Looks like it is happening sooner rather than later (at least in the USA anyway)…

For anyone who wants to target Northern Ireland, here is a list of how it may be typed into a search engine:-

Here is my short guide on how to have your Adwords campaign up and running on Bing in no time:

• Download and use the Adwords Editor software.
• Download your account.
• If you are using dynamic keyword insertion in your adverts, make sure that the capitalisation of all your keywords is correct – Bing will insert them as is unlike Google where you can modify them on the fly with {Keyword:} or {KeyWord} etc..(I think you can’t go wrong with ‘Title Case’).
• Export your account as a .csv file. (If you do want to change all your keywords to title case, then you can use the ‘Proper’ function in MS Excel e.g. “=Proper(o6)” will create a Title Case version of the keyword in Cell o6.
• Download MS Adcenter Desktop.
• Import your .csv file.
• *Make sure you manually set your ‘Geo Target’ options on each campaign*. It would be nice of these were imported automatically. It would also be nice if you could target the Republic of Ireland (This will come at some point in the not too distant future).
• Upload changes.
• Monitor.
• Adjust bids as necessary.
• Be amazed at how little traffic you get compared to Google! (This may change….)

PS – Here is an email I got recently from adCenter support about adverts in the Republic of Ireland:-

“With regards to when Bing will be running adverts natively in the Republic of Ireland, there is no finite date when this will be available. As Bing.co.uk has just come out of the beta stages, I would expect this to be in mind for the near future, but as of yet do not currently have a date I can provide you with.”

http://adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/Default.aspx

http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/blogs/advertiser/archive/2009/04/06/get-some-structure-into-your-ppc-life.aspx?s_cid=FY10UK_octstnd_tips

Well….. you don’t need one!

When you set up a new account for yourself (or a client), just ask the lovely support people at Microsoft to add £30 of credit to your account, and they will do it without asking any questions.

I have heard a number of people say that they have availed of this offer, and Microsoft adCenter support did it for me in the very recent past.

If you are running any sort of size of Internet advertising campaign, then £30 is not a lot of money – but it is better for you to have it than Microsoft!

But no-one seemed to be answering the practical question

“So, when can I set up an advertising campaign on Microsoft AdCenter, and have it appear on Yahoo without it requiring any extra work?”

So – I rang the lovely support people at Microsoft AdCenter (twice) on their very easy to find 0800 number (Google support please take note…)

The first time they said:

“Oh, errr, well it could be something like a year before AdCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing are fully integrated!”

The second time they said:

“Well…. It might be 2 years!”

So if you are currently considering waiting for the merger to complete before setting up your adverts for the combined Microsoft / Yahoo ad network – you could be waiting quite some time!