The Super Affiliate’s Guide to PPC Marketing on Bing AdCenter

In my first “Super Affiliate’s Guide to PPC Marketing“, I went through the process of setting up your ppc campaign using Google Adwords. Today I will show you how to do the same, using Microsoft AdCenter. If you are already advertising on Google Adwords and just relying on them for your traffic, you shouldn’t be. In addition to Google, you should be adding Yahoo and/or MSN to your arsenal. The fact of the matter is, Yahoo and MSN traffic almost always performs better with ppc campaigns… and I’ve heard this from many of the biggest ppc marketers in the industry. Not only will you see better results, but your ppc and acquisition price will probably be much lower, as you are competing against less advertisers than on Google. So Let’s get started!

Step 1: Signup to Microsoft AdCenter
If you are not currently an advertiser with Microsoft Adcenter, simply click here for their quick signup. You will also receive $50 in FREE CLICKS by signing up through this blog. Once you are signed up, we can walk through the process below on how to setup you campaign and have it running.

Step 2: Find Your Offer and Setup a URL Redirect
Your ppc campaign will only be a strong as the actual offer you promote. For this super affiliate guide, I will setup a ppc campaign for the 123InkJets campaign which is currently on NeverBlueAds and pays around $15 per sale. This offer is one of the most consistent performers on many networks and has a brand name for itself as it’s been around for many years now, not to mention everyone needs ink. When choosing an offer to promote, make sure it’s one that performs well with general audiences, then move into niche areas as you gain more experience. (Click here for my step by step process on how to setup your own url redirect)

Now that you have selected an offer, you can make your own landing page to promote the offer, use your affiliate tracking url… or better yet, setup a url redirect. When starting my own campaigns to test performance, I like to setup url redirect. To do this, I simply register a cheap .com address through GoDaddy, then go into my domain settings have the the domain name auto forward to my affiliate url. For this campaign, I purchased SuperCheapInkJets.com, which now redirects to my NeverBlueAds affiliate url. I went through the MSN AdCenter process below as if I was setting up a real campaign for pushing the 123InkJets offer.

Step 3: Setting up Your PPC Campaign
A: Create Campaign:
Once you are logged into your Microsoft AdCenter account, you’ll see a been green button that says “Create Campaign”, click it.

B: Campaign & Ad Group
On the next page you will be asked to fill in a few fields on your campaign you’d like to setup. The main fields are Name and Time Zones. You can set these up accordingly, as they reflect your time and the type of campaign you will be promoting. The campaign name should be the offer name, then the Ad Group name should be named after the landing page or keywords you will use to promote the offer.

C: Creating Your Ads
After setting up your campaign name, you’ll need to create the actual ad copy that will be used to promote your offer. The Ad title is the most important field, as it’s what users will see first. Your Ad Text description should be short, targetted and to the point, while keeping the customer interested. The Display URL is what the customer will see your we site address as, and Destination URL is your actual web site url.

As you fill in your campaign information, to the right of the form fields it will show you what your campaign ad will actually look like. From the information filled in above, this actual ad would look like the following.

GOLDEN TIP: Display & Destination URL
Take a look at the two ad previews below. If you were a customer searching to buy ink jets somewhere, which would you choose. The majority of people would much prefer to click the first as it has a much more appealing web site url, not to mention it says what the actual product is. The ad on the right is simply displaying the affiliate url from NeverBlueAds. You will see MUCH better click amounts and conversions if you play around with the Display URL and use redirects through GoDaddy. (Click here and use coupon code OYH3, to Save $3 off any $6.95 any .com) The small few dollars you spend on a redirect url are nothing compared to the swing in conversions you may see.

D: Choosing Keywords
The next part in setting up your campaign, is to select your keywords. When you first access the keywords page, they show you the form area to the left to enter your own keywords. If you look to the right and click the down arrow button next to “Keyword research tools”, this will open up a new area to help you select more keywords. Using this tool, you can pull keywords based on words or phrases, by searching web sites or by destination urls. After you selected your method for research, click “Find Keywords”, then your suggested keywords will be shown below, which includes estimated impressions by month. Select your desired keywords, then add them to your list using the “Actions” tabs.

