How to Create an Advertisement

For the latest version of Commerce Server 2007 Help, see the Microsoft Web site.

You use the Create New Advertisement Wizard to create an advertisement.

To start the Create New Advertisement Wizard

  1. To open the Commerce Server Marketing Manager, click Start, point to Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 , and then click Marketing Manager.

  2. In the Commerce Server Marketing Manager, in the Views pane, click Campaigns.

  3. In the Tree View pane, select the campaign for which you want to create the advertisement.

    Note

    If you cannot see the Tree View pane, click Tree View on the toolbar.

  4. In the Task pane, click Create New Ad.

  5. On the Welcome to the New Ad Wizard page, click Next.

To select the customer

  1. On the Select Customer page, in the Customer box, from the drop-down list, select the customer for whom you are creating the advertisement.

    If you have not previously added a customer, Commerce Server provides a default customer you can use to create the advertisement.

  2. Click Next.

To select the campaign

  1. On the Select Campaign page, in the Campaign box, from the drop-down list, select the campaign for which you are creating the advertisement.

    If you have not previously added a campaign, Commerce Server provides a default campaign you can use to create the advertisement.

  2. Click Next.

To select the advertisement type and specify the industry ID

  1. On the Ad Properties page, do the following:

    Use this

    To do this

    Ad Name

    Type a name for the advertisement.

    Type

    Select the type of advertisement you want from the drop-down list. The available options are as follows:

    • Paid Ad. An advertisement that is served with specific delivery goals.

    • House Ad. An advertisement that is served when paid advertisements are ahead of their Need of Delivery (NOD) schedule.

    Description

    Type a description for the advertisement.

    Industry ID

    Select the industry type for the advertisement from the drop-down list.

    You use the industry ID to make sure that ads from competing industries do not display on the same Web page. By default, this is the industry ID associated with the customer you previously selected.

    Display Type

    Select the type of advertisement to display to the customer from the drop-down list.

    ms944916.alert_note(en-US,CS.70).gifNote:
    To extend or modify these display types to suit your business needs, contact your site developer.

    The following options are available:

    • Image. An image that is linked to the designated Web page(s) on which the advertisement is scheduled to display. Customers see the image when they visit the Web pages where you display the advertisement. You can click this image to move to another Web page.

    • Text. Content that is composed of text only. Customers see the text when they visit the Web pages where you display the advertisement.

    • HTML. Content that is composed of HTML code. Customers see the resulting text when they visit the Web pages where you display the advertisement.

    • Non-Clickable Image. A graphical image that customers see when they visit the Web pages where you schedule the advertisement to display. The advertisement is not linked to a Web page.

    • Buy Now. This option enables customers to purchase goods from any Web page on the Internet. When a customer clicks a product image, a dialog box prompts the customer for shipping address and credit card information.

    • Windows Media Services. This option displays high quality audio and video advertisements.

    • Left Vignette. A vignette that is composed of text that you display to the left of the image where you display the advertisement.

    • Right Vignette. A vignette that is composed of text that you display to the right of the image where you display the advertisement.

    • Top Vignette. A vignette that is composed of text that you display on the top of the image where you display the advertisement.

    • No Display.

    Start Date

    Select the advertisement start date from the drop-down calendar.

    The start date is the first date that the advertisement is to display on the Web site.

    ms944916.alert_note(en-US,CS.70).gifNote:
    Date and times are in local time.

    End Date

    Select the advertisement end date from the drop-down calendar.

    The end date is the last date that the advertisement is to display on the Web site.

    ms944916.alert_note(en-US,CS.70).gifNote:
    Date and times are in local time.
  2. Click Next.

To determine the request weight

  1. On the Ad Exposure page, do the following:

    Use this

    To do this

    Request Weight

    This box appears if you selected the House Ad type on the Ad Properties page.

