Search results matching tag 'Categories:Publishers:pubCenter'

Updates to the pubCenter BETA in the new release

Chris Norred - MSFT — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:43:00 GMT

The release announced today on the adCenter platform includes a host of feature updates in response to customer feedback. While adCenter users get the most dramatic new features, our pubCenter beta testers will also notice some changes in the self-service web site.

The first thing you will notice is the pubCenter beta now provides Windows Live ID sign-in. If you have been visiting the site infrequently, you might have needed help with your password from time to time. Now, Windows Live ID handles your password. You can reset it using the secret answer or e-mail process link on any Windows Live ID Sign-in page.

When you next sign in, follow the steps to associate your pubCenter ID with your Windows Live ID. If you need a new Windows Live ID, you can get one quickly at https://signup.live.com

The move to Windows Live ID also makes it easier for users to participate in our online community. . Register for the private forums by following the instructions in the pubCenter beta help documentation: Register for the pubCenter community.

Then you can participate in the forums, asking questions of our most experienced beta users without having to sign in with a new password.

You’ll also see a new design for reporting. Your feedback from discussions in our community shaped these changes, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on them.

Message Center

We’re especially excited to announce the message center. Now, you’ll get updated alerts about your account, news about the beta, and FAQs about pubCenter, all within the website UI. It’s a tremendous convenience to have this content just a click away – and we’ll continue to add helpful advice from the pubCenter BETA team, and from other testers who participate in the community.

These updates bring us closer to many of our goals, but we understand there is still a lot of work to be done. We appreciate all the input and feedback we’ve received and the persistent contributions of our beta community.

-Chris

How was your OOBE? Program Manager testing the scenario: pubCenter beta onboarding for a new publisher using non-MSFT blogging tools

Mick Gupta - MSFT — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:41:00 GMT

As a member of the pubCenter team from day one, it was embarrassing to not own a website till last week. Now, as a new blogger, I’ve just started showing beautiful pubCenter ads on my personal blog: http://micksalot.blogspot.com/. Impressive how I’ve already graduated to become an unabashed blogger happy to gain page rank benefits from the forum, no?

My non-Microsoft blogging software (Blogger) integrates with pubCenter to receive targeted ads through an AdRotator (to test various ad unit look and feel styles). It worked seamlessly and I was up and running within an hour. I ran into a couple of editorial issues but rest assured we’re already working on smoothing them out so you won’t have to face them! However, as a longtime pubCenter employee, I already know every nook and cranny in the system. I’m keen to hear what your on-boarding experience (or in the offline world: OOBE-out of box experience) was like. For most customers a new product means spending lots of time confused and/or overwhelmed around how to achieve their simple goal (in this case: just give me an ad!). On the other hand, if your first 5 minutes with pubCenter was exciting and straightforward, like getting a shiny new toy in the mail, even better—I’d love to hear that.

So, please tell me, what was your first interaction with pubCenter like? Were you able to signup and get into the web site easily? Once in, were you confused? Or did you find it easy creating an ad unit for your site with your ad serving preferences? Did you have any trouble getting the ads to show up, viewing/interpreting ad performance, or getting paid? My goal is to understand the first major glitch you hit in those first few days with pubCenter and went: how in the world can I accomplish this simple task? Please let us know so we can make the system more intuitive and user friendly for you!

Microsoft pubCenter browser compatibility with the UI and ad serving

Harlan — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:49:00 GMT

The other day I was speaking with my sister and our conversation was on her son and his eating habits. You see my nephew is 2 years old and he thinks everything goes together with ice cream, or at least he used to think that way until a trip to the doctor. Sure sprinkles and ice cream are his favorite, but he will tell you “ Docta say no nuts. No nuts til 3. Spikles only.” This made me realize that no matter how much we want things to go together, they are not always compatible.

Lately there has been some discussion regarding pubCenter (BETA) and browser compatibility. Do keep in mind that pubCenter supports ad delivery in the majority of Java Script enabled browsers. However the pubCenter UI, is currently not supported in Chrome, Safari or Opera, which compose roughly 1.6% of all browsers in use*. This means when using these browsers you may experience sign-in problems. For best results, when accessing the pubCenter UI, it is best to use Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox 3.0.

What has been your browser experience with pubCenter? Have you come across any UI features that don’t seem compatible?

Thanks for your thoughts! Now who wants some ice cream?

-Harlan

*Forrester Research, 2008 Browser Adoption

Microsoft pubCenter Properties – what are they?

