New AdCenter Beta

[PPC]

It seems more confusing than ever plus it seems now they have turned on content ads for my entire account.

[leftoverjoe]

Well, gee. That's handy! To be honest I am very disappointed with the MSN interface on almost every level. I am not surprised that they have implemented content ads by default either. Oh well.

[hoffman457]

I had to pause all my MSN campaigns to avoid Content Ads from going live.

I intended to resume my MSN campaigns once I was able to uncheck the radio button under the Ad Settings to ensure my programs aren't distributed via Content Ads.

Today's problem is, the radio button isn't showing up at all. MSN tech support informed this is happening for other users as well.

So, I need to keep my MSN campaigns completely paused until their engineers correct the problem. They assure me I can safely assume the campaigns are not being carried across Content Ads but the only way I'll know for sure is to confirm the currently unseen radio button is unchecked.

Bottom line - at this point, my clients MSN ads are offline and missing out on MSN traffic. I prefer to leave them that way rather than having to spend hours disputing Content Ads charges down the road.

[ExposureTim]

Everyone seems afraid of the Content Ad network being turned on (which I can appreciate, especially if it's prior to be informed or done without pre-approval - as is the case, apparently) but I also wouldn't think it's possible for MS to have much of a network put together yet.

Does anyone know of what sites might be using such a MS-based content network? How could it cause such fear when there aren't likely to be many sites in the network, let alone inappropriate sites that'd cause horribly bad quality traffic to click an ad?

[hoffman457]

That's a fair point. In my case, bad experiences with the launches of Yahoo and Google's content products make me hyper-sensitive.

[Mel66]

We've been in MSN's content program since the beta launched a few months ago. Content ads are only showing on MSN properties - MSNBC plus their various networks (health, finance, travel, etc.). There are no Adsense-type sites in the network at the present time.

We get virtually no traffic from content. The traffic we do get is fine, but there is almost none of it. So for us, anyway, MSN Content is a non-issue.

I don't think you'll get a lot of fraudulent traffic from them.

Melissa

[Discovery]

Correct Mel, content is just the MSN properties. However, I'm with the majority here, I'm very cautious with content networks and would not want it turned on by default.

From what I understand the MSN content network will be just the MSN properties for the foreseeable future. I believe they intend on expanding the content network out slowly, introducing small sets of publishers over a longer period of time. I think the strategy is to avoid the issues that YSM and G have had with content so they will not just open up content to a million ad pubs of varying quality. Although this means less traffic now, I hope it results in a large quality content network in the future.

Content is the long tail of any network and its sum is far greater than the head. YSM and G have let the tail wag the head to generate huge profits from junk clicks, lets hope MSN's strategy puts quality over short term profits.

Discovery

[Mel66]

Originally Posted by Discovery

Correct Mel, content is just the MSN properties. However, I'm with the majority here, I'm very cautious with content networks and would not want it turned on by default.

Oh, I agree - I wouldn't want it on by default either. And we set up separate content campaigns from the get-go with separate tracking URLs. Their default was just copying over the search campaigns, bids and all - I had to do a lot of manual edits in a bulk upload spreadsheet to get around this.

Melissa

[PPC]

Regarding content ads.... yes, they automatically opt your entire account in for content when you switch to tthe new adCenter beta. No they will not be able to switch it off for the entire account. You must go through each ad group manually and turn content off:

"To change your distribution options, follow these steps after signing into Microsoft adCenter:

1. On the Select a campaign page, click the campaign that contains the ad group that you want to work with.
2. On the Select an ad group page, click the ad group that you want to run only on search ads.
3. Click the Ad Group Settings tab.
4. Under Targeting, click Select a distribution method for this ad group.
5. Clear the Content check box, and click Save."

I have a ton of ad groups and this is going to be a big waste of my time.

[PPCGuy]

Did the migration to the new interface take place only for certain advertisers?

[PPC]

Originally Posted by PPCGuy

Did the migration to the new interface take place only for certain advertisers?

