In this lesson we'll take a look at Writing and Placing Microsoft Advertising Ads - a step-by-step guide through the process of setting up pay-per-click ads using Microsoft adCenter.  

Note: This lesson only offers a quick guide to the Microsoft adCenter; for a more in-depth walkthrough of placing a PPC ad, read our lesson on Writing and Placing Google Ads.

Setting up Microsoft Pay-per-Click

To get started, go to the Microsoft adCenter website at https://adcenter.microsoft.com/.

Microsoft adCenter is very similar to the Google and Yahoo ad networks. However, there are a couple of minor differences:

• It costs US $5 to sign up.
• If you live outside the US, you must go to Microsoft Advertising Worldwide to get started.
• Add-ons let you target your ads based on gender and age and particular times of the week or day.

Setting Up Your Microsoft Ad

To get started, select 'Create Campaign' from the home screen.

Step 1: Target your customers

Select the language and region you wish to target. As with Google, adCenter allows you to target all countries, or specific countries and regions. Just as with Google, we recommend selecting New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, UK, USA, Germany, France and Canada to begin with.

You may also notice that this step also allows you to target customers by device, as well as (as mentioned) by the time of day, by the audience's gender, or by their age.

Step 2: Create your ad

Write a text ad describing your products and services. To do this, click 'Create an Ad'>'Text Ad' (or 'Import Ads' if you have one to import.

There are a few significant differences to note compared to making Ads in Google AdWords:

• The 'Ad Text' box is single line (not two lines as with AdWords)
• Microsoft adCenter supports "Dynamic Text" (dynamically changing the Ad content based on when/where/how it's displayed) - using Dynamic Text is beyond the scope of this lesson, but as you get more comfortable with adCenter campaigns, it is probably taking a look at Dynamic Text to see if/how it could help optimize your ad conversions. 

Step 3: Choose your keywords

Select up to 100 keywords that your customers are likely to search for.

Step 4: Set your budget

Set a monthly budget that reflects how much you want to spend and then set a default maximum bid per click. You can change this amount as often as you want after your ad is set up

Step 5: Confirm and activate your ad campaign.

Check over your ad details and make any necessary edits.

Create your adCenter account by setting up a username and password. Then enter your billing information.

Your campaign should be activated!

Lesson Summary

 In this lesson, we've looked at how to set up a new Ad Campaign in Microsoft adCente, using the following steps:

• Target your customers
• Create your Ad
• Choose your keywords
• Set your budget
• Confirm and activate your ad campaign!