How Import Adwords Campaigns Into Microsoft AdCenter (Part 4 of Series)

So, if you've read parts 1, 2 and three you've set up a main account, invited your clients and got access to their accounts and then created and assigned users to manage those accounts.  Now how do you get all the awesome work you did on their Adwords campaigns into Microsoft AdCenter?   Here's how:

1.  Download and Install Microsoft AdCenter Desktop.  If you're familiar with Adwords Editor, this is Microsoft's version of this.  Its basically a desktop program that allows you to make many bulk changes to your AdCenter PPC acounts quickly and effciently. 

If you're not using this program or Adwords Editor and are spending more than 1 hour a week in Adwords or AdCenter.  Download both of those programs now and start learning how to use them.  They will increase your productivity by a factor of at least 20, maybe 100 if you're a power user vs. going online and using the online interface.

That being said this assumes you already have downloaded Adwords Editor and know how to somewhat use it. 

2.  Once you install Microsoft AdCenter Desktop sign in with your user id & password.  This is the user you created to manage the account in part 3 or this series. 

3.  Search through All Accounts, and download this new account.  Even though its empty you have to download this account.

4.  Open Google Adwords Editor.  Export the campaigns you want to export as a csv.:  File>Export Spreadsheet>Export Selected Campaigns and Adgroups, Select the ones you want and click OK.  See this picture:

Very Important Note:  Adcenter accounts have a keyword limit of only 100K.  If you have more than that, you will first have to call adcenter and get them to upgrade the specific account's keyword limits.   Last check they will upgrade you to "self serve plus" with a 2 million keyword limit.

5.  Go back into Adcenter Desktop:  Import>Import from Google>Import from a File>  Find the file you saved using Adwords Editor and Choose file>Check over what is going to be imported carefully the different columns etc. > Import  See Pictures Below:

Note:  Adcenter will may import geo-targeting, languages and many other things.   Make sure you set these settings before activating the account.  See this picture:

6.  Check over the account for any errors.

7.  Set all campaigns to pause, then click Sync.  This will upload the campaigns to the web.

8.  Go into web interface and make sure all campaign settings are correct.  How to:  Click on a campaign, click on Edit Your Campaign Settings.  You may need to check geo targeting, language targeting, budgets and more.

9.  P.S.:  Be sure to set up conversion tracking!

Wow!  That's alot to set everything up and get your users going on Microsoft AdCenter!  But that's why they pay you the big bucks, right?

Please leave comments below if you need clarification.  Please let me know if this has helped you in any way.  Thanks!

How to Setup Up Microsoft AdCenter to Manage Clients Part 3

How to Setup Up Microsoft AdCenter to Manage Clients Part - Client Mangers and Users

In the previous two posts I showed how to 1.  Set up a main Microsoft AdCenter account to manage your clients with and 2.  How to invite a client to have their Microsoft AdCenter account managed by you. 

In part 3 you'll see how to set up users under that main account and assign them to manage your clients.  Note:  Even if you're the only person who will be managing the account you must set it up this way to have it work correctly. 

As we talked about before, Adwords has come a long way as far as being able to easily create an umbrella account where you can manage clients' account all in one place.  Microsoft AdCenter has made many strides recently in trying be easier to use so people will use their PPC platform. 

One source of frustration is how to set things up correctly so you can manage clients' accounts like Adwords MCC.  So, how do you do this?  To be honest, It took quite a bit of phone calls to Microsoft's AdCenter team, getting a person who actually knew what they were talking about and more to get this to work.  It's kind of convoluted, so much so that I actually wrote it down as I wouldn't remember it later.

So below is a brief, step by step account of how to do this.  Of course, Microsoft may change how they do things but this is the latest.  In the comments, please ask questions if you find something's not clear.

What you need to do:

1.  Set up a master account in MS AdCenter like yourbusinessname as the id & get a password. You're not using this to actually do any PPC, this is just a "shell acount".

2.  You need then create users that will be assigned to an account to manage it.  They won't need their own Microsoft AdCenter accounts. 

