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Search Engine Strategies New York

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:17:43 GMT

The Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference is next week in New York, NY. There will be Microsoft folks speaking at a couple of the sessions, so stop by and see us...

Wednesday, March 19th: 5:30-6:45pm - Searcher Behavior Research Update

Pavan Lee, Research Manager, Microsoft

Thursday, March 20th: 12:45-1:45pm - Meet the Crawlers

Nathan Buggia, Lead Program Manager, Live Search Webmaster Center

Also check out our sponsored session, Tues. March 18 from 3:15 - 4:30:

Microsoft Search | Tips and tricks for delivering great results and campaigns with Live Search
Learn how to improve your search marketing investments and execution across both your paid and organic efforts through Microsoft's Adcenter and Webmaster tools for Live Search. Come join us as we walk through the latest product updates including the new Adcenter Excel Add-in for Keyword research and the Webmaster Center. Combined these tools can improve your company's campaigns across both paid and organic results.

Speakers:

Jorie Waterman, Lead Program Manager, adCenter Keyword Research Platform
Nathan Buggia, Lead Program Manager, Live Search Webmaster Center

Hope to see you there!

Carolyn, adCenter Community Team

Search Marketing Expo West coming right up

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:25:19 GMT

The SMX West conference is next week (Feb. 26-28) in Santa Clara, CA. Here's a list of different sessions where Microsoft will be represented. We hope to see you there!

Tuesday, Feb. 26

10:30am-11:45am - Raju Malhotra: Search 3.0: The Blended Search Revolution
10:30am-11:45am - Mary Berk: Decrypting Quality Scores
1:15pm-2:45pm - Henry Hall: Search 3.0: Video, Images & Blended Results
3:15pm-4:30pm - Kevin Hagwell: Search 3.0: Local Search & Blended Results
4:45pm-6:00pm - Paul Dillon: Search 3.0: Online Retail & Blended Results

Wednesday, Feb. 27

1:00pm-1:30pm - Kelly Thomas: Theater Presentation - Get More Quality Clicks with Microsoft Content Ads
1:30pm-2:45pm - Sean Lyndersay: Search 4.0: Will The Social Graph Change Search?
3:15pm-4:30pm - Nathan Buggia: SEO 2.0 For Web 2.0 Sites
3:15pm-4:30pm - Natala Menezes: Search Ads & Behavioral Targeting
4:45pm-6:00pm - Nathan Buggia: Search Engineers Q&A
4:45pm-6:00pm - Christopher Plambeck: Paid Search Roundtable

Thursday, Feb. 28

9:00am-10:00am - Brad Goldberg: Generation Next: Search In The Coming Decade
10:30am-11:00am - Sebastian Gard: Theater Presentation - The Cynic's Guide to Live Search
2:45pm-3:45pm - Nathan Buggia: Linking Q & A

Thanks!
Carolyn, adCenter Community Team

Reminder: Microsoft adCenter Team at SES London

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:30:27 GMT

Just a quick follow up to my post last month about Microsoft's participation at Search Engine Strategies London 2008!

The conference will be held at the Business Design Centre in Islington from 19th to 21st February.

We have quite a few of us speaking at sessions throughout the conference:

Orion Panel: All Star Analytics Team - Ian Thomas

Search Term Research & Targeting - Tor Crockatt

Meet the Crawlers - Paul Stoddart

Creating Compelling Ads - Tor Crockatt

Search Advertising Forum - Mel Carson

Check out the Conference at a Glance and Register Here!

Hope to see you there!

Mel - adCenter Community Team

Search Marketing Expo West: SMX Theater Presentations

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:08:25 GMT

As a follow-up to our post about the upcoming SMX West conference in Santa Clara, CA, from February 26 to 28, we wanted to share more info about some SMX Theater Presentations we're participating in.

These presentations are open to all SMX attendees and offer educational sessions from leading search marketing companies. The sessions take place on the Expo Hall floor Wednesday, February 27 and Thursday, February 28.

