Testing our AdCenter...So far, NOT good...

So I've decided to take the risk and invest in testing out Microsoft AdCenter since their audience is so large; in their massive network they have Bing, MSN, MSNBC, Yahoo!, & FaceBook - need I say more?

It's going on about Day #3 now and so far I am NOT impressed. I expected a LOT more, but then again, maybe it's because of the niche I am trying to advertise in - I am not that sure what kind of audience Microsoft has and appeals to, though in comparison everyone knows Google is #1 and thus has every audience and advertising in Google really allows you to expand your reach via every market industry niche/audience.

So far my ad has had only over 1,500 impressions & JUST ONE click. I would have expected at least between 10 to 100+ clicks for that amount of impressions; the one click I have gotten obviously has not convert into a sale.

I will keep testing out AdCenter within my campaign and keep you guys updated. I expected VERY LITTLE TO NO competition in advertising, but to my surprise, AdCenter's advertising market is EXTREMELY SATURATED! Competitors are advertising everywhere & heavy with AdCenter, and I would imagine because of it's huge market as stated above in bold.

 

Update: So far as of today, November 5th 2010, I have more than 2,000 impressions and STILL only one click which has cost me $0.02. My budget is only $30.00/mo for this campaign so I can start to see that my target market DOES NOT use Bing, MSN, Live, or Yahoo.

I will keep this thread updated. I will be testing out a few different market niches. At the end of this thread I will release what niche I am advertising. I will create new threads per site/campaign according to different niche. I will wait until the end of the month to review this niche, its advertising effect in AdCenter, and until I mess around with other niches.

 

Sounds more like the ad is not enticing enough to click. Have you been doing any split tests or trying out new ads at all?
My first week with Adcenter a month back netted me over $6K in sales so there is money to be made using it.

I did have to redo a few ads and ended up with keyword matching which seemed to work best for me.

 

Bubba, like I said this is only one niche I'm trying so far with AdCenter.

I have a ton of ads - many different varieties. It's not the ads that aren't effective, it's the network in collaboration with my industry niche market. My ad is effective elsewhere, my market just isn't using Bing etc.

 

UPDATE: So it's been 2, going on 3 days since I've posted an update.

4,885 impressions | 2 clicks | $0.11 spent

So it's going on a week as of this post (midnight) and my advertising campaign with Microsoft AdCenter is going HORRIBLE.

Maybe this niche I am advertising for just doesn't use Microsoft search services or browse Microsoft content sites. I am PPC advertising for both search & content with AdCenter. =\

 

Post-transition AdCenter actually includes 6 networks - see: http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/forums/t/67469.aspx

Tip: Go only for "Search network – Only Bing & Yahoo websites" but in full strength, meaning higher bids and more keywords.

AdCenter has a narrow interpretation of keyword (generally keyword = cluster of search terms, and on AdCenter keyword = very narrow cluster of search terms)

Add the following patterns to your keywords: synonyms, singular/plural, geo locations

Good luck

 

Alright I have selected to target only "Search Engine Network - Only Bing & Yahoo! Websites" as well as am only geographically targeting all English-speaking countries (all counties I've seen members here from, actually ).

I'll let everyone know how it goes. I've also - after reading to the advice you linked to - have drastically increased my maximium bids for clicks for keywords I'd like to rank better and expose more in. Hopefully there will be more clicks & more clicks that convert; this better not be a waste of money.

I've also begin PPC advertising within ExactSeek's search engine network of 350+ websites; for $10 for one month for UNLIMITED CLICKS, I hope that will be worth it too.

 

I hope you'll reach the quality traffic soon enough.
At the beginning it can be costly, but once there's enough conversions to optimize - the slice and dice process, together with page split-testing, should help lowering CPAs significantly.

 

I have recently started using adcenter. I'm very un-impressed with the quality of traffic. I have read a lot about them not controlling click fraud very well? I haven't heard too many success stories with adcenter. Does anyone out there have anything positive to say?

 

...But with significantly lower volume.
This is how it works for me, anyway.
The reason: once you opt out all their search partners and content - you're left with the most targeted traffic (assuming you're not bidding on too many "broady" keywords).

Then, compared to Google, their cluster of search terms is relatively narrow (for Phrase and especially Broad match).

Example:
Google - keyword: 'date' in Broad match - triggered for search queries as "meet people over 60" and "best dates in st louis".
AdCenter - the same Broad matched keyword 'date' doesn't trigger "meet people" etc, doesn't trigger the plural form ("dates..."), generally doesn't trigger locations ("...in st louis") and so forth.

This is said for Ad distribution: "Only Bing and Yahoo! websites "

 

I should try the ""Only Bing and Yahoo! websites " because I can say the conversions are not that good... but not that bad either.

The main issue is the traffic quantity. I can run the same Ads on Google and get 20x more traffic! That's A LOT more!

You receive 500 clicks on Google and 20-25 on AdCenter. I stopped adding campaigns over there since it was a waste of time. Plus, many keywords are not in their "database" so you get no traffic at all. Oh well.