MSN AdCenter Updates Coming Soon

Wed, Feb 15, 2006

Well the AdCenter team has been hard at work assimilating all the feedback from various blogs, forums and napkin backs into what will soon be unleashed upon us in the form of a very significant update. I was lucky enough to be invited to a demo of the new system yesterday and here’s what you can expect in the near future:

The new settings page you see right after you log in.
1 - Now you see campaigns and can drill down to see the associated orders.
2 - Notice all the new detail - Budget, Spend, Impressions, Clicks, CTR, Avg Position, Conversions, Avg CPC. At the campaign level this is aggregate data. These fields all carry through when you drill down to the order detail.
AdCenter Login

Simplified Order Creation - Only 4 Steps

Settings:
AdCenter Settings - Step 2

Ad Creation:
AdCenter Ads - Step 2

Keyword: note the lack of scrolling compared to the last version - yay!
AdCenter Keywords - Step 3

Pricing:
AdCenter Pricing - Step 4

Here’s the highlights of the major changes to the order creation process:
1 - Fewer steps
2 - Settings tab incorporates the targeting elements
3 - Budget, pricing and incremental pricing edited in one place
4 - Incremental pricing now a percentage rather than a hard number
5 - Research now integrated into order process
6 - New ‘Reason Codes’ for keyword rejections
7 - Can now set base bid amounts across an entire order

Some general AdCenter Pilot info:
1 - Over 2000 advertisers participating in the US
2 - Search volume is planned to increase as more advertisers are added to the pilot
3 - Full launch planned for June 2006
4 - New blog

I’m very pleased to see all the changes MSN is putting in place. This an excellent update. It would be a Kickass update tho if that cut and paste function was added for keywords.

1 Comments For This Post

Legion Says:
February 15th, 2006 at 5:02 pm

Nice, the new version seem to address most of my major gripes with Adcenter. The initial version has been pretty quirky but I am pleased with the traffic Adcenter has sent and look forward to receiving more from it as they expand the program.

3 Trackbacks For This Post

Microsoft News Tracker » Microsoft’s MSN adCenter, contextual ads getting closer Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 5:55 am

[...] Dare Obasanjo points to the new adCenter blog where we find out that an updated version of the limited beta is near release. Oilman reports on a demo of the new version and has screenshots. It still looks like Microsoft is on track for a full launch of adCenter in June 2006 [...]

adCenter Blog : adCenter Update: Sign-in Closed for 24 Hours 2/18/06 Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 5:54 pm

[...] adCenter Update: Sign-in Closed for 24 Hours 2/18/06 The new adCenter release is currently planned for tomorrow - Saturday, 2/18/06. The update starts at 3 A.M. Pacific Standard Time (PST) and will take approximately 24 hours. During this time, you will not be able to sign in to adCenter, but your ads will continue to be served and be tracked for reporting. We kept customer feedback top-of-mind when planning this release, so we’re looking forward to seeing what you think. You’ll find significant updates to order creation and campaign management. Our goal here is to simplify the process so that you can more easily create, manage, and track your adCenter campaigns. Key changes you’ll see after the release: When you sign in, the first page you see is now the “Campaigns” tab, and there’s a greater distinction between campaigns and orders. Campaigns and orders now have their own elements, historical stats, and summary pages. There’s a simplified order creation process; it’s now 4 steps: Order Settings, Ads, Keywords and Pricing. And, the Order Settings tab includes targeting elements. You’ll be able to delete campaigns and orders without first deleting all keywords and ads. Edit your budget, bidding, and incremental pricing options in one place — the new Pricing tab. Do research while you create orders. There’s a new Keyword Research Tool as well, with keyword alternatives, pre-sales data, and demographic info. When you create your keyword lists, you’ll see the keyword research and idea tool on the Keywords tab. More cool stuff: manage your ads and keywords more easily. When you create or edit ads, you’ll see a real-time preview on the right. As you type ad text and titles, the character limits update to match what you’ve got in the text field. All keyword/ad rejections will now show reason codes. The “Ad Description” field is now called “Ad Text.” The “negative match” option is now called “excluded keywords.” And: When using incremental bidding, you can set a relative percentage applied across all keyword bids instead of a specified dollar amount, so if you change your base bids, the additional targeted bid now adjusts automatically. Apply your negative keywords at the order level. If you want, apply your base bid amounts across all of your orders. U.S. city-based targeting options now include a corresponding state. Feedback from adCenter advertisers in the U.S. pilot and live operations in France and Singapore guided the changes in this release. We thank you for your input, and keep it coming – let us know what you think of the changes after you sign in and click around. Also - take a look at what Oilman, PPC Discussions, and adCenter Insider have to say about the upcoming changes. Thanks!Carolyn, adCenter Community team Published Friday, February 17, 2006 4:50 PM by adCenterBlog [...]