Microsoft will be presenting in two of the SMX Theater slots:

Get More Quality Clicks with Microsoft Content Ads – Wednesday, February 27, 1:00pm- 1:30pm

Presenters: Kelly Thomas, Product Marketing Manger & Yvonne Markgraf, Product Manager
Description: Microsoft Content Ads^Beta is a new advertising offering that places content-targeted advertisements on relevant web pages. Content Ads delivers relevant ads to the right people at the right time on the quality Microsoft network, giving your ad visibility on branded sites such as MSN Money, MSN Health and Fox Sports. Come by to find out how you can easily get more quality traffic while retaining control over distribution and budget.

The Cynic's Guide to Microsoft Live Search – Thursday, February 28, 10:30am-11:00am

Presenter: Sebastian Gard, Sr. Technical Product Manager
Description: Have you tried Live Search in the past and found it wanting? Did you think the Link operator was the only good thing we had ever done? Then this session is for you. Live Search has been quietly getting better recently, and we have five cool reasons why you should be using Live Search personally, and making sure it's part of your search marketing plans.

And just a reminder about our special offer to get 15 percent off your event registration by using the special code from Microsoft.

We hope to see you there!

Thanks,
Carolyn – adCenter Community Team

Search Marketing Expo West

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:14:56 GMT

Search Marketing Expo West is coming to Santa Clara, CA, from February 26 to 28, 2008. SMX provides participants with the latest methods and insights for search marketing success. We'll have an active presence at the conference, which attracts attendees with an array of search marketing related specialties, from chief marketing officers to web professionals.

Throughout the conference, more than 20 sessions will present actionable information geared towards participants of diverse skill levels. They'll help you be more successful in your Live Search campaigns with Microsoft adCenter.

Special Offers

Get 15 percent off your event registration by using the special code from Microsoft.
While you're there, stop by the Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions booth to receive your coupon for $50 on your first Live Search advertising campaign.

Learn more, check out the agenda, and register - we hope to see you there!

Thanks,

Carolyn, adCenter Community Team

Microsoft at SES Chicago

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:51:12 GMT

The Search Engine Strategies conference is next week in Chicago, and we'll be there representing Microsoft. Here's where and when to catch our speakers:

Monday, December 3, 2:45pm-3:45pm
• Orion Panel: Universal, Blended and Vertical Search – Brad Goldberg, GM, Search Business Group

Tuesday, December 4, 11:30am-12:30pm
• Are Paid Links Evil? – Brian Boland, Director, adCenter

Tuesday, December 4, 3:30pm-4:30pm

• Online Maps: Plotting the Direction of Local Search – Ziya Genceren, Live Search Maps Product Manager

Wednesday, December 5, 10:15am-11:15am
• Personalization, User Data & Search – James Colborn, Director, U.S. Trade Marketing

Thursday, December 6, 9:00am-10:00am
• Search Engines on Click Fraud – Christopher Plambeck, Group Product Manager

See you next week in the Windy City!

– Carolyn, adCenter Community Team

Join The Microsoft adCenter & Live Search Teams at SMX London

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:26:00 GMT

Hi All

We're pleased to announce that quite a few of us will be speaking at Search Marketing Expo - Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman's inaugural London conference under the SMX brand.

The conference, taking place on 15th & 16th November at The Hilton Metropole in London, is aimed at:

- Advertising Budget Holders
- In-house search marketers
- Brand managers
- Paid search advertising planners and buyers
- Organic search optimization specialists
- Web technology experts

We'll be covering a number of sessions on:

- What's new with search advertising? - Mel Carson - adCenter Community Manager

- Creating search ads that convert - Colm Bracken - Lead Search Media Analyst

- Search ad testing & tactics - Max Whiteford - Editorial Policy Analyst

- Dealing with the penalty box - Nathan Buggia - Product Manager Live Search

If you're thinking of coming Register Here using the promotional code SPSMX07 to get 10% off the entry fee!

Cheers

Mel - adCenter Community Team

Microsoft adCenter workshop available at PPC Summit -- POSTPONED

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:03:45 GMT

Update 11/05/2007

The San Francisco PPC Summit has been postponed until a later date.

Training for Your Search Campaigns

This November 15-16, join us at the PPC Summit in San Francisco, where workshops for Microsoft adCenter will be featured. During these how-to workshops, you'll work directly with the experts to learn the skills you need to maximize your pay-per-click opportunities, outperform your competitors, and build your business.