Here's how to do this:  In AdCenter:  

1. Accounts & Billing>Users>Create a User Profile>Account Roles>Client Admin>Select the Account(s) that you will manage.  Important:  Set the user who is a client manager as the following type of user:  Client Admin.  You'd think it would be Advertiser Campaign Manager since that's what you're doing but its not.  See this picture: 
2. 
3. Wait for the email verification.  When it comes, enter email verification code in, select password.  Sign into MS Adcenter.  You'll then see the accounts you'll have access to.  Select that account and you're in.

That's basically it.  Part 4 will show how to import your clients Adwords campaigns into Microsoft AdCenter. 

Did this help you?  Do you need clarification on this?  If so, please leave a comment below. 

How to Setup Up Microsoft AdCenter to Manage Clients Part 2

In the first post I showed how to set up the main account to manage your clients with.  The next thing you'll need to do is get invited by your clients to manage their accounts.  This is what I'll cover in part 2.

How to Invite Clients to Manage Their Microsoft AdCenter Accounts. 

1.  Before doing this you MUST find your Customer Number.  To do this:

A.  Login to your Microsoft AdCenter main account that you'll be using to manage your clients accounts.

B.  Click on the Accounts & Billing tab.  Click on Company Information Tab. 

C.  You'll see ther your Customer Number.  Write it down.  Very Important Note:  This number usually starts with a "C".  It is not the number that starts with an X and its not the Customer ID that you see below the Customer Number.  This was very frustrating to figure out.  See the picture below where it is highlighted in yellow:

2.  Also write down the email that is associated with this main account.

3.  Have your client (or your client may allow you to login to their account if they give you access) login to the Microsoft AdCenter account.  They'll go to Accounts & Billing> Agency Management> Click on Invite Agency.  See the picture here:

Then they click invite agency the pop window below will open.  This is where they or you will enter the Customer Number and email you wrote down from above and click Send Invitation:

4.  Once this invite has been sent you'll sign into your main account management account.  Go to Accounts & Billing> Agency Management, select client, Accept Invitation. Once you do they'll be in your list of clients you now have access to manage their accounts.

You'd think that's it and now you can get to work on your clients accounts.  Not so fast!  You actually have to create users under your main client manager account to manage the client's accounts.  This will be the subject of Part 3.

Let me know in the comment below if this has helped you or if you need any clarification.  Thanks!

How to Setup Up Microsoft AdCenter to Manage Clients - Part 1

So your clients love the awesome work you did on the Google Adwords PPC accounts.  But they want more!  What next?  Its time to start advertising on Microsoft (Bing) AdCenter PPC plaform. 

Why Should They Advertise on Microsoft AdCenter?

Since about 2010 Microsoft not only provides search results for Yahoo! but also provides Pay Per Click ads for both Yahoo! & Bing.  So by having your clients advertise on MS AdCenter, you're getting them the other 25 or so percent of search traffic they don't reach by only using Google Adwords to advertise with.

Frustration turned to Happiness!

But how to set things up right at the beginning so you can manage all your clients AdCenter PPC accounts in one umbrella account just like you do using Google Adwords My Client Center (MCC)?  There are a few steps, and at times it doesn't make sense. 

I had to call Microsoft, spend hours figuring it out and this and the following few posts will help you to set things up right, avoid frustration and many hours of work.  

This series of 4 posts will explain:

1.  How to set up the main umbrella or shell account.

2.  How to have your clients invite this manager account to manage their accounts.

3.  How to set up users to manage the accounts you've been invited to manage.

4.  The last post will show how to import your clients Adwords campaigns into AdCenter.

How to Set Up the Master Client Manager Account

You'll have to first set up a master "shell" account.  So:

1. Sign up for an Adcenter account.  Since you wont be using this account to actually run PPC campaigns, you really don't have to ad billing info.  
2. Be sure to use not your personal name but something generic such as your business name so other people can log in if needed.
3. Add all your company's relevant information. 

That's it!  And its the easiest part, in part two you'll have to create and assign users to actually manage the accounts.