Darren Straight’s Blog Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 11:29 am

[...] Also - take a look at what Oilman, PPC Discussions, and adCenter Insider have to say about the upcoming changes. [...]

Legion Says:
February 15th, 2006 at 5:02 pm
Nice, the new version seem to address most of my major gripes with Adcenter. The initial version has been pretty quirky but I am pleased with the traffic Adcenter has sent and look forward to receiving more from it as they expand the program.

Microsoft News Tracker » Microsoft’s MSN adCenter, contextual ads getting closer Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 5:55 am
[...] Dare Obasanjo points to the new adCenter blog where we find out that an updated version of the limited beta is near release. Oilman reports on a demo of the new version and has screenshots. It still looks like Microsoft is on track for a full launch of adCenter in June 2006 [...]
adCenter Blog : adCenter Update: Sign-in Closed for 24 Hours 2/18/06 Says:
February 17th, 2006 at 5:54 pm
[...] adCenter Update: Sign-in Closed for 24 Hours 2/18/06 The new adCenter release is currently planned for tomorrow - Saturday, 2/18/06. The update starts at 3 A.M. Pacific Standard Time (PST) and will take approximately 24 hours. During this time, you will not be able to sign in to adCenter, but your ads will continue to be served and be tracked for reporting. We kept customer feedback top-of-mind when planning this release, so we’re looking forward to seeing what you think. You’ll find significant updates to order creation and campaign management. Our goal here is to simplify the process so that you can more easily create, manage, and track your adCenter campaigns. Key changes you’ll see after the release: When you sign in, the first page you see is now the “Campaigns” tab, and there’s a greater distinction between campaigns and orders. Campaigns and orders now have their own elements, historical stats, and summary pages. There’s a simplified order creation process; it’s now 4 steps: Order Settings, Ads, Keywords and Pricing. And, the Order Settings tab includes targeting elements. You’ll be able to delete campaigns and orders without first deleting all keywords and ads. Edit your budget, bidding, and incremental pricing options in one place — the new Pricing tab. Do research while you create orders. There’s a new Keyword Research Tool as well, with keyword alternatives, pre-sales data, and demographic info. When you create your keyword lists, you’ll see the keyword research and idea tool on the Keywords tab. More cool stuff: manage your ads and keywords more easily. When you create or edit ads, you’ll see a real-time preview on the right. As you type ad text and titles, the character limits update to match what you’ve got in the text field. All keyword/ad rejections will now show reason codes. The “Ad Description” field is now called “Ad Text.” The “negative match” option is now called “excluded keywords.” And: When using incremental bidding, you can set a relative percentage applied across all keyword bids instead of a specified dollar amount, so if you change your base bids, the additional targeted bid now adjusts automatically. Apply your negative keywords at the order level. If you want, apply your base bid amounts across all of your orders. U.S. city-based targeting options now include a corresponding state. Feedback from adCenter advertisers in the U.S. pilot and live operations in France and Singapore guided the changes in this release. We thank you for your input, and keep it coming – let us know what you think of the changes after you sign in and click around. Also - take a look at what Oilman, PPC Discussions, and adCenter Insider have to say about the upcoming changes. Thanks!Carolyn, adCenter Community team Published Friday, February 17, 2006 4:50 PM by adCenterBlog [...]
Darren Straight’s Blog Says:
February 18th, 2006 at 11:29 am
[...] Also - take a look at what Oilman, PPC Discussions, and adCenter Insider have to say about the upcoming changes. [...]

Oilman