Get hands-on training and learn how to:

Set up and manage your PPC campaigns.
Identify keywords and write effective ad copy.
Bid effectively for your business model.
Track results and reach your CTR and conversion goals.
Develop effective landing pages, and more.

Tap into the secrets behind successful pay-per-click campaigns at the PPC Summit in San Francisco. Sign up now and save 10 percent on registration—just enter the Client/Promotional Code MS10 when requested during the checkout process. Once there, be sure to attend our MSN/Microsoft adCenter Workshop and go behind the scenes with an expert to discover tips and tools to manage your campaigns successfully. Plus, look for a coupon worth $50 in search clicks—inside every PPC Summit welcome brochure.

Thanks!

Carolyn, adCenter Community Team

Microsoft adCenter workshop available at PPC Summit

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:25:45 GMT

Training for Your Search Campaigns
This September 24 – 25, join us at the PPC Summit in Los Angeles where workshops for Microsoft adCenter will be featured. During these how-to workshops, you'll work directly with the experts to learn the skills you need to maximize your pay-per-click opportunities, outperform your competitors, and build your business.

Get hands-on training and learn how to:

Set up and manage your PPC campaigns.
Identify keywords and write effective ad copy.
Bid effectively for your business model.
Track results and reach your CTR and conversion goals.
Develop effective landing pages, and more.

Tap into the secrets behind successful pay-per-click campaigns at the PPC Summit in Los Angeles. Sign up now and save 10 percent on registration—just enter the Client/Promotional Code MS10 when requested during the checkout process. Once there, be sure to attend our MSN/Microsoft adCenter Workshop and go behind the scenes with an expert to discover tips and tools to manage your campaigns successfully. Plus, look for a coupon worth $50 in search clicks—inside every PPC Summit welcome brochure.

Thanks!

Carolyn, adCenter Community Team

Meet the Microsoft adCenter Team at SES Toronto 2007

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:47:54 GMT

Next week some of the adCenter team will be speaking at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Toronto.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007:

10.45 A.M.—James Colborn: Keyword Research: Purpose, Tools, and Tactics

1.15 P.M.—Ken Headrick: The Canadian Search Landscape

1.15 P.M.—Mel Carson: Big Ideas for Small Sites & Small Budgets

3 P.M.—Darran Snatchfold: Search User Behaviour

4.30 P.M.—Farhan Thawar: Meet the Crawlers

Wednesday, June 13, 2007:

1 P.M.—Michelle Pruitt: Search Advertising Clinic

1 P.M.—Jason Dailey: Are You Findable? Relevancy and the "Big Picture"

4.30 P.M.—Microsoft adCenter Solution Spotlight. A must see session, exclusively designed to give you a deep dive into adCenter, with tips, tricks and best practices to help you get the most out of your pay-per-click campaigns. You’ll also have an opportunity to meet the team and ask lots of questions.

See you there!

Mel

adCenter Community Team

Thanks for attending Search Engine Strategies, London, 2007

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 10:01:01 GMT

We had loads of people visit us on the stand at this year’s conference at London’s ExCel Centre—there was quite a buzz going on.

We realise it was a bit of a trek across town but the organisers have assured us the conference will be back in central London next year!

If you managed to see any of us speak, or even if you didn’t, you can download our presentations at:

Microsoft adCenter SES London Presentations

I’ll be speaking in Dublin at Search Marketing World 2007, March 21, about the Microsoft vision for “The Future of Search.”

It should be a great event moderated by Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman, so maybe we’ll see you there.

We’ll also be in London on March 29 at The Cutting Edge Search Marketing conference at The Selfridge.

And the whole adCenter Community Team will be at Search Engine Strategies in New York in April!

Cheers

Mel Carson
Microsoft adCenter Community Team

Come and Visit Our Listening Post at Search Engine Strategies 2007 in London

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 08:41:07 GMT

Jeanie and I will be at Stand 22 at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in London’s ExCel Conference Centre on February 13 and 14.

A plethora of Microsoft staff will join us and be on hand to answer any questions you have about adCenter. They’ll also gather feedback and offer some best practices to help you get the most out of your pay-per-click campaigns.

