CAT | Microsoft
24
Twitter Negotiating Real-Time Search Deal with Microsoft and Google
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Google, Microsoft, Search Engine News, Social Media, Twitter, Yahoo
When I posed the question, ‘How will Twitter monetise…?’, at the tail end of last week, I didn’t expect the answer to be quite so immediate. Today it has been announced that Twitter are holding talks with both Google and Microsoft to seal a deal that will see feeds being shown alongside standard search results.
This is a move that has been some time in the making. Bing stole a march on Google at the beginning of July by integrating the tweets of a select band of Twitterati royalty (as covered in our blog post, ‘Bing Unleash Real-Time Search’). Whilst Twitter has struggled to find a way to make money from its hugely popular service, the search engines have been seeking ways to tap into its real-time capabilities. A match made in heaven, surely.
Initial reports suggest that the Twitter team are talking to executives at both Microsoft and Google; although it remains unclear whether they favour either, both or maybe even neither. Details are a little sketchy but it appears as though Twitter will be looking to tap into some of the search engine’s huge advertising revenue by affording them the chance to mine their data.
A shrewd move, particularly if it comes off. Firstly Twitter won’t have to sell advertising on their own pages, therefore they won’t suffer the backlash of disgruntled members. Secondly, the Twitter service will suddenly become available to an even wider audience, helping to cajole a few more to sign up. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, they can finally establish a continuous and productive revenue stream.
On the other hand Google and Bing will also get what they have been looking for, real-time data. People follow trends and want to know the latest news as it happens, which has accounted for much of Twitter’s popularity. Whilst Facebook may be bigger in terms of audience, Twitter has cornered the market in information sharing; and whilst they still maintain that position, it is surely time to cash in.
As with most business deals, you can expect this to be protracted and have various twists throughout the negotiations. Whilst it will be interesting to see what the outcome is, it will surely be more interesting to see how quickly and what the effect of this Twitter/search engine integration will be.
Whilst I suggested that the news on Twitter’s monetising plans should be expected ‘in the coming months’ following their major investment, this wasn’t quite what I envisaged. Most people could have foreseen that significant investment would lead to equally significant development; but this, on the face of it, appears to be Twitter really getting their act together and ensuring they remain vital and a major part of both search and communication.
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Published by SEO Prof Andy
23
Pay Per Click on Bing: Campaign Setup
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Bing, Microsoft, Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine News
Now that you have created and activated your Microsoft adCenter Account, I thought I would follow on my previous blog post ‘Pay Per Click on Bing – Account Setup‘, with step-by-step guide on creating a new campaign.
Creating your Pay Per Click Campaign
Log into your newly created Microsoft adCenter Account and click on the Campaigns tab
- You will see the initial campaign which was set up with the account creation within the main screen. To create an additional new campaign, select Create Campaign. The process is similar to the setup of your account, but you can now create a targeted campaign focused on the products or services you are looking to advertise. Once the account has been setup and activated, you have access to the many targeting and keyword tools Microsoft adCenter has to offer.
- Depending on the nature of your business, you may just have one campaign in your account and multiple ad groups promoting your products/services or you could have a number of campaigns each containing multiple ad groups. Your structure is down to you.
- Firstly, give your new campaign a name which will be relevant to the ad groups that will sit within it. If you are a pet shop for example, you may have multiple campaigns, one for each type of animal and within each campaign, you could have a series of ad groups promoting each of the different products you sell to do with the animal
a. Campaign Name – Cats
b. Ad Group 1 – Cat Food
c. Ad Group 2 – Cat Litter
d. Ad Group 3 – Cat Collars
- Select the time zone for your campaign. Microsoft adCenter will display your ads based on the time zone you select. If your company is based in the UK but you sell cat food to customers in the USA, you will need to set you time zone to USA.
- The campaign budget has two different options to choose from. If you have a suitable budget, I would recommend selecting the monthly budget option to be spent across the month
a. Budget per Month – This can be divided across the month or spent until depleted
b. Budget per Day – You will also be asked to provide a maximum monthly budget that you wish not to exceed
- Within this section, depending on the nature of your business, you may wish to set up the targeting for your campaign. The various targeting options available to you are:
a. Location
b. Hour of the day
c. Day of the week
d. Age
e. Gender
- If you know of any campaign level negative keywords at this stage, you can add them now. If you want to wait until later, this is also an option. One of the major differences between Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter is the number of negative keywords you can add to your account. Google AdWords allows you to add 1000’s of negative keywords but within Microsoft adCenter you can only have 1024 characters worth at campaign, ad group and keyword level. Select you negatives carefully!
- Apply your first ad groups settings by giving it a relevant name and a start and end date.
- The next step is to create targeted ad copy for your first ad group. This should be carefully crafted to promote the product(s) or service(s) that you will feature within the group. Think about what keywords you are going to add to the group and incorporate the most appropriate one within the copy.
- Once you have written your first ad hit Save and you then have the option to create another ad for the ad group to allow for split testing or you can choose to continue if you just want the one ad variant.
- Next stage is to select your targeted keywords for your ad group. Remember to keep your keywords within a theme for the ad group to keep the ad variant relevant for as many of the search terms as possible.
a. Ad Group – Cat Food
b. Targeted Keywords
- Tinned Cat Food
- Packet Cat Food
- Fresh Cat Food
- Cheap Cat Food
c. Non Targeted Keywords
- Cat Litter
- Cat Food Recipes
- Now that you are an adCenter member, there is an additional keyword research tool available to you which will search your destination URL for suggested keywords
- Once you have researched all your keywords and inserted them to the box, select Add to Keyword List. Your keywords will now appear within the Keyword List at the bottom of the page, the default match type (unless you have already specified) is broad match. To change this click on the Select Columns drop down and tick all three match types.
