Rejected keywords

[Brian M]

I started getting emails from MSN last week that some keywords had been rejected, even though nothing in the account had been changed since it was set up a few months ago.

What I discovered is that MSN recently added a change to detect the "param1" destination URL being valid, but they appear to do this by checking the server header code on each destination URL.

We add a query string as a tracking code (?code=1234), so we have been putting out a 404 (page not found) for the past six months to eliminate some duplicate content problems with the site ("file.asp" is identical to "file.asp?code=1234"). Since there were hundreds of tracking codes, this resulted in hundreds of duplicate pages being indexed by ALL of the search engines. This 404 solution was the only thing that has fixed that duplicate content problem ("file.asp" puts out a 200, but "file.asp?code=4321" puts out a 404).

I proved my rejected keywords theory by deleting the query string from several rejected ads so the server header put out a 200 (page found), and the rejected ads were magically approved the next day. Then, I put the query string back in place, and the same ads were rejected on the following day.

Kudos to MSN for trying to eliminate the "No Such Link" message that was appearing when a customer forgot to enter a "param1" destination URL. I must confess that I feel a little guilty, since I bashed MSN so badly in a thread about that problem a few weeks ago http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=13130 and we have not heard from adCenter411 about this problem since.

However, their solution has just created another problem, and I am hearing from other webmasters that now they are also getting long-running ads rejected. We, as advertisers, need to track the incoming clicks without creating duplicate content. And you, adCenter, need to fix this ASAP so we can start giving you our money (I am down to 10% of my budgeted spend so far this month).

So, I suggest that you open the dialog again with advertisers/webmasters/customers around the world. Will you get bashed again? Probably, but please don't take it personally - there's a lot of frustrated customers out here who need to vent (I personally will keep my venting down to a dull roar...).

And for other advertisers - if you start getting emails from adCenter about rejected keywords - go into adCenter and look at the reason for the rejection. If you see "network unavailable" as the reason, then look at the server header code the URL string is putting out. There may be other reasons that your keywords are being rejected, but I know for a fact that this is one problem.

If the search engines would agree on a specific query string that they would not index, such as "?track=" at the very end of a URL string, then we could use this to track the incoming clicks and it would not create duplicate content...

Brian M

[g7submit]

Hi Brian,

I hope, and just hope, that people don't start turning away from AdCenter in droves due to the bugs. I had the same problem as well while working onsome clients' account. In fact, I started a thread (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=13752) about it, but it seems that not many people are noticing this problem except the savvy ones. To be honest with you, it makes me wonder if some advertisers are really minding their pennies; where or how money is escaping their accounts.

I have spoken to AdCenter customer service assistants about this issue a few times and they feel helpless to do anything about it, except to "escalate" it.

AdCenter has bugs all over it. The worst is getting a good report of what is happening with your campaign and that seems to be a herculean task with less than 40% accuracy. However, we keep getting feedbacks that there would soon be a major overhaul to counter the effects of bugs - that's where I am seated at the moment, on a chair called Patience. The chair is going to melt like ice by the turn of the year.

But in the meantime, we need to keep highlighting the problems at a place like this, and I do hope AdCenter 411 is always noting these and serving them to the appropriate channel.

On the front of rejected keywords, one key thing to do is go through the system to check if some parts in your setup have been ticked without your approval, especially in the match type section. At the moment tracking is quite difficult in MSN, especially if you have two different trackers to track match types separately, for example phrase match and exact match types. That match type bug has to be fixed before you can get successful tracking for each match type.

The other thing to do is call them and speak with them about the matter on the phone, the only problem with that is that most of the time the poor soul at the end of your call is just as frustrated as you are, if not more. So, sometimes their rep. can look at the reason for a keyword rejection and help you rectify the problem.

Marriage with AdCenter may be difficult, but I still have a sneaky feeling that it would be golden at the end of the day- that's my feeling :)