new adCenter release

[adCenter411]

Hey everyone,
I wanted to let you know in advance that adCenter is in final testing of a new release. Lots of the changes you'll see are due to feedback from forum posters like yourselves – we keep you in mind when planning design changes and features for this release. So thanks for all your input, and keep it coming!

Here's just a few things to look for when you login after launch:
1. Order creation process simplified into 4 steps
2. Broader differentiation between campaigns and orders
3. New pricing tab includes all budget, bidding, and incremental pricing
4. Negative keywords can be applied at the order level
5. Keyword / ad rejections include reason codes…

…and lots of other cool changes. I'll have more details (including expected release date) later in the week.
Note that during the release, you will not be able to sign into adCenter, but your ads will continue to be served.

Thanks!
adCenter411

[edited by: engine at 4:45 pm (utc) on Feb. 22, 2006]

[eWhisper]

I had the privilege of walking through a demo of the new interface yesterday, and MSN is definitely on the right track - which is good to see :) .

There are more functions that would be useful, and I'm sure will be added over time, but for a beta test - everything is starting to come together.

The two biggest issues I see are:
1. Inability to change bids for many keywords at a single time (i.e. - I uploaded a campaign, want to set bids across the board at $1 for exact, $0.75 for phrase, $0.50 for broad - there's no way to select all the keywords and make them all have that bid price).

2. Which ads are currently live for each keyword. Having ads in a group which are only live for certain keywords within that group is quite annoying. I'm finding that we're going to have to find someway of dealing with this - like deleting any keyword that isn't showing on every ad and adding it in a new place. Or, if an ad was only approved for half the keywords in a group - delete the ad and add a variation of it.

Looking forward to seeing the new iteration live.

[Evroccck]

I can't wait for this update, adcenter has a ton of potential, ive already seen some good conversion ratios.

[adCenter411]

Hi everyone, I have an update for you.

The new adCenter release is currently planned for tomorrow - Saturday, 2/18/06. The update starts at 3 A.M. Pacific Standard Time (PST) and will take approximately 24 hours. During this time, you will not be able to sign in to adCenter, but your ads will continue to be served and be tracked for reporting.

Thanks!
adCenter411

[tbird]

During this time, you will not be able to sign in to adCenter, but your ads will continue to be served and be tracked for reporting.

Not sure about all of you, but I don't see adcenter ads, and my ads have sure not been served as I haven't received a single click in over 10 hours.

[adCenter411]

tbird,
i got confirmation that ads did deliver during the release. i would need to check into your specific case.

did this happen to anyone else? i'll be working with the support team to figure out what happened here.

thanks,
adCenter411

[tbird]

Hi adcenter,

Checked about 10 different orders from about 7:00 PST until 3:00 PST the next day and didn't see any adcenter ads. I also checked several industries where I know there would have been ads, but that I don't advertise in and didn't see any adcenter ads there either.

My account typically will get a few thousand clicks a day, and was less than 300 for that day. Now I'm back up to the similar volumes.

[eljefe3]

Here's my 0.02 worth. I just tried to upload a xls file and get an error. I download the error file and there were about 200 "duplicates" whatever that means even though every term was unique and currently only have 50 terms in the campaign. Not too sure what "duplicates" mean in MSN context, but their importing feature should automatically eliminate the duplicates and allow the uploading without spitting out an error message.

[eWhisper]

Quick FYI -

Duplicates are similar to Overture's classification.
i.e.
blue widgets
in blue widgets
the blue widgets
etc...

are the same keyword.

Agreed though, would be nice if they just automatically kicked them out and didn't send an error.

[tbird]

Import function is worthless. I download the example template, tried both .csv and .xls and my keywords, save file, close file, try and import file and get this error:

"Excel and comma-seperated value (csv) files are the only formats available."

Made some nice strides on the latest update folks, getting closer to where you need to be, but June is coming awful quick if you're hoping to be ready for prime-time.

[tbird]

While I'm griping. Just added 2 more orders and all the keywords in both accounts got rejected with the following error message: "Inaccessible website".

The site is very much accessible and I've had no problem reaching it at all.

[elektrodish]

Attempted to delete an "Inactive" account (forced "Inactive" in the previous version as I created the account using the Euro as a default currency and couldn't change it back. Oops.) and received a message stating "Sorry, this account is inactive and the data is read-only. You can only modify information for an active account."

