Microsoft adCenter Platform Conforms to AdWords ?Industry Standard?

If you are managing PPC campaigns in both Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter, then allow me to be the bearer of some good news. The good folks over at Microsoft are finally making changes to the adCenter platform to make it more familiar to AdWords users.

In fact, as this Media Post article describes, Microsoft has conceded that because Google owns the majority of the market share it has become the unofficial industry standard. While this may be a tough pill for Microsoft to swallow, it?s good news for advertisers who are constantly struggling to save time while optimizing campaigns on both networks.

Let?s take a look at some of the things that are changing in adCenter ? changes that will make it easier to navigate for people who are currently advertising on Google AdWords:

• Easier account import. You can now use version 8.1 of the adCenter desktop software to import your AdWords account by inputting your Google credentials. (Although, does anyone else feel funny or nervous about giving Microsoft your Google credentials?)
• Elimination of keyword-level negatives. Previously adCenter allowed you to set negatives on the keyword level. While theoretically this could be helpful under certain circumstances, it made managing your negative keywords crazy complicated ? if you set a keyword-level negative, no ad group or campaign negatives would be applied to the keyword.

• Introduction of multiple negative match types. Before this change, all negative keywords were phrase matched, but now you can set the negative match type to either phrase or exact.

There are still several differences between AdWords and adCenter, some of which are significant and make account management unnecessarily difficult. However, it?s a good first step at bringing the two platforms more in synch and allowing advertisers to more easily access 95% of the eyeballs searching on the Internet.

This is a guest post by Adam Shain, an associate product manager at WordStream, where he works primarily on expanding and improving the PPC management platform. Previously he worked at J-Town Productions and served in the Strategic Planning and International Cooperation Division of the Israel Defense Forces. He holds an MS in Neuroscience from Brandeis University and an MBA from Babson College. Adam lives in Sharon, Massachusetts, with his wife and two adorable children.

This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.

Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2011/11/10/adcenter-changes

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