- You will now be able to go through and choose the different variations of match type you would like to bid on.
- Next screen is all about your spend and budgets. Here you can update your campaign budget if required and select the default bid price for the ad group. The minimum CPC is £0.05p.
- Select Save and Continue, review your campaign and Submit
Congratulations! You have launched your first Microsoft adCenter campaign.
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Published by SEO Prof Andy
23
Age and Gender PPC Targeting on Bing
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Bing, FAQ - PPC, Microsoft, Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine News
One of the advantages of Pay Per Click advertising on Bing is the age and gender demographic targeting.
The Microsoft adCenter has collected data overtime from various sources to create this targeting feature estimating the visitor’s gender and age:
- MSN Messenger
- Previous Search Queries
- Market Research
- Customer Service
- Registration Data from Hotmail
The results are obviously not 100% accurate but various studies in China show that the data collection and algorithms guessed the gender correct 80% of the time and the age of the visitor at least 60% of the time.
The Benefits
Gender
Various products and services that you as an advertiser may be offering, could be better suited to the male or female population. Knowing your target visitors gender allows you to target your ad text and landing pages accordingly.
Age
You can tailor your ad text and landing pages to suit a targeted age group. The system allows you to place incremental bids on each keyword for each age group which will help to limit the amount you spend each month on less targeted traffic.
The Age Groups
There are five different age groups within the Microsoft adCenter demographic targeting tool:
- 18 – 24
- 25 – 34
- 35 – 49
- 50 – 64
- 65 +
Place your Bids
Within each ad group you start with your base bid and then specify a percentage increase that you are willing to pay for each age or gender group. MSN will then automatically raise your bids to gain higher positions when a person within the selected age or gender group is searching for any of the keywords within the ad group.
The targeting can also be done at campaign level which is extremely useful if your target audience is the same for all products and services that you are promoting via your Pay Per Click campaign.
The thought process behind this tool, is that advertisers would be willing to pay more for a click if the searcher matches their target audience as they should in theory be more likely to convert.
When you apply incremental bids to an age group or gender, your ads will still be shown to all searchers but your bids are increased when the ads are displayed to your target audience.
A Quick Example
To explain how the tool works in a little more detail, I thought an example would help:
My website sells ladies lingerie and the bulk of my sales come from females aged between 25 and 50. The age and gender tool should help me drive more targeted traffic to the site but not exclude the other age groups or male customers.
My ad group base bid is £0.20 and I am willing to pay an extra 15% on top of this price per click for my targeted traffic.
This means that if a female searcher aged between 25 and 50 is searching online using one of my keywords, my bid price would increase to £0.23.
If the searcher was male and clicked on my ad my bid price would remain at £0.20.
How to set incremental bids in Microsoft adCenter
Campaign Level (sourced from Microsoft adCenter Help)
- Click the Campaigns tab.
- In the Campaign column, click the campaign whose targeting you want to change.
- On the Campaign selected page, click Change settings.
- Under Target your customers by location, click Edit.
- Click Demographic.
- For one or more of the gender and age groups, specify an incremental bid (A bid that can increase your ad’s exposure to potential customers who meet specific targeting criteria, such as day of the week, time of day, geographical location, age, or gender. A percentage of your keyword bid, the incremental bid is in addition to your bid on a keyword.) by selecting a value in the corresponding base bid + drop-down lists.
- Click Apply.
- Click Save.
Ad Group Level (Sourced from Microsoft adCenter Help)
- Click the Campaigns tab.
- In the Campaign column, click the campaign that includes the ad group you want to edit.
- In the Ad group column, click the ad group whose targeting you want to change.
- To the right of Ad group name, click Change settings.
- Under Target your customers by location, click Edit.
- Click Demographic.
- Clear the Apply campaign settings check box.
If this box is cleared, no campaign-level age or gender targeting will be applied to this ad group.
If this box is missing, there is no campaign-level age or gender targeting. - For one or more of the gender and age groups, specify an incremental bid (A bid that can increase your ad’s exposure to potential customers who meet specific targeting criteria, such as day of the week, time of day, geographical location, age, or gender. A percentage of your keyword bid, the incremental bid is in addition to your bid on a keyword.) by selecting a value in the corresponding base bid + drop-down lists.
- Click Apply, and then click Save.
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Published by SEO Prof Andy
23
Microsoft adCenter Introduces new Ad Preview Tool
0 Comments | Posted by andy in Bing, Microsoft, Pay Per Click (PPC), Search Engine News
Whenever you create a new PPC advertisement there’s a temptation to see how it appears on the search engines. This temptation can grow further if it fails to deliver the expected traffic rates or has an unusually high bounce, thus indicating a potential issue.
The only issue with looking for your advert through the search engine itself is that it can create unnecessary impressions and lower the Click through Rate (CTR), which may in turn adversely affect the campaign. So how can you preview your ads without upsetting the statistics and potentially costing yourself more money? Well, Microsoft Bing have come up with a simple solution.
Microsoft adCenter now has its own Ad Preview Tool, giving you the opportunity to see your adverts away from the search engine and without incurring any data issues.
To find this you simply need to login, then click on the Campaigns tab. Once you’re on the Campaigns page follow the Ad Preview Tool control situated in the top right before filling in your adverts’ key terms in the Keyword box. Finally click on the Preview Ads button and you’ll be taken to a Bing SERPs.
Whilst Google have offered a similar feature for some time within their AdWords software, this is the first time that the Microsoft run equivalent has offered the same service. It will certainly be viewed as a welcome addition by most Bing advertisers and will stop you totting up lots of unnecessary impressions when reviewing your ads.
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Published by SEO Prof Andy
