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Query String Usage in adCenter: Part 2 - new query strings offered in adCenter

Fri, 02 Mar 2007 19:19:32 GMT

Today we have part 2 of a series of posts about Query String Usage in adCenter by Chuck Evans, Senior Search Media Analyst, Search Media Organization, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. Be sure to read Part 1 - What Exactly Is a Query String?

You can reach Chuck with questions at Chuck.Evans (at) microsoft.com.

Thanks!
Carolyn, adCenter Community Team

Many of you have requested that adCenter pass a searcher's actual search query (vs. the keyword that's in adCenter) into your system. You've also requested the ability to pass the actual match type used by adCenter (broad, phrase or exact). These, and some other values, are now available in adCenter, and you can pass them to your system using query strings in your destination URLs. This article attempts to explain how to use the new values in your adCenter campaigns. It is meant for those who have a fairly good grasp on how websites work. For more information, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web.

If you aren't familiar with query strings, or want a quick overview on how they are used in URLs, please see the adCenter blog post called: What exactly is a query string.

Take advantage of new query strings offered in adCenter
Just as you might create your own query strings inside destination URLs to pass information to your systems about your campaigns, you might also like the ability to get other data from adCenter into your system. You might want to know, for example, which match type (exact, phrase or broad) our system used when it matched your keyword to a user's search. Which ad did the system pair with the keyword? What was the user's actual search query, as opposed to the keyword in our system? For example, if the keyword is "Travel to Las Vegas," did the user type "cheap travel to Las Vegas in January"? Unfortunately, you have no way to determine what this type of information will be when you build your campaign, so you can't hard-code it into your destination URLs.

That's where our new query string parameters come in. Microsoft adCenter can now provide the following types of information in the destination URL of an ad:

Information Provided	Wildcard for Parameter	Possible Values
Match type that was used to match a search query to an adCenter keyword	{MatchType}	e (for exact match) p (for phrase match) b (for broad match)
Search query used by the person doing the search	{QueryString}	This will be exactly as the user typed it in, for example, if they searched on "find hotel deals in Las Vegas"
Ad ID	{AdId}	The numerical AdId assigned to the ad by adCenter
Keyword ID	{OrderItemId}	The numerical OrderItemId assigned to the keyword by adCenter

AMAZINGLY IMPORTANT DETAIL: These query string parameters (the wildcards for them, that is) must be placed in the Destination URL field of an ad. You cannot put these wildcards into a {param1} field. A parameter is a value provided by the adCenter system, such as what a client specifies as a Param1, or a Param2. The wildcard is the actual text placeholder, such as {param1} or {MatchType}.

Each of these wildcards has to be paired with a query string variable, and your system has to be able to recognize the names of those variables and then pull the parameter information from the variables into your system.

Benefits of having these new values

Access to these new values gives you the ability to optimize your campaigns to a greater degree than before. For example:

If you know the exact match type used by adCenter and you also know the exact keyword, then you can adjust your bids with greater precision.
If you can tie a click to a particular keyword with a particular ad, you can better inform your ROI calculations. You also don't have to isolate one keyword with one ad in one order anymore!
If you know the user's actual search query, you can identify opportunities for new keywords to add to your campaign, or, conversely, you can identify words that you should add to your excluded keywords list.

Usage

All of the above query string parameters have to be paired up with a query string variable for your system to be able to use them. If you are unfamiliar with variable/value pairs in URLs, see the Appendix to this article. A variable/value pair looks like this (for example):

searchwords={QueryString}

If the adCenter query string parameters are the FIRST query strings in the destination URL (meaning there are none in the {param1} URL of your ad or keyword), the first query string variable needs to be preceded by a question mark. All subsequent query string parameters are preceded by ampersands. Assuming there are other query strings in the {param1} value, the ad's Destination URL field text would look like this:

{param1}&match={MatchType}&searchwords={QueryString}&adnumber={AdId}

NOTE: This example assumes that the ad's Destination URL field contains a {param1} wildcard.