E: Set Pricing
The last process of setting up your ad campaign, is to determine your pricing and budget. Based on your keywords selected, MSN AdCenter will give you a “Estimated Spend” number, which is how much you would expect to spend promoting your campaign for a month. This number is usually very high and based on getting your campaign in the top listings. First set your campaign budget amount. More than anything else, this is to make sure you don’t blow your spending dollars if the campaign doesn’t convert as well as you expected, you can also change this figure at any time. The most important field in this area is the “Default bid”, which is the maximum amount you are willing to pay per click. The great feature about this is that every time you put in a different amount, the monthly estimates below will update with new figures. The minimum bid is .05 per click, but I would start a little higher (depending on the offer) when testing a new campaign, then gradually move up or down if it does not convert for you.

F: Review Your Campaign
The final page in the process is simply reviewing everything you have setup. Simply click “Submit” once you have verified all of your campaign settings and landing pages/urls are working. Your campaign will then go live.

GOLDEN TIP: Track Your Campaign!
Now that your campaign is live, you should be tracking it’s performance. MSN AdCenter does not include tracking pixels in your campaign setup, but here is how to set it up. First, when you are at the main MSN AdCenter admin page, click on your campaign name and it will send your to campaign adgroups and settings. Near the top of the page it will show the campaign information section (shown below), click the [Edit] button.

After clicking the edit button you should be sent to the “Change Campaign Setting” page. The second area of this page will say “Track Conversion”, click the boxed area and it will then open up a new area, which will provide you with your tracking pixel. (shown below) Once you have this information, you can go back to your NeverBlueAds contact and have them place the pixel for you. You will then be able to track leads based on keywords and see which ones are costing you money vs. making money.

You should now be setup to run your own ppc campaign through MSN AdCenter. Replicate the process with several different offers and see which work, then focus on them and continually repeat the process. Find just 10 campaigns that make only $10 a day profit, you’d be surprised how fast you can be earning up to $3000 a month profit using this system. For more “Golden Tips” and how to start your own ppc campaign on Google Adwords, please refer to my “Super Affiliate Guide to PPC Marketing“.

If you haven’t already, sign up now to Microsoft AdCenter and get $50 in Free clicks. You can open an account for as little as $5. (Use coupon code shown on signup page)


DISCLAIMER: As much as I would like for everyone who reads this to make money, I’m sure it isn’t possible. This is a disclaimer to state that I have no affiliation with Google Adsense, Yahoo, MSN AdCenter, NeverBlueAds, AffiliateFuel or AzoogleAds, beyond the aspect of being an affiliate and or advertiser. Zac Johnson and ZacJohnson.com are in no way responsible for your actions, gains or losses from ppc marketing after reading this guide. Please feel free to ask or comment with any questions or comments you may have.

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68 Comments

  1. To be honest: Adcenter Support simply sucks!

    The've got my 5$ activation fee and I could access my account – for 1 day!

    Now its telling me that I have an inactive account and that I need to confirm my email address (how the f*** should I do this with no confirmation email?)

    And support is telling me to call them – how am I supposed to call them if I get the "This support line is not for the country you are coming from" Message when calling?

    Microsoft…

    1. I've never been that happy from support with any of the big three ad networks. They should all have live chat support. I recently saw Google made the change over and whenever I have a problem, I just grab them on there. I wish everyone made the move over to live chat support.

      1. Yeah, the only support I really liked was yahoo's. They tend to take some time to respond, but they get their job done.

        I've just written an email to the adcenter support -lets see what they can do now.

  2. AdCenter traffic definitely converts better from my experience, the most important disadvantage however is the fact that AdCenter is capable of delivering far less traffic compared to AdWords.

