Posts Tagged ‘adCenter’

Microsoft Yahoo Search Alliance Advertiser Notification

February 18, 2010

I received the following email today from Microsoft regarding their “search alliance” with Yahoo.

Dear Tim ,

Microsoft® and Yahoo! have now received regulatory clearance to form the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance in the United States and European Union. This milestone is an exciting step in our effort to give your business a time-saving and cost-efficient way to connect with a larger combined audience of potential customers.

How the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance benefits you After the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is implemented, you will:

Reach more potential customers: Search ad inventory from both the Yahoo! and Microsoft networks will be joined in a new, unified search marketplace powered by Bing™ , with a combined audience of over 150 million searchers in the U.S and nearly 577 million searchers worldwide.1

Save valuable time and effort: You’ll use a single platform Microsoft adCenter to manage your campaigns easier and faster. With just one buy, your search ads will reach users on Bing, Yahoo!, and other premium partner sites and networks, such as The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, msnbc.com, FoxSports.com, Facebook, and Buy.com.

What’s ahead For now, it’s business as usual; there is no change to your account or service. Your ads will continue to serve on Bing search results pages, and you will continue to receive the same great service from Microsoft.

Both companies are committed to making this transition a seamless experience. Our goal is to bring the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance to the U.S. by the end of 2010, prior to the crucial holiday season, with additional countries following on a staggered schedule beginning in 2011.

As our transition dates approach, we will contact you with information about what to do next. In order to ensure you continue to receive important service updates, please verify your contact information is current in Microsoft adCenter. View our help topic: Change contact information.

How to learn more In the meantime, you can familiarize yourself with the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance by visiting our new resource, searchalliance.com, where you’ll find plenty of additional details, including press releases, FAQs, and more!

We appreciate your business and look forward to bringing you the benefits of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance.

Sincerely,

The Microsoft adCenter Team

Microsoft Yahoo Search Alliance

Microsoft Yahoo Search Alliance

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Posted in adCenter, Marketing Communications, Microsoft Yahoo Search Alliance, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Firm, Search Engine Optimization | Leave a Comment »

and Microsoft Wanted To Buy Yahoo’s Search Business…

November 13, 2008

I have recently had some issues with a client’s account in Microsoft’s adCenter.

When Microsoft first launched adCenter – their search advertising system, I signed up and called in for some reason and realized at the time “customer support” was being handled by a call center.

During my call, I asked the CSR if they were an employee of Microsoft and she replied she wasn’t.

I thought maybe they had outsourced customer support initially because they were just launching their service.

I hadn’t called them since.

Yesterday I called in to investigate why my client’s ads were not being displayed under search queries for their brand name.

After a series of questions about the account from the adCenter customer support representative, I told her all I did was load two new text ads – over a week ago.

The entire account hasn’t generated any impressions let alone clicks since.

I then heard some additional voices on my call at which point I asked “is this call being monitored?”

She said “all calls may be monitored.”

I then asked are you in a call center offsite? Yes.

Are you a Microsoft employee? No.

If you have some free time on your hands, call adCenter’s customer support telephone number to discuss the nuances of pay per click advertising with “Microsoft’s” “customer support” staff.

You might be glad Microsoft hasn’t bought Yahoo’s search marketing business.

Microsoft adCenter Customer Support Telephone Number

Microsoft adCenter Customer Support Telephone Number

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Posted in 800-518-5689, adCenter, All Calls May Be Monitored, Customer Support, Microsoft, Paid Search, Pay Per Click, Yahoo, Yahoo Search Marketing | Leave a Comment »

2008 Holiday Retail Search Traffic Forecast

November 7, 2008

Microsoft’s adCenter blog has posted their 2008 Holiday Advertising Guide for search advertisers.

Some of the guide’s highlights:

“Online retail shopping increases in November by more than 100 percent.1 Adding promotions like free shipping make an enormous difference—57 percent of consumers stated that free shipping is a reason for them to shop online.2 For search and display advertising, online buying will peak on Black Friday, November 28, followed by Cyber Monday, December 1.”

1. Hitwise Market Share in all Categories, 2008.
2. iCongo/Harris Interactive, April 22, 2008.

Based on the percentage of consumer interest and barring any data suggesting otherwise, shipping costs appear to have become the largest remaining barrier to consumers shopping and buying online.

Can elimination of shipping costs insure and increase internet retailers sales prospects this 2008 holiday season?

As the largest online retailer, Amazon.com demonstrated their understanding of the power of free shipping by offering it during the 2007 holiday season.

Amazon is again offering free shipping this holiday shopping season with some conditions through their Amazon Prime Member program.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime

In this current economic climate, aren’t internet retailers who don’t follow Amazon’s lead by offering some type of free shipping risking transaction losses to internet retailers – like Amazon – who do?

According to Microsoft’s Holiday Advertising Guide and their traffic data from 2007, Internet retailers can expect four peak search traffic periods during this holiday season:

1. Black Friday

2. Cyber Monday

3. Holiday Crunch

4. Post Holiday

Holiday Search Traffic

Holiday Search Traffic

Important search traffic dates for internet retailers this year will be:

1. Black Friday: November 28, 2008

2. Cyber Monday: December 1, 2008

3. Holiday Crunch: Occurs between December 4, 2008 and December 18, 2008

4. Post Holiday: Begins on December 26, 2008

Internet retailers who advertise free shipping this holiday season can forecast a larger percentage of transactions generated via search from within their market than internet retailers who don’t.

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Posted in Advertise, Amazon Prime, Amazon.com, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Free Shipping, Holiday Advertising Guide, Holiday Crunch, Holiday Shopping, Internet Retailers, Microsoft adCenter, Post Holiday, Search Advertisers, Search Advertising, Search Engine Advertising, Shopping | 1 Comment »

adCenter Dynamic Keyword Insertion

October 26, 2008

Paid search ads with the search term in the ad have been proven to receive higher click through rates (CTR) over search engine ads without the searched for term embedded in them.

From the Microsoft Adcenter blog:

“With adCenter, the easiest way to include the search term is through {keyword} insertion. This function allows you to drop the term from the search box straight into your ad.”

If inserting the keyword will likely take an ad over its 25 character limit for titles or the 70 character limit for descriptions – use default text in the ad.

Default text is then used in advertiser’s ads whenever their ads would otherwise exceed character limits.

If an ad title is “30% off all {keyword} ” and one of the {keyword} variables is “Chrysanthemums,” the resulting ad title, “30% off all Chrysanthemums,” would exceed the character limit for ad titles and as a result, the ad would not be displayed.

However, by using default text in the ad title, advertisers can keep their ad text within the allowable character limit. If the ad title is “30% off all {keyword:Flowers} ” and someone searches by using the keyword “Chrysanthemums,” the ad title would be displayed as “30% off all Flowers”.

Adcenter Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Adcenter Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Use dynamic keyword insertion in conjuction with default text to increase ad relevance and increase paid search advertising click through rates.

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Posted in Ad Relevance, adCenter, Click Through Rates, CTR, Default Text, Dynamic Keyword Insertion, Microsoft, Paid Search | Leave a Comment »