Chris Devaraj - MSFT — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:36:00 GMT

A pubCenter property is an entity that represents a website or parts of a website. For example, assume your website is www.contoso.com and you wish to receive ads on the website, the first step to do is to create a pubCenter property as below. Note that you are able to specify a web site name and URL. When you hit the Save button, you have created your first property!

Once saved, if you navigate into your property, you will see the following. If you have been in the pubCenter pilot from before the Spring 2009 release, you will have been accustomed to seeing the property’s status as Pending. Our internal support teams then got a list of all pending properties, scrubbed them for verifying our Editorial guidelines and then approved/rejected them. This resulted in the customer having to wait up to a day to start seeing ads on your site. Who wants to wait! So, with the Spring 2009 upgrade, all newly created properties automatically enter an “Auto-approved” state. This means, you can immediately create ad units, copy them on your website and start seeing ads within minutes. And start making money!

Note that there is a reason we ask you to still create properties. As an ad network, we take pride in the (as yet) small set of good quality publishers we have corralled. We are fully aware that a quality publisher network brings in the best ad inventory. And bringing in the best ad inventory brings in more high quality publishers. As part of this effort to safeguard our network quality, we are investing in quality controls on the properties you create. So, while we are enabling our publisher customers to have instant gratification through auto-approved properties --- at the same time we are continuing to review and eliminate properties that do not meet our Editorial guidelines.

With a quality network, all of us win!

New Design: adCenter Community Now Microsoft Advertising Community

Chris Norred - MSFT — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:25:11 GMT

As you may have noticed, we've redesigned and renamed our online community Web site. All of your forum posts and all of the blog posts that you've used, along with all the recognition points that you've accumulated by participating in the online conversations, remain on the new site.

The new name, Microsoft Advertising Community, reflects the overarching brand for our business and sets the stage for an exciting new range of conversations. If you've followed our blogs recently, you've noticed that we already have started discussing the digital advertising and publishing business in a way that includes adCenter, but also much more.

Our General Manager Mark Young has recently published posts to the site discussing display advertising, market research, and more. The new site covers more Microsoft Advertising products and services, including both adCenter and pubCenter^Beta. The redesign also makes it easier to find community resources with enhanced blog post browsing and higher-profile forum and multimedia posts.

As part of the redesign, we've also upgraded our Windows Live ID implementation. You'll need to complete a one-time account retrieval when you first login with Windows Live ID. Just follow the instructions for existing users as you login. There is no need to re-register or change any of your information.

Let us know what you think of the new design, any issues you encounter, and how we can improve. Thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and participation in the community.

-Chris

Re: Website Placment Feature-Has Anyone tried?

BrianH - MSFT — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:57:03 GMT

Hi Daniel,

I was also able to replicate this issue you are experiencing with the Website Placements. I have sent this issue to the team for review and I will update once I hear word from them.

Thank you

Brian H - MSFT

Competitive Ad Filters – What? Why?

Michael Luther - MSFT — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:27:00 GMT

Related Links:
Competitive Ad Filters - What? Why?
-Limits
-How To
-Types of

What do they do?
Competitive Ad Filters, or just Filters for short, are the mechanism pubCenter gives you the publisher to block ads.

Why would I use them?
The original intent of filters is there in the formal name for them: Competitive Ad Filters. They were created as a way for you to block advertisements from your competitors. For example, if you were a florist, you wouldn’t want to see ads on your site from other florists in your area.

This may still be your primary usage of them. However, as you probably have already discovered many publishers are using them to block ads that they don’t want to see on their site or aren’t perceived as relevant. For example, if I was running a food related website, I might choose to block ads about cars because I don’t think they are relevant. Or, I might block weight loss ads because I don’t think my users of my site want to see those ads, even if they might be relevant to my food web site.

Will filters affect my revenue?
The short answer is “Maybe.”

The long answer is it really depends and there isn’t any way to know until you try it. If you don’t have any competition that you are trying to block and all you want to do is maximize your revenue then you shouldn’t need to create any filters. To quote Kevin McCabe, “Microsoft is building a new marketplace for both publishers and advertisers with the goal of helping publishers achieve competitive yield and helping advertisers see better performance from their ads.” The marketplace can’t be a success unless we are trying to make you more money.

