Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft Advertising adCenter

Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft Advertising
adCenter Feature Comparison Guide
Now you can advertise on Yahoo! Search and Bing with one ad buy through Microsoft Advertising adCenter.
Use this guide to learn more about the adCenter features and how they may differ from those you’ve used with
Yahoo!. For more details on the transition, please visit the Yahoo! Transition Center or Microsoft Transition Center.
Account setup and distribution
How it works in adCenter
Distribution
Tactic
Ad
Distribution
(Set at the
account level)
(Set at the ad
group level)
Microsoft adCenter allows you to choose
whether you’d like to distribute your ad
groups in the search auction, the content
auction, or both.
If you are importing campaigns from Yahoo!,
the distribution settings will be maintained
in adCenter. For example, an account with
content match turned off in Yahoo! Search
Marketing will have content distribution in
adCenter turned off at the ad group level.
In adCenter, serving content ads to partner
sites is automatically turned
on when you create a new campaign
or ad group.
Network
Distribution
(Search ads)
1
Enhanced
Search Network
Distribution
(Search ads)
In Yahoo! Search Marketing you had the
option to choose Network Distribution for
search ads to the entire Yahoo! network,
Yahoo! Search only, or Yahoo! Partners only.
In adCenter you can use the Enhanced
Search Network Distribution feature to
choose to display your search ad groups
all Bing and Yahoo! search networks and
syndicated search partners (the default
setting), only Bing and Yahoo! Search
syndicated partners, or only Bing and
Yahoo! sites in the U.S. and Canada. If you
are transitioning your campaigns over from
Yahoo! your search ad groups will also be
set to distribute at the default setting, as
your Network Distribution settings in Yahoo!
Search Marketing will not automatically carry
over into adCenter.
Feature snapshot
How it works in adCenter
Market
(Set at the
account level)
Language
and Market
(Set at the ad
group level)
As you transition your Yahoo! account to
adCenter, you will be asked to select the
language and market for your ad groups.
This is the language in which the ads are
written and the market or set of websites
through which the ads are distributed.
In adCenter, the United States, Englishspeaking Canada, and French-speaking
Canada are considered three different
markets. Your North American market
Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns will
default to the English – United States
language and market in adCenter.
If you want to run a North American English
language campaign, but the messaging is
different for each market, you could create
one ad group with the language and market
of “English – United States” (www.bing.
com and www.yahoo.com), and another
ad group with the language and market
of “English – Canada” (www.ca.bing.com
and www.ca.yahoo.com). In this way, you
will have ads distributed to the local search
engines for all of your target markets.
Blocked
Continents
N/A
adCenter does not currently allow you to
block distribution in certain continents;
rather, it enables you to select distribution
in the locations that you want. If you had
blocked continents in Yahoo! you will
need to update these setting in adCenter
by targeting customers by geographical
location.
Enhanced
Website
Exclusion
If you have Blocked Domains set in your
Yahoo! Search Marketing account, you will
be pleased to know that adCenter provides
even more control to block sites than
what you previously had in Yahoo! Search
Marketing. Yahoo! Search Marketing allows
you to block up to 500 domains that you
do not wish your content and search ads
to display on at the account level. With
adCenter, you can control these settings at
a more granular level. Now, you can block
up to 500 websites you do not with your
search and content ads to display on at the
campaign and ad group levels. (This feature
was previously available in adCenter only
for content ads.) If you are transitioning
your campaigns over from Yahoo! Search
Marketing you will need to reenter the
websites you’d like to exclude in adCenter,
since your blocked domains from Yahoo!
Search Marketing will not automatically carry
over into adCenter.
(Set at the
account level)
Blocked
Domains
(Account
level for
search and
content)
2
(Campaign and
ad group level
for search and
content ads)
Feature snapshot
How it works in adCenter
Time Zone
Time Zone
(Set at the
master
account level)
(Set at account
and campaign
levels)
If you transition your Yahoo! account to
adCenter, your master account level time
zone will be automatically set as the default
time zone for your account in adCenter,
which will carry down to all of your
campaigns for that account.