    Alan Johnson

    1. Unfortunately traffic is a bit slower, but if Google is serving double the amount of traffic and converting at 50% less than MSN it equals out. I've had some MSN campaigns converting nearly double what they were converting on Google. Once you master your MSN listings and conversions, its just a matter of getting yours ads across more keywords/niches and to keep them converting.

      1. Personally, I always encourage people to test all three major networks and see what works for them, since it is extremely hard to generalize and, depending on what kind of budget they have at their disposal and what keywords they are targeting, one network or the other could be the better choice.

        Alan Johnson

  3. I've used MSN on a limited basis. I guess I'm too picky and want traffic now. So you're saying a simple redirect on a .com won't get you B**** Slapped like google?

    That's good to know. On my way to set up Adcenter campaigns.

    1. It shouldn't matter. A redirect is $6.95 using the GoDaddy coupon. In the event anything should happen, you can just buy a new one. More than anything else though… a "Google Slap" would have nothing against a url being used as a redirect, nor if it was being used on MSN AdCenter.

  5. I’ve used Adcenter recently and for the life of me can’t get the keywords to become active. They always remain at inactive status even though the campaign says active. Whats the deal with that? Anyone else having issues with Adcenter lately?

    Besides that – this is a fantastic how to post on using Adcenter, and a great bonus of 50$ free advertising! Thanks!

    1. I have found it does take a long time for everything to become active. Also, I had keywords magically go inactive for 2 weeks, and then come back magically.

      I have no idea what Adcenter is doing sometimes, but you can always call and ask.

  6. I wrote to Adcenter support a week ago and still haven’t heard anything back from them. What I wouldn’t give for live support right now, sigh.

  7. Again a nice detailed guide on MS Adcenter. I hope this will bring you the same amount of traffic as google PPC Guide.

  8. Good tip, do you know of any other company that offers the same service like Google Adwords , besides yahoo.

    I am currently using Ask.com but they dont pay well

    1. Limiting yourself to just one ad network is never something I'd recommend. Trying others on for size as well definitely can't hurt, and who knows, you might just find something which works great for you.

      Alan Johnson

  10. Zac, that $75 promotional offer is only valid until 31/12/2007 and therefore isn't valid anymore (according to the fine print below the sign-up page)

    360gamr

  11. Hey Zac, great tips you dont know how much you've changed my life bro.

    Quick question, is there a way to share hosting with godaddy if you already have a hosting account with them? Buying a new domain is a great idea but the hosting ads up for every product your selling.

    Thanks.

  14. Another great installment, thanks Zac! Couple questions though (as usual lol).

    Keywords: Do you suggest to use a ton of keywords (hundreds, thousands or more) or more very targeted sets like only 50 or so? I assume it depends on the niche and products but as a general rule do you keep them higher or lower? And do you use a keyword tool or use the suggested keywords that adcenter (adwords) offers up?

    Redirects: Redirect is a great way to go about making sure the display URL is related and as you say, definitely worth the investment but I could have sworn I heard/read that redirects weren't allowed…maybe just on adwords?

    Pixel Tracking: I am really intrigued by this and have seen you talk about it in the past as I don't really have good ways to track. But I don't really understand the process or how it really helps. Is it just that when you see a hit on your "offer completion page" because of that pixel you know that you should have a credit. Does that show you other important info as well?

    As far as having neverblueads adding the pixels for you, is it as easy as emailing your affil manager and giving them a list of the offers you want to promote and they just quickly add the pixels on all of them for you?

    Thanks a ton Zac! I really do love these post and can never wait for the next one!

    1. It really depends on the situation, it's hard to generalize. If you are only interested in using a lot of keywords not necessarily related to the product you are promoting in order to obtain cheaper clicks, it wouldn't be a wise decision (I've provided an example in a previous comment as to why cheap clicks aren't necessarily the way to go).

      Alan Johnson

  18. Great post Zac, just curious about the redirect. For microsoft is there any landing page quality score that would affect your ads pricing? for google adwords do you also use the redirect technique? or do you create a custom landing pages?

  20. I was waiting to read somewhere how we should approach Adcenter for ppc.

    Thanks Zac!

