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In this month’s release, Ad intelligence v8 API enhancements will be incorporated within adCenter. This will impact API customers immediately; we want you to know about this now so you can plan accordingly.

The Ad intelligence v8 API enhancements will allow advertisers to build Keyword list based on new and improved Keyword suggestions and enhance Keyword research and expansion capabilities.

The Ad intelligence v8 API performs the same function at the API layer as the MAI Tool

What You Need to Know

• API users need to refresh the WSDL and download the new signatures.
• Refer to the API Release Notes and MSDN documentation for details

Key Points:

Advertisers need KW suggestion capability to optimize and expand their KW list with relevant KWs to improve performance of their marketing campaigns and attain their marketing goals.

Ad Center is providing new keyword research service operations that will help enhance programmatic KW research and expansion capabilities, by providing more pivots using keyword category, demographics and location. The feature will enhance relevance and coverage of KW suggestions for advertisers.

For Keyword Suggestions the Ad Intelligence v8 API supports different kinds of Suggestion Types (e.g. based on Related Search terms from Bing, Keywords Associated with the inputs in Campaign etc.)

The enhancements to existing functionality include custom date range for capturing seasonal trends in search volumes and weekly grain in Monetization.

Ad intelligence v8 API includes support for Mobile in some the operations like GetHistoricalKeywordPerformanceByDevice, GetHistoricalSearchCountByDevice , GetKeywordDemographics and GetKeywordLocations

With the Ad Intelligence v8 API enhancement five new service operations have been introduced and one service operation has been updated .Refer to the MSDN documentation for complete programming information

• Get Historical Search Count By Device
• Get Historical Keyword Performance By Device
• Get Keyword Categories
• Get Keyword Demographics
• Get Keyword Locations
• Suggest Keywords From Existing Keywords ( modified)

KSP 5.5 and 6.0 API Deprecation

• Please note that KSP 5.5 and 6.0 are being deprecated and API users need to move to AdIntelligence v8.
• As an adCenter API user, to continue to take advantage of Ad Intelligence make sure you code to API V8 as applications coded to earlier KSP API versions will not function after May 30^th
• How to Move to V8

To be honest, I looked forward to taking a quiz about as much as I looked forward to a root canal.
However, I have to admit that the information I was quizzed about was the stuff that stuck. Just like eating my broccoli, testing my knowledge was good for me and good for learning.

That’s why we’ve added a Knowledge Check after most Atlas online training videos.

Completing the Knowledge Check after viewing a training tutorial helps you to retain new information.

Once you complete the knowledge check, your results will be recorded and available for you to view in one convenient place, your Atlas Training Report Card.

Your Atlas Training Report Card Is accessible from the Atlas Training page in Client Center. It contains pass/fail information, knowledge check questions showing your answer (and the correct answer if you missed it), an opportunity to view the training video again, and an option to download your report card.

Visit Atlas Client Center and discover all of these features and more.

• Client Center US

• Client Center Europe & Asia Pacific

Thank you,

Tamara Horn

@AtlasAdvertiser | Atlas on Facebook

Rich media has long been an area of innovation in our industry, both creatively and technically. Now one of the oldest (!) point solutions, the newness of emerging formats never seems to slow. The evidence of that continued growth shows up in the most recent success of the IAB Rising Stars solutions.

One size fits…few

Atlas’s approach to rich media is unique. We don’t believe in offering a limited “one size fits all” built-in rich media solution, and expect it will fit all needs and keep on the cutting edge of rich media growth. Instead, we want to make sure our clients can use Atlas Rich Media if they wish, or select from other top providers without sacrificing measurement. Our approach is founded on a few key principles: provide best-in-breed technology to–

1. Enable a healthy and diverse ecosystem

2. Encourage innovation across the industry

3. Allow agencies and advertisers the flexibility and choice to work with providers suited to their individual needs

To that end, we are pleased to announce the official launch of the rich media channel in the Atlas Technology Partner Alliance (ATPA). While we continue to offer our basic native solution, Atlas Rich Media, we are excited about the addition of two leading rich media providers to the ATPA program: Flashtalking and PointRoll.

While you’ve always been able to track 3^rd party-served rich media in Atlas, the ATPA program brings distinct benefits that haven’t been available before, along with a curated partnership that is jointly focused on your success.