A bunch of us are speaking too:

James Colborn - Buying Search Engine Advertising – February 13 at 1:15 P.M.
Tor Crockatt - Search Term Research & Targeting – February 13 at 3 P.M.
Mel Carson - Search Advertising Forum – February 14 at 4:15 P.M.
David Graham - Meet the Crawlers – February 15 at 9 A.M.
Tor Crockatt - Search Ad Clinic – February 15 at 1:15 P.M.
Jed Nahum - Search Head or Tail? Getting the Mix Right – February 15 at 3 P.M.

Check out this link for Registration Information. We hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Mel
Microsoft adCenter Community Team

[2/09/07 edit] updated formatting, no change to content

Reminder: Demographics & adCenter Labs Webcast 1/17 at 8:30 AM PST

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:36:25 GMT

This is a friendly reminder to attend our upcoming webcast, “Get the most out of adCenter Labs and demographics” tomorrow, January 17 at 8:30 A.M. Pacific Time. During this webcast, we’ll share tips and strategies for how you can use the demographic targeting and audience profiling methods in adCenter, as well as Microsoft adCenter Labs research tools. We will teach you how to use some of the newest research tools available at the adCenter Labs site and how to incorporate research best practices into your campaigns.

To join this webcast, register here.

If you are unable to join tomorrow’s live webcast, don’t worry! We will post a link to the blog where you can download and watch it whenever you like.

We hope you can join us!
Jeanie
Microsoft adCenter Community Team

Upcoming Microsoft adCenter Webcast on January 17th - Demographics & adCenter Labs

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:04:26 GMT

For SEM marketers, one essential question is this: How do you ensure that the right people are viewing your ads at the right time? If you’re the owner of a travel site, and you want to increase sales of African safaris, you obviously want to reach people who are searching for safaris. You also want to make sure that the person who searches for “safari” isn’t searching for Apple’s Safari browser or GMC’s Safari vehicle. By using adCenter’s audience intelligence capabilities, you can discover who is searching for your products and services, and use demographic targeting to help make sure that your ads get in front of the right audience. In other words, there is a difference between those who search for the keyword term “safari” versus the keyword phrase “African safaris.”

Using Microsoft adCenter, you’ll learn that the searchers for “safari” are about 55% men, whereas the audience profile for “African safaris” is over 60% female. Knowing this, you can create female-targeted ad copy and use demographic targeting in adCenter to boost your bids for women. Thus, you can maximize the effectiveness of your adCenter campaigns.

Want to learn more? We are hosting our first Microsoft adCenter webcast, “Get the most out of adCenter Labs and demographics” next Wednesday, January 17 at 8:30 A.M. Pacific Time. During this webcast, we’ll share tips and strategies for how you can use the demographic targeting and audience profiling methods in adCenter, as well as Microsoft adCenter Labs research tools. This webcast will include real world case studies and demos, and will teach you how to apply similar techniques to your campaigns. Participants will also have the opportunity to ask questions following the presentation and demo. To join this webcast, register here.

We hope you can join us!

Jeanie
Microsoft adCenter Community Team

U.K. Town Hall Meeting: Presentations and Announcing the Winner of the Microsoft Zune!

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:16:49 GMT

As promised we’ve uploaded three of the most requested presentations—editorial, optimization, and research—here:

http://www.advertising.microsoft.com/uk/adCenterTownHall

Claudia Gerotto’s survey was drawn out of a hat, and she is the lucky winner of a Microsoft Zune!

Congratulations Claudia and thanks to you all for coming and giving us such great feedback!

We’ll be in touch in the New Year regarding the next U.K. Town Hall Meeting!

Cheers,

Mel

adCenter Community Team

U.K. Town Hall Meeting

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 20:35:14 GMT

I’d like to thank everyone who came to the Town Hall Meeting here in London last week.

We had a 95% turnout, and 62% of you have given great feedback via the surveys.

The purpose of the morning was to reach out to many of our advertisers, give some in-depth insight into Microsoft adCenter, and help you out with some tips, tricks, and best practices.

The suggestions for features you’d like to see in further versions of adCenter were invaluable and, as promised, they are all being submitted to the dev team for consideration.

