we’ll include some upload tips for 3^rd party content campaigns. You’ll want to review these content tips first if these apply to you.

Check Your Settings

If your default “Ad group distribution” is set to “Search network”, you can skip this section. You’ll want to choose “Search network” even if you are importing content campaigns to avoid re-creating all new bids.

To change the “Ad group distribution” or if you want to check your settings, you can follow the steps below:

1. Open the “Desktop Options”


2. In the dialog box that opens, choose “Advanced”, scroll to “Ad groups” and make sure “Search network” check box is checked.

Import and Upload

Now that you’re ready to import your 3^rd party file, choose the “Import” button on the “Home” tab of Microsoft adCenter Desktop^beta.

• Select “File” & “Location”. Then choose “Import”.
  


• If you see the message: “Could not import: x Rows”, click the number of rows to review import errors in Excel.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully imported a 3^rd party file. Now all you have to do is update a few final items before you upload your changes to adCenter:

• Update monthly and/or daily campaign budget.
• Set ad group start/end dates, if different than default.
• Update ads that have ad descriptions longer than 70 characters.

Now that you're ready for these changes go live, click “Upload Changes”. After the “Preview Changes” box comes up, you can choose “OK”. Choose “OK” after the upload is complete. Once the download is finished, check each tab for errors and pat yourself on the back for a job well done!

Tips For Content Imports

• If you have pending local changes, you’ll want to “Upload Changes” before you import your file.
• Did you prepare separate search and content sheets? If so, follow the instructions above and import your content file first. (You can hold off on “Upload Changes” until you have imported both search and content files.)
• Your content campaigns were loaded with distribution set to “Search network” in order to preserve your bids.
  

  Now you will now want to update distribution so they will serve on the content network. You can quickly change the desired “Ad group distribution” via the ACD “Manager” pane. To quickly change “Ad group distribution” across multiple ad groups, select “view pending”, as shown in the screenshot below:

  
  

  Once this list has populated, click one of your ad groups to highlight it and then hold “ctrl +a”. This will highlight all pending campaigns. In the “Editor” pane, select “Content network” and uncheck the “Search network” box:
  

• Your content campaigns are now ready for upload into Microsoft adCenter.

Hopefully these tips will help you to have a smooth experience with importing 3^rd party files. If you have any questions or tips and tricks of your own, be sure to leave a comment.

Happy Optimizing!