Microsoft adCenter is making changes to its location targeting functionality that will bring it into line with the industry standard Google AdWords.

Now, the “market” (distribution channel) will no longer be available as a targeting option. It will be replaced by “language” and “target location” as individual targeting options. Advertisers will be able to target to people physically located in the target location, or who express (via search query) interest in doing business in the target location area.

Location options include all countries that speak the selected language, groups of certain countries, a single country, a single state or territory or a single city.

Roll-out of the new location targeting is already in progress in the U.S., U.K. and France, and will be rolled out to all users in a “few months,” according to Microsoft. The feature will be available on adCenter Desktop and the adCenter API. Existing campaigns will automatically be migrated to use the new settings.

The new nomenclature and options are designed to make adCenter more user friendly to advertisers accustomed to using the industry standard AdWords interface.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: APIs | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads

About The Author: Pamela Parker is a contributing editor for Search Engine Land and Executive Features Editor at Marketing Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. She can be found on Twitter as @pamelaparker. See more articles by Pamela Parker

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