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We had the opportunity to interview Rich Bowen who works in Microsoft’s Advertising as a Programme Manager with global responsibilities based in the UK. Rich has been with Microsoft since the inception of Microsoft adCenter, so he is a good person to talk to about the past, the here and now, and of course the future. We’ve asked him to give us an idea of his work and the gems in adCenter every advertiser should know about!
What is it that you do at Microsoft?
I am a programme manager in a global capacity within the Advertising Service & Support organisation, responsible for SMB and Editorial support and operations.
Tell us something about yourself?
I have been with Microsoft nearing six years. Prior to Microsoft I held positions at Vodafone and Amazon respectively. Now at Microsoft I am part of the organisation who manages the service and support for Microsoft adCenter’s Self-Serve Advertisers, Customers and Publishers.
What does your typical day look like?
Other than meetings a day in the life for me is about driving customer satisfaction improvement and proposing new features and enhancements for Microsoft’s Advertising Product Suite, to improve the end-user experience. I am also an advocate for market requirements to the business and to global partner organisations.
What are – in your opinion- the little gems in adCenter people should know about?
What makes you happy at work?
The creativity and sheer innovation in developing change within the industry.
If you weren’t in your office, where would you like to be most right now?
Spending time with my two young children, playing golf, watching football and pursuing a Ph.D as time permits!
Read more about:
Incremental Bidding
Conversion and Campaign Analytics
Microsoft Advertising Intelligence
Dynamic Text Insertion
Whom should we be interviewing next or what topic would you like to read more about? Let us know!
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Wasn't analytics closed down a few years back? Like a little over two years ago, according to this blog post:
community.microsoftadvertising.com/.../adcenter-analytics-beta-to-close.aspx
And since when does adCenter capitalize keywords? You can do {KEYWORD} to put the entire thing in all caps, but if you're talking about {KeyWord}, that's not adCenter. That's Google AdWords. What adCenter has is {param2}, which has to be manually set, such as with the PROPER() function in Excel. That's not an adCenter feature. That's not a great thing about adCenter; that is a drawback.
Hi Anthony,
You are correct that the general web analytics product beta ended some time ago, but in this post, “Campaign Analytics” refers to the functionality built into the adCenter UI under the “Reports” tab.
To address your capitalization question, keywords can be capitalized for use in dynamic text as long as they appear that way in the first upload where they are added to the campaign. If not, there is a work around to ensure capitalization as detailed in this post:
community.microsoftadvertising.com/.../tips-to-make-sure-your-dynamic-ads-appear-as-capitalized-in-adcenter.aspx
Thanks!
Simone
Gems..? Really? Surely these are features that should be (and are) standard in all PPC interfaces. Additionally I wouldn't be patting yourselves on the back about the desktop tool, it is far from perfect, or even good.
Top marks for (over) enthusiasm though