In adCenter you have the additional
ability to also set a time zone for each
new campaign individually. The time zone
should be where your office is located
because it’s used for billing purposes and
to help control your daily and monthly
campaign budgeting. The time zone is not
associated with the location of your potential
customers.
Username
and Password
Username and
Password
(Associated to
contacts)
(Set at
customer level
and assigned to
accounts)
3
If you manage multiple accounts with
adCenter, you can have one username and
password set at the customer level, that you
can use to access the multiple accounts you
manage. With Yahoo!, you have separate
usernames and passwords for each account.
This is a key benefit with adCenter to help
you save time by allowing you to sign-in
to adCenter just once while you manage
multiple accounts. If you do not already have
an adCenter username and password you
will be able to create one at the time of your
transition to adCenter.
Feature snapshot
Budgeting and bidding
How it works in adCenter
Monthly
Budget
Monthly
Budget
(Required at
campaign
level)
(Required at
campaign level)
Setting a monthly budget for your campaign
in adCenter is required. When you transition
your campaigns into adCenter, your daily
spend limit in Yahoo! will be multiplied out
to create a monthly budget, then divided
evenly across your campaigns.
You have a variety of budgeting options
to choose from in adCenter. If you choose
to adjust your budget settings, you have
flexibility and control over how your budget
gets allocated across the month by choosing
to set a daily budget target, divide your
monthly budget across the month, or spend
your monthly budget until it’s depleted.
Make sure that you select an appropriate
budget for your campaigns, taking care
to choose settings that maximize your
performance.
Daily
Spending
Limit
(Set at the
account
and/or
campaign
level)
Minimum
Bid is $0.01
Daily
Budget
(Set at the
campaign
level)
Minimum Bid is
$0.05
There is no daily spending limit in adCenter.
You can set a daily budget, in addition to a
monthly budget. Please note that the daily
budget is a target and does not provide
a hard stop. The actual daily spend could
be higher or lower than the daily budget,
but the monthly spend will not exceed the
monthly budget you set.
Microsoft adCenter requires a minimum bid
of $0.05. If your keyword bids in Yahoo! are
under $0.05, the transition tool will prompt
you for approval to increase your bids to
$0.05. You can also customize your keyword
bids on your own in adCenter.
To get your ads serving, make sure that
you adjust your bids to help improve your
performance. A higher bid will give you a
greater chance of achieving a favorable ad
position and greater traffic from Bing and
Yahoo! Search users.
4
Feature snapshot
How it works in adCenter
Bid by
Keywords
Bid by
Keywords
(Set ad
group level
default bids
for search or
content, or
keyword level
custom bids
for search
only)
(Set ad group
level default bids
and individual
keyword level
bids by match
type for search
and content)
adCenter offers you more keyword bidding
controls that allow you to customize a
bidding strategy that’s right for your search
and content ads. With adCenter, you can bid
on keywords in one or more of the following
ways:
•Enter one default bid for all content network
keywords and another default bid for all search
network keywords. (Your ad group default bids
are applied only to keywords that do not have
nondefault bids.)
•Enter individual (or nondefault) bids for
individual keywords by match type.
•Use the bids that are estimated to achieve
average position 1.
Bidding competitively helps your ad show up
in a prominent position in search results or
content pages for those keywords.
N/A
Bid by
networks and
websites
(Set at the ad
group level for
new Content
Network Only
campaigns)
Prepay
billing
Pay
as you
receive
clicks
For new content only campaigns in adCenter,
you can choose to bid by networks and
websites instead of by keywords. This allows
you to bid for particular websites in the
content network, or on the entire content
network. If you win a bid, your ad will appear
at that location.
Be sure to use this feature to maximize your
ROI from our content network. Note that
you may not be able to target & bid on
some of our Premium partner sites due to
contractual limits.
Instead of paying before you receive clicks
in Yahoo!, adCenter has a threshold-billing
system that applies charges either on your
monthly billing cycle day or when you reach
your billing threshold, whichever comes
first. adCenter also has a Bill Me Now option
that allows you to charge your Microsoft
adCenter account balance immediately to
your payment method.
You can pay by credit card or debit card.
