Tutorial: How to Create a New Campaign Using the adCenter Desktop

The adCenter Desktop is a great campaign management application for both new and veteran adCenter users.  The adCenter Desktop allows you to sync your adCenter online accounts, make edits offline and then upload your changes once your PC is back online.  Additional features includes the ability to set up automatic performance alerts, research new keywords and download performance data from adCenter.  Another great feature in the adCenter Desktop is the Campaign Wizard. It helps you create a new adCenter campaign step by step.  Today, I am doing to walk you through how to download the adCenter Desktop and create a new adCenter campaign using the adCenter Desktop's Campaign Wizard.  

Installing the adCenter Desktop

To follow the steps below, please install the adCenter Desktop if you have not already.  System requirements, installation guide and tutorials can be found here. 

The link to download the adCenter Desktop can be found when you log into the adCenter UI.  Once logged in, click FAQ's, scroll down to the "Other" section and click Download adCenter Desktop beta. Follow the on screen instructions once you have downloaded the adCenter Desktop.

Creating a New Campaign using the AdCenter Desktop's Campaign Wizard

Step 1: Click Manage Tab, Select Campaign Wizard

Step 2: Select Advertiser and Account for the New Campaign You Wish to Create

Once you have selected the advertiser and account, click Next.

Step 3: Enter Campaign Details

I have created a campaign called "Christmas Trees".  The "Enter Campaign Details" screen allows you to input your budget type, budget spend options and monthly budget.  For the purpose of this tutorial, I have selected monthly budget type, spend budget until depleted and a $10,000 budget.  I determined the monthly budget by researching keywords using the Microsoft Advertising Intelligence.  For those of you unfamiliar with the tool, it enables you to keyword research, pull adCenter KPI data and efficiently optimize your adCenter campaigns (using Excel 2007 or Excel 2003).

Selecting the proper budget type is very important when creating a new campaign.  I selected the "Spend Until Depleted" option as I have flexible campaign budgets and can add budget later if my campaign's spend and traffic is high.  If you do not have flexible campaign budgets, I recommend using the "Divide Budget Across Month" option.  This setting can be changed any time after creating a new campaign.

Negatives keywords are words you add to your campaign or ad groups that you do not want your ads to serve for.  This typically results in a lower average cost-per-click (CPC) and a higher average click-through rate (CTR).  Negative keywords apply if you are bidding on broad or phrase match.  For my "Christmas Trees" campaign, I will implement negative keywords at the ad group level.  I chose this option as I plan to add different Christmas Tree type ad groups and each tree type will need a custom list of negative keywords.  Once you enter the campaign details, click Next.

Step 4: Enter Ad Group Details     

I named my ad group "White Spruce Trees" and I selected an ad group start and end date.  This seasonal ad group has an end date of 12/24/2009.  This ensures that I am not spending advertising money after Christmas.  Other settings include Language and Market (I chose English) and Ad Distribution.  I selected the search network ad distribution as I plan to run this ad group only in search at this time. 

Microsoft adCenter's content network offers advertisers the ability to display ads on relevant content pages within Microsoft's network of sites (MSN, MSNBC, FOX Sports) or Microsoft's site partners (Rodale, iVillage, Wall Street Journal).  Content network typically offers high impressions and a lower CTR when compared to search.  Opting into content is highly recommended and it is a best practice to create a separate content campaign (more efficiently monitor performance).

The final option when creating ad group details is "Negative Keywords".  Based on my campaign structure, I chose to add negatives at the ad group level.  The adCenter Desktop, Microsoft Advertising Intelligence and the adCenter UI's Research section offers great tools to research keyword negatives.  Once you have completed entering the ad group details, click Next.

Step 5:  Enter Ad Details    

Creating compelling ads with a strong call to action is important.  This is the creative messaging a search reads before deciding to click on your site.  I have created a promotional piece of ad copy with two call to actions, "order" and "save".  I have also offered a 25% savings and free delivery.  The goal of the promotions is to increase my CTR and click traffic.  It is ok if your business or client is not currently running a promotion, however, it is best to run promotional ad copy when possible.  Offering the user an incentive to click your ads helps you to stand out on the search engine results pages (SERPs).  It is best to have a minimum of two versions of ad copy running per ad group.  This ensures that you can optimize ad copy and adCenter can serve the high performing ad copy more regularly.  To do this, click Create another ad in the bottom left hand corner of the "Enter ad details" screen.  When you have created your ads, click Next.

Note: Currently, the adCenter ad character lengths are as follows: ad title (35), ad description (70), display URL (35) and destination URL (1,022).  

Step 6: Enter Campaign Keywords

Using the Campaign Wizard, you can add keywords, match types, bids and URL's.  To do this, you enter your keyword, strike the Tab key, enter your match type, strike the Tab key and continue to enter the necessary information.  If you wish to add multiple match types per keyword, create a new line and enter the new match type.

In the screenshot above, I have created my keywords, match types, bids and URL's.  It is recommended that you bid on all three match types to increase traffic and performance.  It is important to add keyword negatives when bidding on broad or phrase match (relevancy typically increases, cost typically decreases).  When I created my ads, I added my destination URL's, therefore when creating keywords, I entered {param1} as my destination URL.  This tells adCenter to use my text ad destination URL as my landing page.  Once you have created your keywords, click Finish.  The Campaign Wizard will close and you will be brought back to the adCenter Desktop user interface screen.

Step 7: Upload Changes (Internet Connection Required)

Once you have completed setting up your campaign, you click upload changes in the ribbon under the home tab.  Your changes will be uploaded to adCenter and your campaign will be live!

Step 8: Apply Targeting (Optional)    

 The adCenter Desktop offers great functionality for applying targeting to your search or content campaigns and/or ad groups.  To apply targeting, click Targeting in the editor pane as illustrated above.

Once you click Targeting, a new window, displaying the targeting options, will appear. Targeting options include geographic targeting, demographic targeting, day-parting and incremental bidding.  I decided not to target specific locations as I am a national company.  If you are a local company to a specific area, I recommend implementing geographic targeting.  When finished applying targeting settings, click OK and repeat Step 7 (Upload Changes).

For additional resources, case studies and adCenter Desktop tutorials, check out the official adCenter Desktop page: http://advertising.microsoft.com/adCenter-Desktop!  For information on setting up a campaign without adCenter Desktop, please visit my previous post, Tutorial: How to Set Up Campaigns in adCenter.