Bye bye, tracking pixel, Hello rich media tracking

Working with a separate rich media provider and an ad server always meant one thing: the 1×1 tracking pixel. The 1×1 tracking pixel enabled advertisers to track their impressions and clicks for 3^rd party rich media ads through to conversion. But it also meant that advertiser had to pull a separate report to view and analyze all of the additional tracking and metrics that the 3^rd party rich media vendor provided, like interactions, expansions, and average interaction time. As a result, valuable analysis could be lost due to fragmented data sources.

We’ve developed a set of tools in conjunction with our ATPA partners to define a simple process for a new ad type in Atlas: the Rich Media Tracker ad. You can easily create this ad through Excel using the Atlas Media Add-in and traffic the tags to one of the ATPA partners. From there, the partners have unique tools to help them with implementation and Q/A to ensure your campaign is successfully measured.

While some have tried to achieve the same result creating multiple tracking pixels and manually mapping metrics to interactions, it’s been costly and error-prone. ATPA rich media removes the complexity with the new all-inclusive “super” pixel.

Measurement and Insights

The true benefit of ATPA rich media for Atlas clients? The ability to leverage your choice of best-in-breed rich media providers without sacrificing measurement and deep insights.

We know that rich media plays an important part in conversion attribution, and that not all touch points are created equally. Because you no longer rely on a generic 1×1 tracking pixel, Atlas is able to recognize the Rich Media Tracker for its true attributes, including ad size, ad type, and enhanced rich media metrics (interactions, etc.). All of this data feeds right into Engagement Mapping, where you can weight factors to more accurately reallocate conversion credit across touch points. Engagement Mapping rich media factors include rich media impressions, rich media interactions, and ad size.

Moreover, these additional metrics are available right in Atlas MyReports.

Click on the logos below to learn more about our exceptional partners, or reach out to your Atlas representative for more details.

What’s Next?

We’re running a few pilot campaigns to more deeply integrate with the rich media partners by allowing you to serve the 3^rd party creative right through Atlas. Serving the ad through Atlas has extensive benefits, including increased creative controls and the ability to layer in Audience Messaging. We look forward to sharing more about these enhancements soon!

Many thanks,

Lori

@AtlasAdvertiser | Atlas on Facebook

The internet offers a convenient way to find the best deals on flights, research locations and hotels, take virtual tours, and read fellow travelers’ reviews. So it’s no surprise that, according to eMarketer, the number of people who do travel research and bookings online is growing year over year (1).

At the same time, 40% percent of Americans reported that the economic downturn over the past few years has not reduced their personal/leisure travel, according to Expedia.com’s American Traveler survey. (2)

Advertisers in the travel industry may benefit from these trends. Small businesses can be intimated by the omnipresence of major travel portals, and the array of travel choices on the web can easily turn into a burden. Considering that the U.S. offers on average only 13 days of paid vacation (as opposed to 42 days in Italy, 37 in France, and 35 in Germany) travel decisions for those precious 13 days become extremely important. The wrong decision made online could ruin a costly trip to the destination of your dreams. But this is exactly where small businesses can distinguish themselves and compete successfully. Online searches can turn up the lowest prices and best deals in split seconds, but they can’t offer the personalized service that experienced professionals can.

Looking back at 2011, travel-related searches started to climb in May and peaked in July (3), so April is the perfect time to optimize your account for the travel season ahead.

Choosing Keywords: long-tail versus head terms

An analysis of travel keywords of adCenter advertisers reveals that building out specific terms is the best strategy. For instance, the highest click-through rates (CTR) are consistently found on longer keyword entities, called long-tail terms that include the destination and an offer such as “Hawaii all inclusive vacation packages.” Even when the destination was not included, terms like “all inclusive vacation” or “last minute vacation” still had strong CTRs. When building your keyword list, start with generic terms (“cruises”), then add specifics (“Hawaii cruises,” “Alaska cruises”) and details (“Hawaii cruise packages,” “Alaska cruise specials”). Find a keyword list with examples here*.

Here is an overall view of how the number of words in a keyword entity influences CTR:

Generally, a shorter keyword, called head terms, will generate more impressions and clicks, while the long-tail terms typically generate higher CTRs (4)

Take some time to find the right balance between head and long-tail terms. When adjusting your bids, keep in mind that position 1 has by far the highest click volume. The graph below shows that 42% of all clicks came when the keyword and the corresponding ad were in position 1. At the same time, CTR dropped with each position, from 6.98 in position 1 to 0.3 in position 8. (5) Getting your keywords into top positions is a strategy that usually pays off.