We’ll be uploading the most requested presentations from the day next week and announcing the winner of the Microsoft Zune so stay tuned!

Cheers

Mel

adCenter Community Team

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 21:55:10 GMT

The community team had such a great time meeting people at WebmasterWorld in Las Vegas that we couldn't wait to get on the road again. Jeanie and I are both in Chicago for the Search Engine Strategies show, and are excited to announce a new program, the Listening Post.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Jeanie and I will be in the Chicago Suite at the Hilton (details below) looking to talk to any and all of our advertisers who have something to say about adCenter. We want to know how your experience has been, what we're doing right, and what we can do to improve your overall experience. All feedback, questions, and anecdotes are welcome!

Listening Post details:

Hilton Chicago, 720 South Michigan Avenue

CHICAGO SUITE (Room 2316), 23rd Floor

*Tuesday, 12/5 - 11am to 5pm

*Wednesday, 12/6 - 9am to 12pm

We hope you'll all stop by and say hello! (There might be some candy but this should not be seen as a bribe in any way :) )

Best,

Molly

adCenter Community Manager

What Did Happen in Vegas?

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 23:13:35 GMT

Though we’ve been back to work for three days now, the memories of WebmasterWorld still linger. It was awesome meeting so many of you there, putting faces to names, names to handles, and handles to … well, you get the picture.

All of us learned a lot this year, and in the spirit of education, I present to you our:

“Everything I Need to Know, I Learned at WebmasterWorld”

Jeanie discovered,

“Search has become the center of the purchasing funnel, and the customer uses search to research purchase decision at all stages, i.e. from initial product research to finding the site with the best price once a decision has been made. Search is now on parity with word-of-mouth and trusted friends as a source of information regarding purchasing decisions.

I also learned that you *can* get to the Renaissance from Caesar’s with just $8.31 in your pocket (I wish Vegas taxis took plastic!), although it doesn’t make the cab driver very happy.”

Carolyn learned,

1. To increase comments and dialogue on the blog, write about controversial topics, or interesting but related topics that our readers will have varying and strong opinions about.

2. Barry Manilow's recent hip surgery is not holding back his dance moves, the monorail does NOT go to the Palms, and there is no floor 13 in the Renaissance hotel.

I (Molly) found out,

“Innovation is about creating the next great thing, not taking a current great thing and making it better. Don’t just think about how your current business can grow larger, think about how your current business can evolve.

And while you’re thinking of that, keep in mind that the local Vegas bus comes every half hour, and even then, has somewhat unreliable mechanics.”

I’m sure Mel learned a lot, so much in fact, that he’s taken a few days to relax his brain, but he’ll be back next week with his thoughts.

We want to know what you learned at WebmasterWorld! Let us know on the blog or at blogadcr@microsoft.com.

To everyone we met at the conference, we want to say a BIG thank you, and we’ve been furiously contacting everyone who had a question. If you haven’t heard from us yet, don’t fear we’ll be in touch with all of you.

To everyone who didn’t attend this year, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future to hang out with the Community Team. In fact, Jeanie and I will be in Chicago for SES and we’d love to see you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Molly

Microsoft adCenter Community Team

Vegas, Baby, Vegas

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 23:36:01 GMT

This week the Microsoft adCenter Community Team is having our coming out event at WebmasterWorld PubCon in Las Vegas.

Carolyn, Jeanie, Mel, and I are all here in Vegas to meet our readers, customers, friends, and interested strangers. We're here to share news about the Community Team and be sure that everyone who's interested can get involved in some of the upcoming community programs.

We've been here just under 24 hours, and though I'm down $200 (the dealer told me to hit!), everyone is having a great time meeting all the attendees.

This morning we were up bright and early to get our badges. Apparently, everyone else had the exact same idea. We were greeted by a line of a least 32 million people. I had no idea that many people were interested in search!

Second order of the day – keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki. I don't normally laugh before 10 a.m. and two cups of coffee, but Guy's anecdotes about business and innovations gave me the giggles.

If you're here in Vegas, please come find one of us - we'll all be wearing Microsoft adCenter Community Team shirts. If you're not here, send us an e-mail and let us know how things are going. We'd love to hear from you.

Thanks!

Molly

Microsoft adCenter Community Team