Logging in to adCenter for the first time can feel overwhelming. Where do I go? What do I do? No need to fear. We’ve put together a few things to keep in mind when maneuvering through the wonderful world of adCenter. This will be the first in a series of four posts that will explore the adCenter UI in order of campaign structure.
Creating campaigns is your first step to getting started advertising with adCenter. It’s always a good idea to give your campaign a name that quickly summarizes what the campaign is about. For example, Surf Hawaii means more to me than Campaign #1, and by appropriately naming your campaigns something meaningful, you’ll be able to more effectively manage your campaigns. To create new campaigns, you can easily do so by clicking on the blue Create Campaign link.
Alternatively, you can easily import campaigns into adCenter, without having to manually create new campaigns one at a time. Click on the Import Campaigns link to get started.
You will then be given the option to a) import a report from another online advertising program or b) fill out one of our templates to import into your adCenter account.
You can also easily sort the various columns on this Campaign grid. This is helpful when you are managing multiple campaigns within the same account and want to quickly see which campaign is generating the most impressions (or which campaign is averaging the highest CTR, etc). To do so, click on the black header of the column by which you wish to sort.
AdCenter has included totals at the bottom of each column on this screen for a quick assessment of your campaigns. With just a glance, you can see how much all of your campaigns have spent, how many total impressions you are collecting, your average position, etc.
The status of campaigns can also be set from this screen. In our example, you can see that all three campaigns are currently Paused. To resume a campaign and set it live, simple click on the radio button next to the Campaign name. The grayed out Actions box will turn blue, and you’ll be able to select various options (resume, pause, delete) by clicking on the blue Actions box.
You’ll notice that the Surf Hawaii campaign status is set to Budget and User Paused. User Paused refers to the fact that the user has physically changed the status to Paused. Budget Pause, however, is something that automatically happens within adCenter when a campaign’s budget begins to deplete faster than the budget can sustain for the month. In order to remove this campaign from Budget Pause, the user will need to either increase the budget or wait until the next month for the billing cycle to resume. For more information on budget vs. manual pause, check out Sarah's blog post on the topic.
To change the performance data displayed on this screen to last month (or for yesterday, or for Last Month, etc.), simply click the drop down menu in the upper right corner above the chart to select the date range in which you are interested.
Questions or comments about this post? Please let us know in the discussion forum. If you'd like more information about campaigns, watch the Introduction to Campaigns & Ad Groups Flash tutorial. Stay tuned for the next post in this series, covering ad groups. And good luck!