    Type how frequently you want to display the advertisement, relative to all the other advertisements, for a specific advertiser.

    ms944916.alert_note(en-US,CS.70).gifNote:
    In a campaign, weight only applies to advertisements that are goaled at the campaign level. If the advertisements are goaled at the item level, weight is not used for paid advertisements. For house advertisements, the weight is relative to all other house advertisements for all customers and all campaigns. For paid advertisements, the weight is relative to other paid advertisements in the same campaign. The weight of an individual advertisement is relative to the weight of all the other advertisements.

    Quantity Ordered

    This box appears if you selected the Paid Ad type on the Ad Properties page.

    Type or select the number of requests from the drop-down list that you want to order for this campaign.

    ms944916.alert_note(en-US,CS.70).gifNote:
    Changing the quantity ordered may cause a mismatch between the campaign-level goals and the item-level goals. The Marketing System does not enforce that the campaign-level goals and the item-level goals add up to the campaign total. The Marketing System only honors the item-level goals when it displays the advertisements. We recommend that you verify that the campaign-level goals are still met on the Goaling tab in the Campaign Properties screen.

    Date Received

    By default, this box contains the current date. Date and times are in local time.

    Type or select the date that the customer will receive the advertisement from the drop-down calendar.

    ms944916.alert_note(en-US,CS.70).gifNote:
    After you save the ad, you cannot change the date.

    Days

    Select each day of the week that you want the advertisement to run.

    All Day

    Clear this box if you do not want the advertisement to run all day.

    Start Time

    Type or select the time of day you want the advertisement to start based on the server time from the drop-down list. Date and times are in local time.

    End Time

    Type or select the time of day you want the advertisement to end based on the server time from the drop-down list. Date and times are in local time.

  2. Click Next.

To set the number of times to show the advertisement

  1. On the Ad Display page, do the following:

    Note

    The items that appear on the Ad Display page depend on the type of advertisement you select. For example, an advertisement that contains an image will have a different display than an advertisement that contains text only.

    Use this

    To do this

    For this display type

    Exposure Limit

    From the drop-down list, select the number of times to show the advertisement to a user throughout a session.

    The maximum number of times to show the advertisement to a user is ten times within one session.

    All display types

    Display Size

    Select the size of the advertisement.

    • Image

    • Text

    • HTML

    • Non-Clickable Image

    • Buy Now

    • Windows Media Services

    • Directional Vignette

    Alternate Text

    Type the alternate text that customers see when graphics are not enabled on their computer.

    • Image

    • Non-Clickable Image

    • Buy Now

    • Directional Vignette

    Click URL

    Type the URL to which the advertisement links.

    ms944916.alert_note(en-US,CS.70).gifNote:
    You must type an absolute URL, for example, https://www.microsoft.com.
    • Image

    • Text

    • Buy Now

    • Windows Media Services

    • Directional Vignette

    HTML Text

    Type the HTML text, in HTML format, that you want to display in the advertisement.

    • HTML

    Image URL

    Type the location of the advertisement image.

    ms944916.alert_note(en-US,CS.70).gifNote:
    You must type an absolute URL, for example, https://www.microsoft.com.
    • Image

    • Non-Clickable Image

    • Buy Now

    • Directional Vignette

    Text

    Type the text that you want to display with the advertisement.

    • Text

    • Directional Vignette

    Window Height

    Type the height of the advertisement in pixels.

    • Buy Now

    Window Width

    Type the width of the advertisement in pixels.

    • Buy Now

    Windows Media Services ASF

    Type the Windows Media Services Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) for the advertisement.

    • Windows Media Services

    Preview

    Click to preview the advertisement before you publish it on the Web site.

    • All display types

  2. Click Next.

To confirm the advertisement property values and complete the Create New Advertisement Wizard

  1. On the Ad Summary page, review the advertisement properties. To change the advertisement property values, click Back. To create the new advertisement, click Create.

  2. On the Completing the New Ad Wizard page, click Finish.

See Also

Other Resources

What is an Advertisement?

How to Target Advertisements to Page Groups

How to Target Advertisements by Using Expressions

How to Edit an Advertisement

How to Copy an Advertisement

How to Restore an Advertisement

Managing Tasks Common to All Business Management Applications