Some advertisers also pay by invoice. In the
U.S., PayPal is also an option. If you paid your
Yahoo! account with PayPal and are eligible
to do so in adCenter, you must re-enter that
information because it will not be carried
over as part of the transition.
5
Feature snapshot
Campaign management and targeting
How it works in adCenter
Excluded
Words
Negative
Keywords
(Up to 250
keywords
each at the
account,
campaign,
and ad group
levels)
(Several
thousand at
the campaign
and ad group
levels, and 1,024
characters at the
keyword)
Start
and
End Dates
Start
and
End Dates
(Set at the
campaign
level)
(Set at the ad
group level)
Targeting
Targeting
(Set at the
campaign
and ad
group
level)
(Set at the
campaign
and ad
group
level)
6
As part of your transition from Yahoo! to
adCenter, your excluded keywords 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 the account
level.
Currently, adCenter negative keywords
are available at the campaign, ad group,
and keyword levels. We recently expanded
negative keyword limits at the campaign and
ad group levels to several thousand, which is
well above what is offered in Yahoo! Search
Marketing. Negative keywords set at lower
levels override those at higher levels within a
campaign.
Your campaign-level start and end date
setting in Yahoo! will be applied at the
adCenter ad group level as part of
your transition.
In adCenter, one campaign can include ad
groups with different start and end dates,
making it simple to manage promotional or
seasonal ads within an existing campaign.
When you move your campaigns into
adCenter, you will need to reset your
targeting settings with adCenter targeting
options. With adCenter, you can zero in
on your ideal customers with targeting by
geographic location, age and gender, day of
week, time of day, and device.
Feature snapshot
How it works in adCenter
GeoTargeting
Geographic
Targeting
(Set at the
campaign
and ad
group
level)
Demographic
Bidding
Demographic
Targeting
(Set at the
campaign and
ad group level)
Take control of your geographic targeting
by selecting specific countries/regions,
states/provinces, metro areas, or cities
where your target customers are. Microsoft
adCenter uses reverse-IP address lookup to
determine the customer’s location. At this
time, adCenter doesn’t offer targeting by
postal code. When you move your Yahoo!
campaigns into adCenter, you will need to
reset your targeting settings.
You can use adCenter’s age and gender
targeting to help reach your ideal target
customers. adCenter provides you with more
control by allowing you to exclusively target
customers by gender and age, and then add
incremental bids to your base bid as well.
While adCenter does allow you to exclusively
target specific genders and age groups, there
is no option to absolutely block the 0-17 age
range from seeing your ads. Instead you can
exclusively target other ages and genders
you wish to reach.
As you transition your account from Yahoo!,
you will need to reset your targeting options
to take advantage of the exclusive age and
gender targeting available in adCenter.
Ad
Scheduling
7
Target
by Time
of Day or
Day of Week
When transitioning your Yahoo! campaigns
to adCenter, you will need to reset your
targeting options to select the time periods
within which you wish your ads to display.
(Set at the
campaign and
ad group level)
In adCenter, you have the ability to
designate ads to show more frequently to
consumers on specific days of the week and
times of day.
Feature snapshot
How it works in adCenter
Carrier
Targeting
Target by
Device
(Set at the
campaign,
ad group, ad,
and keyword
level)
(Set at the
campaign and
ad group level
for text search
ads)
Bid
Adjusments
Incremental
Bids
(Set at the
campaign and
ad group level)
At this time, mobile carrier targeting is not
available in adCenter. Instead, you can set
your adCenter campaigns and ad groups to
target your text search ads to smart phones
and other mobile devices with full web
browsers.
Device targeting in adCenter allows your ads
to display only to potential customers who
are viewing your ad with a specific device,
such as a smart phone, laptop, or desktop
computer.
Microsoft Advertising adCenter allows you
to place additional bids, called incremental
bids, in 10 point intervals from zero 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.
Keywords and ad customization
Match Types
Match Types
(Advanced
and
standard)
(Broad, phrase
and exact)
adCenter offers three search match type
options: exact, broad, and phrase. While
Yahoo! currently only offers standard and
advanced match options, the three match
type options in adCenter align with industry
standards seen in other search advertising
systems.
