[caption id="attachment_65488" align="alignright" width="240"] Image courtesy Shutterstock.com.[/caption] A Wisconsin appeals court this week affirmed a circuit court's ruling that it's OK to use trademarks as keywords to trigger the display of paid search ads. The court's conclusions are in line with search engines' policies with regard to trademark bidding and with a Federal case decided last year in California. The Wisconsin case, which involved two personal injury law firms, centered around what it means to "use" a name for advertising purposes. In the 2009 lawsuit, the owners of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Legal: Privacy | Legal: Trademarks | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Bing Ads announced that the new reporting user interface released in October is now the default. Users will no longer see the option to switch to the old reporting version. The updated reporting UI includes: A new, Wunderbar-style navigation for faster access to reports Report creation in half the clicks A simpler, more convenient way to download and view reports Automatic application of your reporting parameters (time and date ranges, for example) to the Campaign or Ad Group you're working on For users who haven't yet made the transition to the new interface, Bing released [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Marketing

Bing has announced updates to its Bing Ads Accredited Professional Program for search marketers looking to get certified as “Pro Bingers”.  Among the changes, Bing transitioned the training segments from video based to text based content. Users can now view the training on the Bing Ads website or print out the training materials, a frequent customer request according to a Bing spokesperson. The number of training sections increased from 25 to 29 to provide more in-depth content. Users can share the trainings via Facebook, Twitter, and email with the new social media bar. The co [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Ads: General | Search Marketing: General

[caption id="attachment_65488" align="alignright" width="240"] Image courtesy Shutterstock.com[/caption] New York-based Vringo has sued Microsoft over two patents that pertain to the ranking and placement of ads in search results. The patents were originally issued in the early '90s and owned for a long time by Lycos, which later sold them. The patents in question are 6,314,420 and 6,775,664, referred to in the complaint (below) as the "420" and "664" patents. They wound up at Vringo, a company that sells video ringtones for mobile phones. The company's real business however is pat [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Business Issues | Google: Legal | Legal: Patents | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Business Issues | Top News

How valuable would it be to work on improving your paid search keywords' Quality Score? And which keywords should you focus on first? Bing Ads is introducing a new feature called "Quality Impact" that will tell advertisers how many new impressions they could gain by improving their Quality Score on each keyword. The feature looks at the competition for targeted traffic and the traffic volume. Initially, the Quality Impact analysis will appear for keywords with a Quality Score less than 6. It will project how many impressions would result if Quality Score were improved to 6 or more. The n [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads

In the third quarter of 2012, click share on the Yahoo Bing Network rose to 21.3%, the fourth quarter in a row the network has posted gains. Google dropped to 78.7% in share, though based on click traffic, Google still outpaced YBN. These are stats from the Search Agency's State of Paid Search report for the third quarter. Here's a look at click share over time: [caption id="attachment_138339" align="aligncenter" width="497"] Data and Image via The Search Agency[/caption] As you can see, YBN's share has consistently grown, while Google's has dropped. But the chart doesn't reflect th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Stats | Top News | Yahoo: Search Ads

Again following rival Google's lead, Bing Advertising is introducing the capability to specify different landing pages depending on the match type chosen. The idea is that the change will enable more effective bid management, tracking and changes (pausing and resuming) of keywords at the match type level. This is the latest announcement of efforts aimed at bringing Bing Advertising into line with what's offered by the industry-standard AdWords product, making it easier for advertisers to simply import their AdWords campaigns into Bing. Says Susan Waldes, client services manager at PPC As [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Bing Ads has released updates to its reporting interface in a bid to make it faster and easier to use. The new interface (and back-end) lets users run multiple reports simultaneously. It also allows advertisers to create related reports that share the same settings more easily, since settings like date range are carried over when one switches from a campaign to a report, or from one report type to another. Bing has made some changes in date ranges, as well. Users can see up to 366 days of data in the Search query report, and the absolute date range is specifically mentioned on reports fo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

After several months of beta testing, Bing Ads is releasing Sitelink Extensions to all advertisers in the U.S. It's now available through the Bing Ads web interface, the desktop editor and through the API, under "ad extensions" under the Campaign tab. Advertisers may enter up to 10 Sitelinks to accompany their ads, and help prospects navigate more efficiently to the area of your site they're seeking. The Sitelinks will appear both on Bing.com and on Yahoo properties. The company says that most advertisers in the beta testing period saw a click-through rate 15 to 25% higher than a standar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Bing Ads (the new moniker for Microsoft Advertising) is testing an ad format that should be very familiar -- they're combining the first two lines of text on search ads to make a much longer headline. The US market test is currently running on a small percentage of searches on Bing and will be rolling out to Yahoo Search, as well. It will be seen on the first three ads appearing at the top of the page. The goal, says Microsoft, is to improve click-through rates. [caption id="attachment_132837" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Old Appearance[/caption] [caption id="attachment_132836" al [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Microsoft posted and then retracted their announcement of renaming the search alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo to the Yahoo Bing Network. Part of that announcement is that Microsoft adCenter, the name of Microsoft's search ad network, is now being renamed to Bing Ads. You can see the retracted blog post on the new Yahoo Bing Network blog. It says, "Introducing the Yahoo! Bing Network" and talks about how "Bing Ads, the platform formerly known as adCenter" is the new name for adCenter. The functionality and advertising network seems to be unchanged. Rather, this seems to be just a reb [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: Analysis | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