TWO WARNINGS ABOUT COMBINING {param1} USAGE WITH THESE NEW QUERY STRINGS:

If you place {param1} and extra text in the ad's destination URL field, DO NOT include "http://" within the {param1} value. The system will read the entire URL as having "http://http://" at the start, which will break the URL.
If the {param1} value ends with an ampersand (&) then the rest of the string following {param1} should NOT begin with an ampersand. That would result in two ampersands in a row (&&) which would break the URL.

Some notes about query string parameters

The italicized words in the above string are the variable names that your system will use to pull the actual values into the system. There is NO REQUIRED NAMING for these variable names. They and have to be exactly what YOU want them to be. They can be foo1, foo2, etc., as long as your system understands what they mean.
These query string variables can ONLY be used in the Destination URL field of an ad. You cannot nest them within other parameters. You cannot specify them at the keyword level.
Reports on query string parameters are not available at this time.

An important note about editorial rejections

Because our editorial agents cannot generate actual values for the query string parameters prior to checking the landing pages, your system MUST be able to recognize the FULL destination URLs if they contain the literal wildcards. You must test this manually prior to using the query string parameters in your account. Also, you should probably set up a single test order using these URLs first to make sure everything is OK. For example, the following URL would have to work for a "FourthCoffee" landing page (this is not a real URL; don't click it):

http://www.fourthcoffee.com/index.asp?campaign=msn&keyword=las+vegas&match={MatchType}&searchwords={QueryString}

So, even though the system has not replaced the wildcards, your system still has to accept a URL with curly brackets in it without producing a Page Not Found or other error. If an error is produced, the ad/keyword combo will be rejected.

Conclusion

We hope that you can take advantage of these new query string values to improve the effectiveness of your search campaigns in adCenter. You've asked for them, and we've delivered. On a personal note, I'd love to get feedback to this post on how you've been able to implement the query strings and any successes you've had as a result. Also, if you have difficulty with them, I'd like to hear about that too. Reach me at Chuck.Evans (at) microsoft.com.

[edit 3/20/2007] removed c (for content match) as match type as this is not yet available. Apologies for the miscommunication. [\edit]

Demo-targeting Tips

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:15:55 GMT

Today we have a few words from David Jakubowski, general manager of Search & adCenter Marketing. David is responsible for bringing the business side of Microsoft search initiatives to the marketplace and positioning the product to the ad community.

Thanks,
Carolyn, adCenter Community Team

Many of you have heard us speak of the great promise of demographic targeting since we launched adCenter. Some of you may be actively utilizing it and having success. Others have not starting using it for myriad reasons, the most prominent being uncertainty of how to implement demographic targeting (demo-targeting) and how it will impact your campaign.

Recently, we asked some of our search agency marketing partners to participate in a test program to capture some best practices. We would like to share what we learned.

Why demographic targeting is valuable

By giving you the tools to target audience demographics, demographic targeting can help you:

Increase Conversions by capturing increased click share from your target audience
Decrease Cost-per-Action (CPA) by maximizing your click share from your target audience

Increase Conversions

One goal of demographic targeting is to increase the click share by targeting the right audience segments with the best creative and keyword set. To do this you must understand your target audience. Use adCenter research tools and adLabs [link] to help determine your highest converting audience. When implementing targeting, maintain baseline bids and then incrementally increase the bid on your target age and gender segments.

Decrease CPA

Another goal of demographic targeting is to increase click share. To do so, you want to strategically target the right audience by managing bids on a keyword set. As you know, search marketing can be expensive, especially in an industry dominated by ‘head’ terms. The only tactical difference as compared to Increase Conversions is to lower baseline bids for a particular keyword set and then incrementally increase the bid on your target age and gender segments.

Best Practices to implement demographic targeting

Implementing demographic targeting involves careful analysis before, during, and after the campaigns. The four steps outlined below are designed to guide you through the basics of demographic targeting, from campaign selection, to defining the right target audience, to campaign execution, and finally to campaign analysis.

