On August 7th, Microsoft officially launched content ads on MSN Canada. Although advertisers have been able to set up Canadian content ads since the Summer 2010 adCenter release, they will now start to see traffic from these campaigns. Content ads will show up across all MSN channels, including Autos, Money and Lifestyle, and we plan on expanding our Canadian content ads to reach syndicated sites soon.

This post will explain the benefits of the Canadian market, Microsoft Content Ads Network, and using adCenter Desktop to set up your campaigns. If you want to learn more about content ads in general or see optimization strategies, check out the recent content blog posts.

Why advertise in Canada? Canadians outpace most of the world in internet usage – a higher percentage of the Canadian population uses the internet compared to the US,[1] and, on average, Canadians spend more time on the internet per user than any other country.[2] Clearly Canadians are very active online, and MSN, the top portal in Canada,[3] is a great place to connect with this highly engaged audience.

The best time to test content ads for Canada is now! Early adopters will likely enjoy lower CPCs when they first launch because there will not be as much competition in the auction. Also, advertisers that launch now will build performance history and get a head start in testing and optimizing over their competition. When optimizing, use the same best practices as with US content campaigns, such as expanding to high-volume keywords, utilizing site exclusion and customizing content-specific ad copy (find more best practices on the adCenter Community blog).

Setting up your Canadian content campaigns is easy! If you already have a US content campaign or ad group, you can use the adCenter Desktop to duplicate.

  • Right-click the US content campaign or ad group, click "Copy"
  • Right-click the new destination (such as your Canada-specific account or campaign), and click “Paste.”
  • Change the Language and Market settings to “English – Canada” or “French – Canada”.

  • Update the name of the campaign or ad group to avoid confusion.
  • Update the display URL and landing page to your Canadian site, if applicable.

Once you’ve set up your new campaign or ad group, click “Sync Changes” and you’re done!

If you currently do not have a US content campaign running, you can either set up a new campaign in adCenter or use the adCenter Desktop – just be sure to set the ad distribution to “Content network” and the distribution language and market to “English - Canada” or “French – Canada” at the ad group level. Although content data is currently only available in the US Microsoft Advertising Intelligence tool, you can still use the content keyword expansion tools to get started.

Content ads are a great way to expand your online presence and get more volume from your current adCenter account. We are extremely excited that Canadian advertisers will have the opportunity to be a part of this program. If you have any questions about the new Canadian content ads, feel free to leave a comment below.

[1] eMarketer’s Canada Online: Users and Usage, September 2009

[2] comScore data as reported by Globes, 24 June 2010

[3] Microsoft Press Release, 21 April 2010

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