It's official. Nielsen's Designated Market Areas (DMAs) are becoming the paid search targeting standard for metro areas. Microsoft's adCenter has announced it's adopting DMAs as its method for targeting metropolitan areas, a little over a week after Google announced the same shift. The change, in adCenter's case, will take place in late September and October. During this period, Microsoft will automatically migrate all advertisers targeting metros to DMAs. The company recommends that advertisers keep a close eye on traffic during this time period, so they can adjust campaigns accordingly [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Microsoft AdCenter advertisers have longed for some way to verify that their ads were running, and a solution is coming, promises a blog post from Microsoft Advertising. The fix will come in the form of an updated ad preview tool, which will let advertisers see whether their ads are showing generally, or to a targeted audience. The tool will also have targeting and diagnostic feedback functions. Once it launches -- expected in the next few builds of the platform -- advertisers can enter targeted terms, specify language, publisher domain, and traffic origin location at the country, st [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

To be honest, there isn’t much about adCenter that I like. Their UI is more ‘cool’ than functional. Their editor tool isn’t worth the space on my desktop, and their keyword research tools sometimes seem to be from the Stone Age. If I never had to login to adCenter again, it might be too soon. Throw on top of that the minimal search volume compared to adWords, and poor content network, and sometimes it seems like the stars are aligning so that you don’t even have to feel bad about neglecting the platform. That being said, adCenter has some really neat features that Google hasn’t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Paid Search

The Microsoft AdCenter rotation feature -- which lets advertisers optimize for clicks or rotate more evenly -- is live today, having been announced back in July. The option will be available through adCenter online or through the adCenter API (version 8). It's seen at the ad view level where keywords are connected to ad copy. When advertisers select "rotate ads more evenly" there will be no time restrictions on how long the ads may rotate evenly, so advertisers will have plenty of time to test different creatives and see what performs best against their goals. Google recently deal [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Microsoft has updated adCenter to enable advertisers to change or add agencies without losing their entire account history. With what they're calling "Agency Enablement" features, adCenter now makes it possible for agencies to link or unlink to client accounts, onboard new clients via email requests to access accounts, control billing preferences and manage client accounts at the account level, rather than the customer level -- providing greater flexibility. Being able to be linked to existing client accounts will also give agencies greater insight into the account history, rather than star [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads

What do you do when you figure out that a lot of self-reported data you're using to target ads is inaccurate or just plain sparse? If you're Microsoft adCenter, you remove that targeting capability -- in this case, age and gender. In a support thread from last week, a representative gives the reasoning behind a change made back in February: There are certain inherent problems when you ask someone this information. Some people add the information accurately, most don’t and even more don’t add the information at all. So if you use age and gender, your [sic] limiting yourself to what info [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Microsoft's AdCenter has just released some new features, including the ability to measure tablet traffic via Microsoft Advertising Intelligence, the ability to have more ads per ad group, and increased site exclusions for syndicated ads. The company has been working diligently in recent months to match Google AdWords' features and make it easier for advertisers to simply import their existing AdWords campaigns into adCenter. Microsoft Advertising Intelligence, the desktop Excel add-on used for research, will now allow users to find tablet-specific information, including traffic, keyword [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Microsoft has been fast-following Google AdWords with new features in adCenter recently, so it's not a huge surprise that some have spotted what look like Product Listing Ads (PLAs) in Bing Results. Mark Ballard from Rimm Kaufmann Group (RKG's) posted of seeing such listings and, while we haven't been able to replicate this, we did get confirmation from Microsoft that it's testing this ad format. "AdCenter is currently working on several ad product initiatives. Each initiative is at a different stage development and rollout stage," a Microsoft spokesperson told me in a statement. "The ad tr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

Microsoft has undertaken what's being called "a round of layoffs," including eliminating the position of long-time digital marketing evangelist Mel Carson, who worked for Microsoft Advertising in the US and helped start adCenter in the UK. The software giant confirmed the layoffs but won't say how many people or what departments were involved. A Microsoft spokesperson send us a written statement saying: "I can confirm that there were job eliminations today at Microsoft. Like any company, Microsoft continually evaluates its operations and works to align the business to key priorities. I can [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News