All posts in microsoft adcenter

Here’s a collection of this weeks PPC links from around the blogosphere:

Google AdWords

• Google AdWords are looking for more testers for audio ads.
• Google AdWords click-to-play ads are now available in the UK.
• Here are some instructions about how to export your Google AdWords campaign.
• Invites are being sent out to test CPC for site-targeting.
• SFGate.com write about how Google’s AdWords confuses transgender terms with teen porn.

Yahoo! Search Marketing

• The Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog talks about how you can assign different user roles using Panama.
• Search Engine Roundtable asks is a perfect quality score in Yahoo! Search Marketing possible?

Microsoft adCenter

• Microsoft adCenter released a Content Ads Webinar.

PPC

• Shoemoney posts some landing page tips.
• Andrew Goodman writes for Search Engine Land’s new paid search column, titled paid search back-checks, slays dragons, asks for little in return.
• Another Search Engine Land article looks at the 5 secret PPC agencies don’t want you to know.
• Jonathan Mendez posts 5 lessons from multivariate tests on Google PPC ads.
• And I asked should you pause PPC campaigns while on holiday?

Here’s a weekly roundup of this weeks PPC news:

• There will be a PPC webcast next week from Search Marketing Now.
• JenSense spots Google AdWords testing a yellow background on ads above the search results.
• Google confirm that click fraud is 0.02% of all clicks.
• Search Engine Roundtable reports that Canadian companies are invited to be Google AdWords Qualified Professionals.
• The Inside AdWords follows up it’s AdWords optimisation tips post about assessing your industry and audience with part two assessing your website and goals.
• Google are to share it’s list of content partners in the next few months.
• There are reports of paused Google AdWords ads still running.
• Yahoo! Search Marketing bids remain $0.10 but grandfathered bids are removed.
• And Microsoft adCenter beta is now open to everyone.

Last week I wrote a recap post about recent Google AdWords news, this is something I plan to do more of in the future to cover any PPC news I may have missed (or just not blogged about) during the week.

WebProNews author Igor Mordkovich this week wrote an excellent article containing a list of 17 common PPC mistakes.

The article gives a description of each of these but here are the 17 points:
1. Bidding Broad
2. Fighting for #1 Spot
3. Avoiding Geo-targeting
4. Losing Relevance on Landing Page
5. Getting Rid of Fraud Networks
6. Being Boring
7. Using Telephone Numbers
8. Not Bidding for Your Name
9. Lack of Affiliate Control
10. Not Separating Content Match from Search Results
11. Ignoring the Seasonal Copy
12. Lack of “Exact Tracking”
13. Paying for Negative Keywords
14. Mistaking CTR with conversion rate when testing ads
15. Not Using Keywords in Ad Copy
16. Not Calling Google
17. Avoiding Brand Name Keywords

Search Engine Roundtable is covering the Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago this week, below are some quotes and links to the sessions about PPC advertising.

Compare & Contrast: Ad Program Strategies (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft)
Brad Geddes talks about the similarities and differences of Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter:
“Google AdWords supports over 200 countries, with 27 regional targeting options.
Microsoft adCenter supports 200 countries but only shows ads in 4 countries but they will role out more as time goes on. Geographic targeting is determined at the order level (ad group level). He then shows screen shots, all customers (all of the world) or you can select countries or regions.
Yahoo Search Marketing “Panama” is only available in the US now. 23 countries available, DMA targeting (US only), one account per country. Each country may have different editorial considerations. He then shows screen shots from the US based advertisers. You can select entire market versus regions (entire market is a country). You can drill down to state, region, etc and it shows you a highlighted map with your selection. They do have a zip code search, but it is not radius, it just shows you regions that are in or close to that zip code.”

Ad Testing: Research and Findings:
Anton Konikov from Acronym Media’s presentation about advanced topics with testing:
“Covering the fundamentals of ad testing: where can you test? Google and MSN both allow for multiple ad creative testing, where Yahoo has not in the past. Google and MSN both allow for multiple ad creative testing, where Yahoo has not in the past. However Yahoo! Panama will alow for this. He said that they would have to run ads over a certain period of time and then change them. He discussed key metrics: Click-Through-Rate (CTR) allows you to know how attractive the ad or offering is, and which messaging is more effective at driving traffic. Conversion rate is a more desirable metric, and should be tracked by keyword.”

Ads in a Quality Score World:
Josh Stylman from Reprise Media talks about the Google AdWords quality score:
“How is industry defining “quality score?” Method was originally defined by Google. Shows some historical context explaining how PPC started with GoTo. Started with the simple rule that “whoever pays most is #1.” There were analogies to the financial services market since you knew what your competitor pays. “Thank Google” for introducing idea of CPC X CTR, which made advertisers become more aware of the copy they produced, as well as forced bid management. Why did G change the auction? Control over #1 position, minimized less relevant ads, and of course maximized G’s revenue.”