rustyzipper - 3:18 am on Dec 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

Would like to get some feedback from someone who is actively using adcenter. Here's my initial take:

1) Keyword "duplicate" hell-

Has anyone been successful in loading a large number of keywords into Adcenter?

When you enter your keywords & hit submit, it takes you to a screen that then tells you a bunch of your keywords are duplicates, yet there is no way to delete them from this screen - you essentially have to start all over again.

"Duplicates" are whatever MSN decides are similar keywords according to their "normalization". Support sent me somewhat of an explanation on how they "normalize", but it's not cut & dry and there is no way really to know what they're going to consider to be a duplicate until you submit your keywords.

If you use the upload tool, it will tell you that certain keywords are duplicates in an "error file" that it displays, but will not upload the non-dupes.

Support suggested importing 10 keywords at a time - nice!

2) Support

Have been unimpressed with support so far, but maybe they've just added some newbies. In any case, they should make sure their support reps understand the basics of CPC advertising and how Google and Yahoo work.

3) Unique URLs/tracking urls for each keyword

If you want to set up unique landing URLs (for tracking purposes) for each keyword, you need to put the full URL in the keyword Parameter 1 field and then when you set up your ad text, use {param1} for the URL.

If you want to set up unique landing URLs for your broad, exact & phrase match keywords separately, you need to create essentially duplicate "orders" where you duplicate all of your keywords but only bid on exact in your "exact order", and only bid on phrase in your "phrase order", etc.

4) no impressions/clicks

I've had keywords that have significant traffic active for a day or so now & so far adcenter is showing no impressions or clicks.

5) Editorial Review

Keywords seem to be rejected without any explanation/reason

The fact that adcenter seems to be so cumbersome to work with wouldn't be such a big deal if their support were more helpful/knowledgeable. I'll put up with a lot for decent results though - anxious to hear if anyone is seeing any traffic.

Thanks!