Adding Negative Keywords

When bidding on destinations only, you should have a robust list of negative keywords. While a keyword like “New York” will certainly give you great exposure, you do not want your ad shown for weather-related queries, traffic information, or local sports teams.

Negative keywords are also important when things unexpectedly go wrong. When you bid on cruise-related keywords, you may want to choose negative keywords to prevent your ad from being shown for searches related to the recent cruise ship accident in Italy or other such incidents.

Finding the Right Match Type

Match types let you take control of your ad delivery. We strongly recommend bidding on all match types, ideally with the highest bid on exact match. Less experienced search advertisers often believe that bidding only on broad match will cover all variations of the keyword. However, exact match typically has much better CTRs and lower CPCs.

An easy way to see average costs per click by match type and position is to install the Microsoft Advertising Intelligence tool from the tools section in adCenter. This tool will help you to determine which match type is the right one for each keyword.

Writing Effective Ad Copy

The large travel portals may be good for booking simple trips – flight and hotel to one city – but travelers seek help with complex trips. Small businesses specializing in travel can provide the level of guidance many leisure travelers desire.

• When writing your ad copy, focus on personalized services and experience. Travel agents’ unique knowledge of the destinations makes their help invaluable to the traveler.
• Travelers with a budget are likely to spend more for authentic experiences that only a travel agent can provide. While it’s good to include incentives in your ad copy, catering to luxury travelers is a niche that may pay off.
• Specialization distinguishes you from the competition. Many travelers are weary of the beaten path and search for unique destinations and a highly individualized vacation experience. Mentioning the more exotic places in your ad copy helps attract this segment of potential customers.
• Plan ahead. In a 2011 survey commissioned by the Mark Travel Corp., 19% of respondents said they were booking trips at least six months in advance, compared with 16% in May 2010. And 22% said they were booking between four and five months ahead, compared with 19% a year ago (6). So while you may be offering last-minute deals for summer, potential customers for a winter journey may already be exploring their options.

Targeting the right customers

The better you know your audience, the more precisely you can target it. Even if you have limited time to manage your adCenter account, two reports can quickly help you to better understand searchers’ intentions and their profile.

The Search Query Performance Report shows exactly what queries a Bing or Yahoo! Search user entered in relation to your keyword. The report helps you identify additional keywords to bid on and provides a list of potential negative keywords to exclude unwanted traffic.

The Age Group and Gender Report offers valuable insights into your audience’s demographic profile. You can choose incremental bidding to increase your standard bid for certain age groups or gender. Your ads are more likely to show in a better position for those targeted groups.

Bear in mind age demographics. Hitwise data from March indicate that travel-related searches are very popular with people 55 or older (7).

Going Mobile

eMarketer predicts that the number of US mobile users who research travel on their mobile devices will climb from 19.7 million in 2010 to 29.7 million in 2012. People booking via mobile will nearly double in the same timeframe, from 8.7 million to 15.1 million. (8)

We recommend duplicating your search campaigns to target mobile devices separately. Keep in mind that the display screen is smaller, meaning fewer ads can show, so mobile campaigns should be optimized for top positions.

Thanks for reading!

Peter Haubold, Vertical Specialist

*NOTE: Always review keyword lists for applicability to your own campaigns and revise as necessary to ensure the best possible experience.

—————————————

(1) eMarketer: “Travel Companies Must Take Online Reputation Management Seriously” November 2011

(2) Travelweekly.com; March 2, 2012

(3) Hitwise.com

(4) adCenter internal data

(5) adCenter position analysis; based on 20 most popular travel keywords

(6) Travelweekly.com; June 1, 2011

(7) Hitwise.com

(8) eMarketer: “Mobile Travel Takes Off”, March 11, 2011

There’s no doubt you are aware of various global industry-led initiatives around online privacy and self-regulation for Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA), which includes the implementation of the AdChoices icon. The AdChoices icon is used across ads that are behaviourally targeted, or that are collecting data for OBA purposes at a later time.

Microsoft has a strong belief that transparency and choice is central to positive consumer experiences and in online advertising as a whole. To that goal, Microsoft has been an active participant in these initiatives. Starting with the U.S., we’ve launched the AdChoices icon in close proximity to ads across our owned and operated media sites, and applied the logo as an overlay to 1^st party-served ads* through the Microsoft Media Network and MSN. We’ve also provided the AdChoices icon as an overlay to ads served from our agency/ advertiser 3^rd party ad server, Atlas.

