This post is part 6 in a series from the Microsoft Advertising blog, specially aimed at helping small businesses start online advertising.  Visit the adCenter site to learn more.

There has never been a better time to start running your search campaigns in adCenter because as you can:

  • Easily import your Google and Yahoo! campaigns to Bing using the Microsoft adCenter platform
  • Efficiently promote your business to UK and international markets
  • Control the costs: you only pay when someone clicks on your ad
  • Easily set up, monitor and make changes to your search campaign with adCenter
  • Target geographically and demographically using business intelligence tools

Setting up an account on adCenter is quick and easy, and a great way to generate highly targeted traffic to your site. Bing now has 5.6% of search query share* and growing day by day! Follow these simple steps, then upload your campaigns and enjoy the rewards. *ComScore for April 2011

Firstly, if you are a large direct client or an agency with a monthly budget over £1000, get in touch with our sales team. If you are a small to medium business with a modest budget to spend on adCenter, then click here to begin the sign up process.

Please complete the form that appears and if you have any problems; just click on Live Chat button on the right hand side of the page and someone will be on hand to assist you.

We will also need your company information:

At this moment you also need to have your credit card payment details to hand. Then click “finish” and you are good to go! The setup is completely free and you will not be charged a penny until someone clicks on your ad.

When this process is complete you are ready to create your account. Here are some top tips on how to make it coherent, easy to manage and optimisable.

Let’s take a look at our imaginary car dealership, Shah’s Cars.

  1. First of all, we’d split it’s website into its main areas. For example, ‘Used Cars’ and ‘New Cars’. These would be our ‘account’ names on adCenter.
  2. Then we’d split these areas further. For example, within ‘Used Cars’, we might have ‘Honda,’ ‘BMW’ or ‘Nissan’. These will be our ‘campaign’ names.
  3. We would then look at models, colours and other features to create the ad groups.
  4.  Finally, we’d place the relevant keywords and ads. The more granular your structure, the more targeted your ad copy can be and the better the campaign Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Return On Investment (ROI)will be.

Why wait, start advertising on adCenter today!

Thanks for reading.