Remember the story of the blindfolded men and an elephant? As a quick recap for those that dont: A group of men were blindfolded and led to an elephant. Each man was allowed to only touch a small part of the animal and then asked to describe what.

The first day of ILM West in San Francisco is under way with some great discussions about interactive local commerce. Im a data guy, so my favorite session of the morning was the analysis of a digital advertising survey given to small businesses. BIA/Kelsey commissioned the survey and Steve Marshall )Direct of Research( and Matt Booth )Program Director, Interactive Local Media( presented the results. Some key findings: Based on responses to the survey,

Here at Microsoft Advertising adCenterm, we value our advertisers and want to get your ads live as quickly as possible. There are some products and services, however, that arent allowed on our network. We want to ensure that we abide by all laws.

Im psyched! Why am I psyched? Im psyched because next week is the ILM West conference in San Francisco and I will be there to cover all of the goodness for the Microsoft Advertising Community. Local digital advertising is no longer right around the corner its here. Local search revenues in 2010 were $5.1 billion and BIA Kelsey projects this number to reach $9.1 billion in 2015. So Lo Mo )Social, Local, and Mobile( is essential and video works in local markets.

Last week we showed you how to avoid common mistakes when setting up your adCenter campaigns and how best to use distribution settings. This week were following on from this, with a best practice guide on avoiding negative keyword conflicts to ensure your ads get maximum coverage. For a background on how adCenter negatives compare to other search engines,

I like simple, flexible tools that help make day-to-day work a little bit easierand free is always good. Microsoft Advertising Intelligence )MAI(, an Excel Add-in, is one of them. This tool can help you research keywords so you can optimize your campaign's performance. What I like most about MAI is I can run short, specific queries for quick slices of data or larger, more complex queries, depending on what I need. To start,

The question we probably hear the most from advertisers is 'Where is my ad?' and unfortunately there is no straight forward answer. Read on for some easy diagnostics and tips on how to find your ad: First of all its important you identify which stage of the ad lifecycle youre in. You are about to upload your new campaigns and want your ads to go live as soon as possible. You recently made a new upload and are not sure if you ads are live or not.

An updated version of adCenter Desktop, version 8.1.11, is now available that addresses issues reported by some customers. We have resolved these issues to ensure you can easily manage your adCenter accounts during this busy time of year. Anyone affected by the below issues are encouraged to upgrade to the latest version of the tool . Tool interruption that occurs when using the Copy to Excel feature on Keywords containing Negative Keywords.

The first presenter at Day 2 of SMX Social Media Marketing was Alison Dempsey from Parenting Magazine/ Parenting.com. When her presentation title slide came up, it read The Psychology of Sharing I was immediately reminded of an ANA.

To kick off the Targeting Strategies for Facebook Ad Campaign session, Search Engine Lands Pamela Parker )link to: www.twitter.com/pamelaparker ( shared an interesting factoid from eMarketer: Facebook is projected to command 7 out of 10 ad spend.

Arnie Kuenns background as an agency marketer differentiates his perspective on successful Facebook marketing from both Kevin Scholl )link to 1st post the one I sent from my phone( and Drew Conrad )link to 2nd post( in that instead of presenting.

As much as I would have loved to get this post out earlier in the day, my laptop has been conspiring against me since I arrived in Arizona yesterday, leaving me no access to the interwebs, save the live tweeting I was able to do via @adCenter on my phone.

Whether you have two employees or two hundred, theres no denying that marketing via social media channels offers a unique opportunity to not only get your message out to the digitally-connected masses, but to engage in direct conversations with your customers as well. Those interactions are absolutely crucial to establishing trust, building loyalty and improving your products and services through the candid feedback youll gather through tweets, wall posts,

Its cold outside, the winter coats have been dug out from the backs of our wardrobes and its dark well before weve left work to go home. For most of us the idea of a holiday during the winter months just isnt a possibility. Christmas expenditures, time spent visiting family who are spread across the country and perhaps making final payments on the holidays we took during those oh so distant summer months - that passed far too quickly.

Amongst the top New Years resolutions for 2012 are: Become more physically fit Improve ones financial condition Improve health Weight loss This year, resolutions related to overall health and fitness increased in priority over weight loss and other goals, signaling a possible shift from previous years. )1( In any case, January is a crucial month for advertisers who promote products or services related to a healthier lifestyle.

Its cold outside, the winter coats have been dug out from the backs of our wardrobes and its dark well before weve left work to go home. For most of us the idea of a holiday during the winter months just isnt a possibility. Christmas expenditures, time spent visiting family who are spread across the country and perhaps making final payments on the holidays we took during those oh so distant summer months - that passed far too quickly.

Responding to your trademark concerns is a top priority for the Editorial team. As an adCenter client, understanding our Intellectual Property Policy can help you determine when you should report a suspected violation. Below are some examples of frequently.

Here at Bing were always trying to help you get the best possible ROI from your accounts. In the run up to Christmas and in anticipation of the new year, this is especially important. To that end, we would like to invite our customers to a very special event. The Bing Account Management team are hosting an Optimisation and product workshop, which will be held between 9am and 1pm on Monday 5 th of December at the Cumberland Hotel in Marble Arch, London.

On the slim chance that you havent noticed, the concept of going into an office to work every day seems to becoming optional for many. This is not because work schedules have become more relaxed, or because employees have become slackers. I think.

Welcome back to the second instalment in this three part series dedicated to correcting the common misunderstandings and highlighting the key functionality differences between Match Types, Negative Keywords & Engine Matching Methodologies on Microsoft Advertising adCenter, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdWords paid search platforms. A few weeks back we discussed Bidded Match Types ,