Beginning this month, we’ll continue the support of industry self-regulation by implementing elements of the EU OBA Framework in European markets, which is similar to the implementation already rolled out in the U.S. With this launch, Microsoft will join more than 100 European signatories of the framework, which includes industry-leading publishers, networks, ad tech companies, and advertisers – all who will apply the self-regulation guidelines over the coming months.

What Does This Mean for Microsoft Advertising clients?

If your creative is being 1^st party served* through Microsoft Media Network or MSN, please be aware that the AdChoices icon will be applied in the upper-right hand corner of your ads beginning this month. If you use a 3^rd party ad server, please review our Creative Acceptance Policy.

If you have questions, contact your Microsoft Media representative.

To learn more about the industry initiative, visit these resources:

· EU Framework

· EASA Best Practice Recommendation

· European User Choice Site

Many thanks,

Lori

*First-party ads are defined as ads served directly by Microsoft, and not through a 3^rd party ad server, like Atlas, DFA , and MediaMind.

Once upon a time, the primary method of reaching customers via the internet was through what’s called “display” advertising: graphic banners that can contain animated images, audio or video elements. Display advertising options are often part of most marketing strategies managed by advertising agency teams. Although the the display ads offered by Microsoft Advertising are geared towards customers with budgets greater than $10,000, it’s worth mentioning that there are some planning resources that…(read more)

A little while ago, I was one of the Microsoft Advertising Accredited Professionals selected to assist a small business participating in Microsoft Advertising’s Campaign to Fame . My goal was simple: do what I do best and help optimize the small business’ search advertising campaign. The business I was assigned to is JAFIB Wear (an industrial-themed brand with some great merchandise). Instead of overwhelming Kirk (the owner of JAFIB Wear) with hardcore metrics, all sorts of advertising…(read more)

Spring has finally arrived and if you’re like me, you look forward to this time of year. The flowers are in bloom, sun is shining and the birds are chirping. I think we are all happy to see Mother Nature changing and updating itself. With spring’s arrival, we hope you’re just as excited about the recent updates we’ve been making to adCenter.

With your feedback, we are constantly updating adCenter to enhance your experience. You’ve already seen the post from the February adCenter Release outlining the bid and budget suggestion enhancements and update to mobile device targeting.  As exciting as these updates are, we’re not quite done yet!  Here’s the latest…

Ads Delivery Status in adCenter Web UI:

More quickly identify issues at the campaign, ad group and keyword levels.

• You will have a new filtering option to view ad delivery status at the campaign, ad group and keyword level based on your campaign priorities.
• With the new filter option on the Delivery column, you can select the ad delivery status variables that you  want to track – such as budget depletion, pending editorial review, negative keyword conflict or below first page bid – allowing quick identification of issues and clearer opportunities to improve campaigns.
• There will be no changes to the current Ad Delivery status options, only the filtering option will be new.

Reporting Updates in adCenter Web UI and API:

More transparency in understanding your share of search marketplace impression volume.

• As you know you can view your impression share data in Account, Campaign and Ad group performance reports . Now additional columns of impression share data will be added to these reports.
  • Impression Share lost due to Bid
  • Impression Share lost due to Keyword Relevance
  •  Impression Share lost due to Landing Page Relevance
    • The data that was earlier shown in  ‘Impression share lost to rank’ column will be split into 2 columns – ‘Impression share loss due to rank’ and ‘Impression share loss due to bid’ columns
    • The ‘Impression share loss due to relevance’ column will be removed and replaced by 2 new columns: ‘Impression share loss due to keyword relevance’ and ‘Impression share loss due to landing page relevance’ where the data will be split.

•  The new columns of data will be added to current columns which include:
  • Impression Share %
  •  Impression Share lost due to Budget
  • Impression Share lost due to Rank

adCenter Desktop Tool – Improved Negative Keyword Management:

More easily make bulk edits to your negative keywords with fewer steps.

• The new ‘Negative’ tab in the edit pane makes it easier to locate and manage your negative keywords.
•  Use the Multiple Changes options to add and remove negative keywords in bulk.
• Richer bulk negative keyword management functionality enables you to:
  • More easily make bulk edits with fewer steps. 
  • Copy & Paste Negative KWs in bulk across campaigns and ad groups.
  •  Use Find & Replace controls to quickly update negative keyword lists in bulk.

