Microsoft announced late on Friday that it is releasing an updated Ad Preview Tool, which will let advertisers verify if their ads are showing to the general audience or a targeted one. The tool will include targeting and a diagnostics feedback function as well. The enhancement will be complete "within the next few releases," meaning you will find yourself upgraded all-of-a-sudden in the coming weeks in the adCenter "Tools" section.
Once launched, you will be able to enter targeted terms and specify language, publisher domain, and traffic origin location at the country, state and city levels, enabling you to validate engagement with a particular audience (see graphic).
Microsoft offers some techniques for making the most of the tool. First, benchmark against how others approach the same audience, especially those that list product prices in their ad copy. If your price is higher than a competitor’s and you are unwilling to adjust it, then you may counter with a discount to overcome the disadvantage. So rather than list your higher price, list a compelling 20% off, for example. Use the leverage adCenter Ad Rotation function to collect more clicks.
Second, use Ad Rotation to verify the effectiveness of your negative keywords or Broad Match Modifier settings.
In the near future, Microsoft will also allow you to use the Ad Preview Tool without logging into adCenter, so you need not call your agency to find out why the ad is not visible.
In addition, you will receive diagnostic feedback if your campaigns are not engaging for your specified audience due to one of following scenarios:
- You are not aiming for this specific audience.
- You are aiming for a specific audience, but there are pending campaign management tasks that are preventing your ads from showing. Key pending campaign management tasks include issues with payment; a campaign out of budget; editorial disapproval; an ad group paused or expired, among other causes.
- You are aiming for this specific audience, but a lower Quality Score keeps your ads from showing.