Step #1 – Campaign Selection

Your campaign should be live for three months prior to demographic targeting
Impressions and click volume prior to targeting should be competitive for your keyword set
The average ad position should be above the fold but not in the #1 position

Step #2 – Target Audience

Use adCenter Reports and adLabs to identify your target audience
Demographic targeting is not exclusive; the targeting percentage increase is on top of the baseline bid
Incremental bid boost is separate for age and gender; boost the bids on each target
Budget wisely and have flexibility so that you can discover an optimal bidding strategy

Step #3 – Targeted Campaign Execution

Copy existing (baseline) campaigns and orders to create targeted campaigns and orders, and then run them in existing accounts
Maintain the targeted campaigns the same as your baseline campaigns, then compared
Track conversions by keyword to compare generic vs. brand terms – adCenter tracks demographic targets at the order level and allows keyword-level conversion tracking
Account for seasonality: conduct one month (or week) on and one month (or week) off
Collect enough data for analysis and to make changes and adjustments

Step #4 – Campaign Analysis

Review age and gender reports frequently and calculate the estimated impressions percentage (Estimated Imps %) and the estimated clicks percentage (Estimated Clicks %) only for targeted demographics
Monitor the CPA:
- Significant decrease in CPA probably means you are reaching your target audience; consider reducing the base bid and increasing the incremental bid percentage for your target audience
- Significant increase in CPA probably means you are not reaching your target audience; you may need to research your target more

Thanks!
David J.

Using Dynamic Text in adCenter

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:12:14 GMT

Today a word on {keyword}, {param1}, {param2}, and {param3} from Kirsten. Kirsten is a Search Media Strategist on the adCenter team in the New York office working directly with clients to implement and optimize adCenter accounts.

__________

There are many possibilities for using keyword insertion and dynamic text (parameters) in adCenter. This post will address the most common use of the different types of dynamic text insertion options.

Keyword Insertion

Keyword insertion helps make ads more relevant by inserting the search query term into the ad title or text.

· Tip: The keyword is inserted into the ad exactly how you enter it in the interface, so capitalize words where appropriate.

· Tip: Keywords have a maximum of 100 characters.

· Tip: If using {Keyword} insertion causes the ad title or text to be longer than allowed lengths (title: 25 characters, text: 70 characters), the ad will be rejected. As a solution to this, have a 2^nd static ad that does not use {Keyword} insertion in the order as a default. When the keyword is too long, adCenter will display the static ad.

Entering Dynamic Text (parameters) to your Ads

To view your ads and enter parameters, first log in to adCenter and then:

· Go to: Campaigns > Orders > Keywords > Manage Keywords > Dynamic text.

· Click the Dynamic text link to display a drop-down list.

· Click the parameter you want to view. You can view all three parameters at once or select them one at a time.

o Tip: Parameters have to be entered keyword by keyword, but you can enter the same value for all keywords in an order.

· Param1 is used to dynamically insert a keyword-level tracking code and landing page so you can report and analyze on a keyword level rather than just the ad or order level.

o Tip: {Param1} is also referred to as “Keyword Destination URL” and has a higher character limit (1022 characters) than the other parameters to accommodate long tracking URLs.

o Tip: You can use {Keyword} insertion in the same ad even if you’re using param1, param2, or param3.

· Param2 is a word or phrase that can be unique to each keyword and dynamically inserted in the ad text to make the ad more relevant, have correct formatting/capitalization, or replace a misspelled word.

o Tip: {Param2} is commonly used in lieu of {keyword} if the keyword insertion will make the ad title or text too long.

o Tip: {Param3} is often used for prices that are updated frequently.

o Tip: If using the code {param2} or {param3} in the text of the ad causes it to go over character limits, the ad will be rejected by adCenter.

o Tip: {Param2} and {param3} have a maximum limit of 70 characters.

Putting It All Together…

Based on your needs, you can use all four types of dynamic text in your adCenter ads. Just keep in mind the editorial policies and character limitations.

**How editing dynamic text affects the editorial status of ads and keywords**

Each time you update keyword insertion and/or dynamic text in adCenter, the associated ad/keyword combinations will go through editorial review again, so be sure that the keyword, ad, and landing page adhere to adCenter editorial guidelines to facilitate this process.

Holiday Best Practices Update: Cyber Monday(s)?