Yes, and with no warning as far as I remember. I logged in to MSN adCenter last Friday and was taken to a new login page that said I was now part of the adCenter beta.

By the way, changing bids for individual keywords could not be any more difficult than it is now. You have to click through like 6 times just to get to that screen. It appears as though MSN is now going backwards.

[caugas]

I can't believe that MSN does not allow for passing revneue data from the tracking pixel. It makes no sense whatsoever. I need revenue data not conversion only data.

[barefootmentor]

With the release of the new Windows Vista advertizing on MSN might be the place to be in a few months. I guess in Windows Vista they have MSN ad's everywhere.

I've already noticed in my tracking codes Vista creeping up a lot.

More of the story is don't give up your MSN ad campaign just yet... it might suprise you.

[ExposureTim]

barefootmentor, please explain

Ads on Windows? I don't follow what you are getting at.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by leftoverjoe

...To be honest I am very disappointed with the MSN interface on almost every level...

I totally agree. It's a real mess. After a few minutes in AdCenter it's a pleasure to get back to AdWords. Google owns the infrastructure, Google owns the UI, Google owns the online ad business!

[Mel66]

Originally Posted by PPC

Regarding content ads.... yes, they automatically opt your entire account in for content when you switch to tthe new adCenter beta. No they will not be able to switch it off for the entire account. You must go through each ad group manually and turn content off:

"To change your distribution options, follow these steps after signing into Microsoft adCenter:

1. On the Select a campaign page, click the campaign that contains the ad group that you want to work with.
2. On the Select an ad group page, click the ad group that you want to run only on search ads.
3. Click the Ad Group Settings tab.
4. Under Targeting, click Select a distribution method for this ad group.
5. Clear the Content check box, and click Save."

I have a ton of ad groups and this is going to be a big waste of my time.

Gads!! Thank goodness you posted this PPC. We have separate campaigns for search and content, for tracking reasons. I just discovered that any new ad groups we add to either campaign are being run in both search and content, because of this hidden "feature" at the ad group level. So, we've got duplicate ads running for a bunch of stuff now, and our tracking is all screwed up.

Why the h*ll isn't it at the CAMPAIGN level, anyway? Why is it so darn hard to find?? What was MSN thinking when they did this?

I wondered why my analytics data for MSN wasn't making sense. This is going to be an absolute nightmare to fix. I'm ready to pause my entire account.

Melissa

[hoffman457]

Between MSN sneaking in this content product and Google's $10 CPC requirements all under the guise of "product improvement", perhaps they're seeing that PPC really is reaching critical mass; if they can't continue to add eyeballs at the rate they've been, they need to squeeze more from the eyeballs they have.

We're nearing the end of the "carefree" days which will require an adjustment to client expectations.

[Mel66]

You said it Hoffman. For the past month I've spent the majority of my time chasing these "product improvements" and trying to fix the mess they've made of my accounts. It has me longing for the days when I had time to work on the fun stuff like keyword research, landing page and creative testing, and ROI tweaking. Seems like all I've done lately is run around putting out fires.

The killer is, so many of the fires are needless. Google's minimum CPC glitch, and MSN's reinventing the wheel and not doing a good job of it, for instance. These guys need better smoke detectors.

Melissa

[ExposureTim]

Mel - are you seeing much traffic from content already? If it's throwing off your analytics I assume so, but I didn't expect MS would have much of a network or traffic yet.

I agree they could have done it differently (someone should call Edelmann, again) but I wouldn't necessarily call it sneaky. Note: Google and Yahoo have their content networks turned on by default too... MS just didn't have one running until now.

[hoffman457]

You're right - "sneaking" was the wrong choice of word; my issue was that they were adding it mid-stream and made it typically difficult to turn off. How many advertisers didn't catch that it was being turned on? It wouldn't take much for it to result in a fair chunk of cash to MSN.

Google and Yahoo default to having Content on but you have the option to shut it before dime one is spent; since MSN added it to existing campaigns, they should have made it available and informed advertisers they need to switch it on. MSN advertisers shouldn't have been required to spend a lot of time to opt out.