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AdCenter Optimization Quick Reference Guide

I'd like to share the checklist I use daily for quick optimization tips for my adCenter clients. Here are some common scenarios and possible steps to address them. Low CTR? Test multiple ads Repeat ads that have higher CTR Remove poor performers Static ads: Capitalize the first letter in keywords and ad copy Insert {Keyword} or {param2} in ad title, description or display URL Unfocused orders: More detailed orders More keyword coherence Tightly targeted ad copy Try demographic targeting Increase...(read more)

Demographic Targeting - Is it right for you?

Are you an advertiser who knows what your high converting customers look like? Or, are you specifically targeting a certain age or gender for the product or website you’re promoting with search? If you knew that someone in your target demographic was sitting at the computer, wouldn’t you be willing to pay a bit more for your ad placement with that customer? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be a prime candidate to utilize the demographic targeting feature available in adCenter. This allows you to maximize presentation of your ads to your target demographic by paying a premium on your bid for those customers whom you know are likely to convert.

How does it work?

The data used for the demographic targeting option (age and gender) comes from information reported by MSN customers; this data in Microsoft adCenter is retrieved through the online advertising audience's Windows Live IDs. If you have targeted your ad to Females using the incremental bid or "bid boost" option in adCenter, you can increase your bid in increments of 10% up to 100% for the demographic you’ve identified as your "sweet spot". So, if you’ve chosen 10%, your $2 Max CPC bid becomes $2.20 when adCenter is able to recognize this information about a logged-in user. With this strategy in place, you're likely improving your position for your target customer and increasing the right traffic to your site.

Important note: Incremental bid boosts are additive so if you’ve elected to bid 10% for Female and 20% for 30-39, you’ll be increasing your bid by 30% for someone who falls into both categories using their non-identifiable label.

How do I implement this strategy?

Select the ad group you'd like to apply demographic targeting to. On the Manage selected ad group page, under Set incremental bids for targeting, click Bid for location, day, time, age, or gender. Under Demographics, select the additional amount you want to bid to target by age group or gender, in 10 percent increments above your keyword bid amount. Click Save. You’ll be off and running in targeting the right customers to maximize your bid for.

If this strategy is implemented correctly, you could increase your conversions, increase your CTR, and boost your ROI! Good luck.

Tips for preventing your budget from exceeding prematurely

Have there been days you experienced a sudden spike in impressions? Here are a couple easy ways you can protect your budget from exceeding prematurely.

1- Use Budget per Day Option:

With this new budgeting option, you can control your campaign costs by stopping ad exposure if you set a maximum daily budget limit. You can use this option when you plan on adjusting your budget frequently to take advantage of changing market conditions, such as a holiday season or special promotions.

What happens when you reach your budget daily limit?

If you reach your budget daily limit before the end of the day, all your ad groups in the campaign are paused (Budget Paused status) and ads associated with the ad groups in the campaign are no longer displayed. Your campaign will resume at the start of the next day, as long as you haven't yet reached your monthly budget limit.

Here are the steps for setting your daily budget:

1. Go to the Pricing page (new campaign) or Keywords tab (existing campaign).
2. In the drop-down list next to the Campaign budget box, select per day.
3. In the Campaign budget box, type your daily target amount.
4. In the Maximum monthly budget box, type the maximum amount you want to spend each month.

 

Please note that in some cases, your daily budget target may be exceeded by a small amount, but your maximum monthly budget will not be exceeded.  

2- Set Negative Keywords: To avoid getting unrelated leads which could have an impact on your daily budget, I recommend adding negative keywords. Someone advertising for a window washing company might want to add negative keywords for window treatments, window replacement, etc. To identify the keywords which have generated the most leads, you’ll need to run a Keyword Performance Report which can be found in the Reports Tab within adCenter. You can then use the Keyword Research Tool, which can be found on the Research Tab within adCenter, to identify some possible negative terms that appear when searching on these keywords. The resulting keyword recommendations are created from searches on Live Search & MSN over the previous month.

3- Apply Selective Bid Management: This solution requires keeping a constant eye on your bids and making frequent adjustments when necessary. For example, if you're seeing a spike in impressions, it's possible that one or more of your search terms were listed in the "A-List Searches" box on the MSN home page (screenshot below), which may generate an unexpected flood in impressions. You can simply review the MSN home page and lower your bids for any search terms that appear both in the "A-List Searches" box and in your list of keywords.

 

Keyword Match Types

Determining which keyword match types to bid on can be one of the most basic yet most confusing elements of setting up your search marketing campaign(s). To start with, even understanding the difference between the three options is difficult. I find that thinking about a specific keyword in terms of the different match types helps me straighten them out. For example, consider the keyword “big red dog”.

· If you were to bid on exact match your ad would only show for queries that exactly match that keyword, so only if a searcher types in “big red dog”.

· With a phrase match bid, your ad would show for all queries in which that phrase is used, so for example “big red dog for sale”.

· Broad match means that if anywhere in the searcher’s query those three words come up, your ad will show. For instance with the query “red house with big yard for dog”. Just a note that AdCenter will sometimes expand that broad match to include relevant terms such as “big red puppy” so that you are truly reaching all of your potential traffic.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, how do you decide which match types are right for your business and your keyword list? If my clients are looking to get maximum coverage I recommend bidding on all three match types. Why not just bid on broad match? It may be that you get a higher click through rate with your exact match bids which can lead to better ad positioning in exact match situations. Therefore in order to ensure the best match and the best position possible for your ad, you want to have bids for all three.

If, however, you have a very specific target audience, you may not want to cast such a wide net. In this case, you want to look carefully at your keyword list and think about all the possible searches that might include these terms; some pf these possibilities may be irrelevant to the services or products you are trying to advertise. If you know there are queries you want to exclude, you can bid on phrase match and use negative keywords to exclude any unwanted traffic. If, however, you don’t want any traffic coming to your site by accident you should limit your bids to exact match. This way you know that only searchers who have specifically queried your keyword will see your ad. You have to realize, however, that by limiting your bidding strategy, the quality of the traffic may be high but the volume will probably be significantly lower.

If you already have a bidding strategy in place, you may still want to reassess your match type choices. A great way to do this is to run a keyword performance report and add the “delivered match types” column. This will show you how your keyword is matching to the queries of searchers. Even if you are only bidding on broad match, this will tell you if the majority of your traffic is coming to you on exact match. If this is the case you may want to try bidding on exact match and perhaps using a higher bid as this is how most searchers are reaching your ad. It is always possible to change your bidding strategy, so I recommend playing around with it. Find out what brings you the highest return on your investment and remember that bidding is only part of the picture; you also need to take a close look at your ad copy to make sure it is enticing and relevant to your search audience. If you’re all set with your search bids consider bidding on our content network which can expand your reach even further.

Now that you have a plan of action, it is fairly simple to go into adCenter and tweak your bids by drilling down to the keyword level in any of your ad groups. By clicking on the “edit bids” button you will have several options as shown below:

1: Here you can apply the same bid to all the keywords in this ad group.

2: Here you can choose to allow the system to estimate bids required for your ads to show in first position and update your bids to those. This is just an estimate, so there is no guarantee that your ads will start showing in the first position.

3: Click on Edit Keywords to add more keywords and to update match types.

4: You can update individual bids by clicking in the current bid box and typing in the new bid. Please note that there is a minimum bid of $.05.

After you have completed your changes be sure to hit the save button at the top or bottom of the page. You can always go in and change your bids, so continue to revise and tweak your bidding strategy to optimize for your business goals.