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:27:01 GMT

Just in time for the busy season, our own James Colborn brings to you the latest information about holiday trends. James is a Group Marketing Manager, responsible for for communicating key and interesting information about adCenter to the search market. After speaking with Performics he felt this piece was of particular interest to the adCenter blog readers in the run up to the Holidays.

_________________

Over the past month we posted a couple of entries to the blog that talked about Holiday Best Practices. These posts are designed to give you, our advertisers, the opportunity to plan and prepare your accounts for the holiday rush. As an update to these posts we’ve worked with one of our partners in the search industry, Performics, and are happy to provide you with an update.

From the data compiled (see chart) it’s clear that there is more than one Cyber Monday; indeed there are at least 3 more. Cam Balzer, VP of Strategic Planning for Performics comments: “Clear and consistent trends in holiday shopping exist. Consumers not only convert on what is known as Cyber Monday, but we have seen activity for the Mondays in December build throughout the course of the month,”

But what does this mean to you as an advertiser and how can you utilize adCenter and adCenter Labs to best prepare for these peaks in volume? Referencing the previous posts (1 & 2) is a great place to start. Then think about the following activities and tools.

Microsoft adCenter

· Budget Allocation: Make sure you’ve budgeted for each of the peak days. The data proves that budget allocation over the holiday period is critical. Since Performics is referencing conversion peaks, it would be a shame to miss these customers by having your account go offline due to limited funds.

· Creative Testing: Test creatives to work out which yields the best performance over this holiday period. As you get closer to the final ‘big’ few days, try changing the creative to alleviate fears that the searcher has passed the ‘shipping deadline’ for getting products sent before the 25^th.

· Keyword Research: Utilize adCenter’s research tab to identify the best keywords for your account. At the moment, adCenter’s CPC is lower than many of the top PPC engines, and with the strong conversion rates we have you’ll be able to afford generic terms you ordinarily might not buy.

Microsoft adCenter Labs

A recent post highlighted some amazing advancements that the adLabs team has made to the site. Version 2.0 has been updated to 4.7 million keywords and includes a few very powerful tools. Two in particular can really help when addressing the holidays:

· The Search Funnel: The search funnel shows previous or next search terms researched on Microsoft’s search properties, which is useful in any scenario. But this tool will also show you where future customers are going when they search for holiday gifts or competitor brand names. This tool will open up the universe of click path analysis to ensure that you aren't missing key search terms over this critical holiday season.

· Detecting Commercial Intent: When selecting keywords, wouldn’t it be nice to know how likely they are to be related to a commercial (i.e. searcher intends to buy) over a research term? This tool allows you to pick the keywords that will have the highest likelihood to convert over the holidays.

Utilizing these tools will give you a better understanding of your potential audience over this holiday period. Performics’ 3^rd-party data validation proves that not only is online shopping over this festive period increasing, but there are also peak times with opportunities ready for you to take!

James Colborn, Group Marketing Manager, adCenter

Don’t forget to optimize your adCenter search ad campaigns for Cyber Monday

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:55:48 GMT

Your Mom’s famous Thanksgiving turkey and dressing aren’t the only tantalizing things just around the corner this weekend. If you’re a retailer, you know that this weekend is also one of the busiest shopping events of the season. This coming Friday (Black Friday) and Monday (Cyber Monday) are an unofficial kick-off to the holiday shopping season. According to a recent Shop.org holiday report, “merchants made three times more adjustments to their online marketing plans than their offline plans” in preparation for the season.

Are your search ad campaigns ready? If you haven’t already optimized your search campaigns, consider looking at some of your highest profile campaigns and prioritizing those that may need optimizing. Use the Microsoft adCenter reports to look for trends and spot ad groups and keywords that are underperforming, and then determine how to make improvements. Also, be sure to check your budget, as some keyword bidding may become more competitive during the key shopping days. For more tips about how you can ensure that your Microsoft adCenter campaigns also have a happy Thanksgiving weekend, check out our previous blog post series on holiday search optimization.

Have you checked out our optimization tutorial yet? It offers helpful search optimization tips that you can use to make improvements to your campaign—any time of year.

Have a great holiday!
Jeanie
Microsoft adCenter Community Team