When the treemap was first introduced to adCenter Analytics Beta )it was called Project Gatineau back then(, I didn't see the value. Using the size of a rectangle as a visual cue to the importance of a page ranked by page views, entries, exits, or bounces was novel but, well, I simply didn't get it. Then I was shown the value of the treemap as an alternate method of navigating my data. Now I'm a believer.

You can't do search engine advertising without web analytics. At least, you can't do it well. Getting the click from the search page to your web page is just the first step; everything else depends upon your analytics. If you can't move your visitors beyond the landing pages, you can't close the sale . Web analytics isn't rocket science. It isn't even quadratic equations but it can seem complicated. There are so many reports, so many metrics. Which ones are important,

In previous posts I've made the case that your adCenter campaigns might profit from focusing on your core keywords rather than long tail terms ) Different Engines, Different Tactics (, improving the size of your audience, while warning that the technique was not without risk. Negative keywords are an important tactic in qualifying that larger audience ) Qualifying Traffic with Negative Keywords (.

In a previous post ) Different Engines, Different Tactics (, I made the point that different tactics may be more effective for different search engines. In short, it's all about traffic volume. Microsoft offers the opportunity to bid aggressively on your core keywords, head terms rather than tail terms, but there is a risk. Marketing to the long tail makes more sense where high traffic volume supports the cost of maintaining large keyword inventories.

We hear from some adCenter customers that they'd like more traffic; in this post I'll be sharing some tips to maximize and potentially increase your adCenter traffic to make the most of the time you spend in adCenter. Some advertisers optimize their pay per click campaigns for other engines and then export them with little change to adCenter. This may save time, but it doesn't always optimize for the distinctly different character of Microsoft's traffic. In other words,

I'd guess most of you who have web analytics configured for your site are paralyzed by reports. You're adrift in a sea of numbers, at risk of drowning; hoping management will be distracted by another colorful pie chart and not notice. Every analytic solution can generate a perfect storm of data that obliterates the horizon in innumerable details. Where's the insight? What's important? What should be done next? Reporting isn't analysis. That's far from obvious for most of us.

Digital advertising"whether via search engine advertising, email marketing, display ads, web sites, whatever"is about relevance. It's about matching your message to the intent of your audience. If you understand this one bit"if you truly, totally, and unequivocally get it"you're already well ahead of your competition. The value of adCenter Analytics is in tracking behavior in increasingly granular segments in order to provide increasingly relevant content.

The Power of Parameters Several times I've emphatically stated on this blog that you can't nest one parameter inside another. It's time to eat my words. What's a parameter? How is it useful? And why are they nesting? )I'm forcibly restraining myself from making a bad pun here.( A parameter, also called dynamic text in adCenter, is a string value that's not resolved until runtime. That's how developers define it. For the rest of us,