By adding filters you are reducing the number of advertisements that are available for PubCenter to pick from for your site. If any of these are ads that we would have chosen to show on your site and that your users are likely to have clicked on, then it could be reducing your revenue. I say “could” because it still depends on the rate your users would click on the ad, how much the advertiser is paying for the click, how often we would show the ad, how those metrics compare with similar metrics for other ads, and other factors.

On the other hand, PubCenter is still in beta, there is the remote possibility that we aren’t choosing a good value ad to show on your site. Adding a filter to block this type of ad would have the potential to increase your revenue. But rest assured we still have the same goal as you: maximizing your revenue. We aren’t making any money from the ads on your site unless you are making money from them.

pubCenter Publishers: Good news - Advertisers can now bid on your placements

Juveria Kanodia - MSFT — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:59:00 GMT

In the latest version of pubCenter, we have introduced a concept which enables the advertisers to bid on your placements (adUnits) and run of site (several locations within a site). When you create adUnits and properties, pubCenter will auto-magically manage the direct bids on the properties, no matter which ad units you place on each property. And if the check box is checked, then it means that you’d like Advertisers, who are customers of Microsoft AdCenter, to be able to bid directly on your properties. Which means if your blog or property is popular enough, there can be advertisers who’ll set bids in terms of maximum CPCs on your placements or run of site and therefore get a chance to participate in the auction of ads during delivery. This checkbox enables discoverability of your website and placements by the advertiser community.

Here’s a screenshot of the placements that the advertisers can see if they search for my property:

I have two adUnits – one with display type text/image (180 x 150) and the other text/image/rich (468 x 60).

So, as it should be clear by now, it’s better to keep this check box turned on since it can help you earn a lot more :)

- Juveria

Competitive Ad Filters – Limits

Michael Luther - MSFT — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:51:00 GMT

I need more global filters

As I’m sure many of you have encountered, you want to have more than 50 keywords or 50 URLs as part of your global filter. There isn’t any direct way in which to achieve this, however, there is a work around.

You can create several normal filters (the non-global filter variety) and fill them up with your keywords and URLs that you wish to block.

Then construct a custom channel. Select all of your ad units and the normal filters you want to act like “global” filters. This will then cause those normal filters to be applied to all the impressions for the selected ad units. If you create new ad units you will need to remember to associate them with this custom channel, so choosing a good name for this custom channel that will remind you to do so is important. In addition, if you have multiple accounts you will need to create these filters and channels for each account.

Limits - # of Filters

There are 3 limits that apply to filters.

1. You are allowed 50 keywords and 50 URLs per filter

2. You are allowed up to 10 filters per account

3. You are allowed up to 200 keywords and 200 URLs per ad unit impression

If the third one is a little confusing, go back and read the section entitled “Types of filters”, specifically the part about normal filters. This 200 keyword and 200 URL limit includes the global filter, all filters associated to a channel associated to an ad unit, and all filters associated to a channel passed in the ad call (JavaScript). If this limit is exceeded any keywords or URLs past the 200 item limit are ignored. If you cross the limit without channels past in the ad call, then the ad unit management page should display a warning icon in the “# Channels” column (linked to the help system) for the ad units crossing the limit.

If this occurs you should reduce the number of URLs or Keywords associated with the ad unit(s). Otherwise, some of your keywords or URLs will be ignored and you may receive ads that you intended to block.

If you are crossing the 200 item limit via channels passed in the ad call you will receive no warning or indication that you have crossed the limit. As such, you should be careful to not cross the limit. Crossing the limit, however, will not cause any problems with rendering of the ads, but rather may just allow some ads you wanted to block through to your page.

Competitive Ad Filter – How can I filter?

Michael Luther - MSFT — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:47:00 GMT

Related links

pubCenter provides for filtering ads via two different mechanisms:

· URL

· Keyword

Blocking by URL will match against both the landing page of the ad and the display URL of the ad. If either URL matches, then the ad should not be shown. This is helpful when you have a specific site that you are looking to block. For example, if I’m running a winery site I could block ads going to CohoWinery.com. The URLs can be entire domains (e.g. contoso.com), subdomains (something.contoso.com), or pages within a site (e.g. contoso.com/somesubsection). URLs should be entered one per line up to 50 URLs per filter.

Blocking by keyword will match against the keywords bid for the ad, as well as the keywords from the landing page of the ad. This is helpful when you have a set of ads that you want to block. For example, if I were running a cooking website and I want to block car ads, I could block the keyword “car”. Keywords can be either single words (e.g. car) or phrases (e.g. brake pedal). Keywords should be entered one per line up to 50 keywords per filter.