As always, stay tuned here to the adCenter Blog for the latest updates. If ever you log in and see something new and want more info on what’s changed, you can get up to speed with the most recent improvements by visiting the adCenter release tag; all posts related to

Although you’ve seen posts from me go up all of last week, I’ve actually been on vacation during that time and had those posts lined up to be published while I’m out. The reason I mention that is because being away from home over the past few days, I’ve had reason to try out the Local Scout feature on my Windows Phone . It was pretty cool to show up in a city where you’re only familiar with a small pocket of it, but have no problem locating nearby restaurants, shops and more with just the tap of…(read more)

Last week we started a feature comparison series to help you understand key differences between Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter and Google AdWords. Last week we touched on account set up. In this post we’ll explain the key differences between the search platforms that concern campaign management. Find out about differences on negative keywords, start & end dates and the additional opportunities of demographic targeting, device targeting and incremental bidding for customers from Yahoo! Search Marketing joining the adCenter platform.

Understand platform differences to ensure correct settings & understanding of new features

In our blog post Microsoft Yahoo! Search Alliance Results, Expectations and To Do’s we explained that in Europe the search migration is happening now in the UK, Ireland and France and is estimated to be completed by the end of April. Advertisers in these markets now come towards the end of the ‘set up’ phase. It is important to understand the differences between Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter so that you can make sure your campaign settings are the way you want them to be. There may be also may be new opportunities for you which are worth exploring.

Campaign Management – Negative & Excluded Keywords

1. If you are transitioning an account from Yahoo! Search Marketing to Microsoft adCenter your excluded keywords (called ‘negative keywords’ in adCenter ) will carry over at the same level, except account-level excluded words, which will be set to the campaign level in adCenter, as adCenter does not offer negative keywords at account level.

2. Currently, adCenter negative keywords are available at campaign and ad group levels. The negative keyword limits at the campaign and ad group levels are well above what is offered in Yahoo! adCenter also allows users to set Exact Match negative keywords for even greater precision in filtering unwanted search traffic.

3. You can also take advantage of Negative Keyword Conflict report available in adCenter to learn if you have set any negative keywords that are same as your bidded keywords. This will help resolve any conflicts between negative and bidded keywords and potentially help improve performance.

Search query reports, the adCenter keyword tool and Microsoft Advertising Intelligence are some tools to find great keywords but also to find negative keywords.

Campaign management – Start & End Dates

Imagine you are a retailer and you’re offering Easter eggs at a special price this week but not next. Within adCenter a single campaign can include ad groups with different start and end dates, making it simple to manage promotional or seasonal ads within an existing campaign. If you are transitioning from Yahoo! your campaign-level start and end date setting in Yahoo! Search Marketing will be applied at the adCenter ad group level as part of your transition.

Ad groups with different start and end date can be great for seasonal promotions

Campaign management – Demographic Targeting

You can use adCenter’s targeting options to help reach your potential customers. adCenter provides more control than Yahoo! Search Marketing by allowing you to target customers by gender and age, with incremental bids.
As you transition your account from Yahoo! Search Marketing, you will need to reset your targeting options to take advantage of the age and gender targeting available in adCenter.

So if you’re say, running a corner shop which is open 4 days a week you can opt to target customers in a certain radius around your shop on only those 4 days.

The corner shop wasn’t wasting any budget on searchers from the other side of the country looking for groceries and targeting those that lived close by.

Campaign management – Device Targeting

In adCenter you can target ad campaigns to specific smartphones and other devices, such as tablets. You can also create and customize campaigns based on device type to better target potential customers and improve campaign performance.

• Mobile OS supported options include Windows Phone, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.
• Tablet OS supported options include iOS, Android, and RIM.

Campaign Targeting – Incremental Bidding

Microsoft Advertising adCenter allows you to place additional bids, called incremental bids, in 10 point intervals from 0%- to 100% to target customers by location, day of week, time of day, customer age, or customer gender. An incremental bid is a percentage increase of the base bid, applied when customers who meet the target criteria click your ad.

• Click here to see the feature comparison on a PDF
• adCenter training video on targeting ads

Other recent blog posts on the Microsoft and Yahoo! Search Alliance:

• Microsoft Yahoo! Search Alliance Results, Expectations and To Do’s
• The Search Alliance: the Path to a More Competitive Search Market #bingyahoo
• Microsoft and Yahoo! Search Alliance: the migration starts today in the UK and France #bingyahoo
• British advertisers: get ready to benefit from a combined Yahoo! and Bing audience by April.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, let us know! Feel free to leave a comment below, post in our forums, ping us on Twitter, write on our Facebook wall or start a conversation in our new LinkedIn group.