There doesn't seem to be a way to make the account "Active" in order to delete it.

[natim]

Adcenter411 - when do you plan to allow more advertisers into the program. We have submitted requests since the day it was announced. Searching in our niche is sure appears you have plenty of room for additional advertisers. We used to belong to the old program, where we were spending upwards of $15k a month but can't even get an invite to use adcenter. What's up with that?

[Eathan]

My biggest complaint at this time is with ad and keyword association. It seems like keywords dump into one pool and ads into another and how they associate one to another is random. The bulk upload tool is even broken into two sheets with no means for me to specify what word goes with which ad.

I would really prefer to upload one sheet with all my words, plus the title, description, URL, etc for each. It's your call, but one route gets 30,000+ words uploaded in one fell swoop, the other gets one at a time (3 words so far, one of which has been rejected because the landing page didn't relate to a keyword it was never meant to...).

I'm excited to have the opportunity to advertise, but a one-to-one relationship between ad and keyword, as well as a one sheet bulk upload would allow me to hit the ground running (and spending). As it is, it's going to take a very long time.

I'm also not sure how I feel about "orders" vs. campaigns. The automated order thing makes me nervous. I prefer just depositing funds when the balance gets low...

[MikaelTC]

The bulk upload is frustrating. I got the ads and the creative separately and had to do a vlookup in excel to associate them and make changes. I understand the rationale for having them in seprate tables in the database, but couldn't a simple query marry them on the server side so we could at least work with only one file on the client side?

Firefox support would be nice too, but that one is no big deal at the moment.

[tbird]

Are any of you having any success with the import function? I keep getting this error:

"Excel and comma-seperated value (csv) files are the only formats available."

I'm using IE 6.0.2900.2180 and using Microsoft Excel 2000. I've tried coming at this from a hundred different angles. I've downloaded the template and tried uploading, started from scratch, exported a list and tried to re-import it, and everytime I get the same error. Surely I'm not the only one with this problem?

[eljefe3]

Probably the duplicate listing error. Even though the keywords are different to you and me, they're not to MSN ad center.

[tbird]

I don't think it is dupes, I thought it might have been that at first, so I reduced my keyword list to just have three keywords all completely different (trying to eliminate that as a possibility), and still getting the same problem.

[Eathan]

tbird, close the file before you click import. I had the same trouble at first.

[tbird]

eathan,

I've got the file closed. In fact I don't even have Excel open...can't find anything that makes sense as why it wouldn't work. I've done several times with no problems, but since the latest update over the weekend I haven't been able to get it to work.

[Eathan]

Damn, I'm not sure then. Still new to AdCenter...

That was my problem earlier today when I kept getting the same message. Tried saving as, getting rid of any highlighted cells, etc, but closing the file seemed to do the trick.

[tbird]

So you were able to upload a file today? I've tried several times today from two different computers with no luck. :(

[Eathan]

Yes, I was able (forced) to do quite a few today trying to figure out the Param stuff. On a side note, should the ad preview insert the params if done right? Mine still say {Param1}, etc...

[tbird]

should the ad preview insert the params if done right? Mine still say {Param1}, etc...

I am pretty sure the ad preview still displays them that way.

I've done the {keyword} but it isn't a param and it shows in the preview as {keyword} I did a test a couple of weeks ago with param destination urls and the preview still showed {param}

I ended up turning it off because i wasn't able to verify it was working. I need to revisit that issue.

[Eathan]

Thanks.

Params seem like the only way to really do a large number of words with individual ad associations at one go. I wish the params allowed more than 30 characters(hint hint MSN), but they seem like the only way to create one-to-one keyword/ad relationships without doing one word per order.

[Eathan]

Wow! That was painful... Seems like the dupe issue could be handled a little cleaner.

"Widget in a whatsit" is apparently a dupe of "Widget whatsit" and "the widget of whatsit" - even when bidding on exact match.

[biking4jesus]

when will it be out of beta? other browser suppport will not work until then

[beavis]

Tbird,

I'm having the same import keyword problem as you. Tried everything I could think of. IE7, IE6, downloaded their template, etc. nothing works. Please post if you figure it out.

[beavis]

? #*$!? all of a sudden it just worked! I didn't do anything different?

[afterburner]

where do you sign up?