  21. Anybody ever have msn run up you clicks but no charge? I woke up this morning and the stats for a new campaign showed 1045 clicks. That's way out of my budget so I panicked and saw that msn only charged me for 6 clicks. This has shown in neverblue stats and cj stats using msn.

  24. I definitely need to spend MORE TIME on things other than good. I'm getting KILLED!

    UGH

    – Tevin

    Help me find out of Blogging To The Bank is worth it

  26. Thanks for the tips. I started using Adwords after reading your guide for it. So now I guess I need to start using MSN now that you have walked me through it.

  27. The $75 FREE Coupon Code is now active through all MSN links on the blog post. Offer valid only through 6/30/2008. Signup and receive $75 in free credit toward your account.

    1. I just tried it and it didn't work. I think I was getting the old codes still.

      Sorry, but I googled "adcenter" and got a code from there. Next time I open an Adcenter account, I will sign up through you.

  28. Personally, I love MSN Adcenter doing PPC. Conversions are often better then Adwords even. Though the amount of traffic they send you is not so much compared with YSM and Adwords. Also their interface is still very slow!

  29. I really appreciate how you walk step-by-step through how to create an affiliate campaign. Our first success was with 123inkjets late last year, but then the commissions stopped coming and we couldn't figure out what we did wrong. I think it was because we were directly linking to 123inkjets from our Yahoo campaign and the terms and conditions of 123inkjets on CJ states that, well you can't direct link. (But, in our defense, we were new to affiliate marketing, and didn't know what "direct linking" met.)

    So, after reading your post, I had a quick question. Is redirecting traffic different than direct linking? I assume it must be since 123inkjets could only see your referring website and not the original ad, but I'd hate to waste money and have things not work out again. Any suggestions?

    Anyways, thanks for the great idea. By the way, I tried to send you the referral by using your link for AdCenter, but the code generated only works for American addresses. Sorry!

    1. Yep. They are close to being identical. If done on google, you suffer with the quality score and get slapped, done on the content nw, doesn't effect you and your costs.

  30. I gotta have a closer look at your site. You've got a plugin that turns Yahoo into your affiliate links and adds a pretty avatar pic from one of the social networking sites. You're my new hero. Very cool and inspirational.

  33. I noticed most of these coupon codes only work for people within the us, is there coupons that work for other countries in asia, specifically malaysia…

  36. Hi Zac! Thanks for great example on how to create simple PPC to CPA campaign in MSN.

    What if your offer turn profitable and you decide to set up a lander for that – can you remove redirect from your domain and put a LP on that or you just buy another domain?

    Thanks Zac

  39. I use adcenter for some weeks and i have low traffic it's poor! I Think adwords and yahoo can bring much more traffic to your website. A+

  40. IMPORTANT: If you want to advertise your ads on content website by adcenter you need to register an account in english from U.S. If you register from english and u.s adcenter allow you to advertise on content website. I Suggest you this opportunity!

    5,78% CONVERSION ON ADCENTER WITH PEPPERJAMADS!

    Good Luck!

  41. does anyone do decent volume with these guys? seems like unless you go into a VERY high trafficked niche you'd have a hard time pulling numbers from MSN. But possibly the quality of the traffic is higher?

  46. Hi Zac, thank you for sharing this. You mentioned that you bought a domain name on GoDaddy and had it redirect to the affiliate offer. Would this be allowed on the content network or search results of Google? Does this work with Yahoo also?

    I read that Google does not allow redirects and that for the most part, the Display URL and Destination URL need to match.

    Can you please clarify? Thanks!

  50. Google ad words are just Nazis! The will lock your account eventually, even sometimes minutes after you open it!
    They are worse then paypal for locking you out. And with no explanation whatsoever! You cant contact them and they keep sending you stock emails telling you that you are suspended, but not telling you why.

    I have opted out of ad words complexity, and now are actually getting better success with facebook and msn ads.

    I am sick of jumping through hoops, so that billionaires can become trillionaires!

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