If you transition your Yahoo! campaigns to
adCenter, your advanced match keywords
will transition to broad match, and your
standard match keywords will transition to
exact match in adCenter.
In addition to having the three industry
standard match types in adCenter, you can
also specify unique bids for each match type
– giving you more control over your bidding
strategies.
8
Feature snapshot
How it works in adCenter
Ad Title
and Short
Description
Ad Title
and Text
adCenter allows ad titles up to 25 characters
and ad text up to 70 characters, while Yahoo!
allows ad titles up to 40 characters and ad
text up to 70 characters. It is recommended
that you shorten your ad title and short
description in Yahoo! Search Marketing
before you transition to adCenter to help
ensure your ad doesn’t receive an editorial
disapproval.
Keyword
Canonicalization
Keyword
Normalization
Microsoft adCenter uses a normalization
process to find and flag duplicate keywords
in your keyword list so you can remove
them. This saves you time because you don’t
have to manage as many keyword variations.
When you import keywords, if there are
duplicates caused by normalization, you’ll
see an error message, but you can still
import your list. Microsoft adCenter
removes the duplicates automatically.
adCenter does not normalize for plural
forms or misspellings like Yahoo! so there
are significantly higher number of keywords
that can be entered, optimized, and bid on
in adCenter. Use the free tool, Advertising
Intelligence, to expand your keyword lists to
help capture more queries by your
target consumers.
9
Feature snapshot
How it works in adCenter
Params
Params and
Dynamic Text
A customized ad is more likely to appeal
to potential customers because it is
more relevant. Using dynamic text can
help improve the click-through rate and
conversion rate of your ads, and when you
use dynamic text as a placeholder, you can
quickly update multiple ads simultaneously.
You’ll find three types of dynamic text:
keyword, which allows you to customize
your ad based on search queries; destination
URL, which changes the destination URL
based on search queries; and placeholders,
which enables you to revise multiple ads
simultaneously by using placeholders.
For placeholders, adCenter offers more
param options beyond {keyword}, including
{keyword:default}.
You can also customize your search ads by
using text variables. You first create a base
ad, and then you indicate which parts of the
ad will change, depending on factors such as
keyword search queries by
potential customers.
Reporting
N/A
Search Query
Performance
Report
Currently not available through Yahoo!, once
you transition to adCenter, begin using the
search query performance report to get
performance statistics about user search
queries that resulted in impressions and
clicks for your ads. You can use this report
to learn what queries searchers are entering
on Bing and Yahoo! that cause your ads to
display. This knowledge can help you refine
your keyword and negative keyword lists for
your ad groups.
Ad Delivery
Report
Publisher
Performance
Report
With the Publisher Performance Report in
adCenter, you can see the sites within our
network that your ads are running on and
use this information to further optimize
your campaigns.
10
Feature snapshot
How it works in adCenter
N/A
Website
Placement
Performance
Report
(Available for
content network
ad groups that
bid on website
placements)
ConversionOnly and Full
Analytics
Package
(Set at
account level)
Conversion
Tracking and
Analytics
(Set at
campaign
level)
Use the website placement performance
report to monitor the performance of
content ad placements in selected accounts,
campaigns, and ad groups. This performance
report shows a breakdown of web site
domain for sites specifically bid on with the
Site Placement Bidding feature. .Doing so can
help you make well informed decisions as you
optimize your campaigns.
adCenter currently offers conversion
tracking functionality. If you use the
transition tool from within your Yahoo!
Search Marketing account (a tab labeled
“adCenter”), your conversion tracking
settings will be imported into adCenter.
You’ll want to make certain that the “track
conversions” check box is selected for
each of your adCenter campaigns because
conversion tracking is not automatically
turned on in adCenter. You will not be
required to retag your sites with adCenter
tags.
Similar to Yahoo!’s Full Analytics product,
new Campaign Analytics in adCenter will
give you information about site-visitor
activity that occurs as a result of your paid
search campaigns—conversions, revenue
from conversions, advertising cost, and
other site-visitor behavior.
11
Feature snapshot