Microsoft upgrades adCenter; kicks off ad-analytics beta

Microsoft is doing more than snapping up advertising companies and cementing ad partnerships. On the infrastructure side of its growing advertising business, It also is continuing to refine its platform and tools for its existing customer base.

• Editorial: Customers can receive immediate editorial feedback once they create or edit their ads.
• Campaign management: Customers now have the option of receiving a daily budget. Another addition: Compatibility between Campaign Import and AdWords Editor output.
• Report management: Customers now can access recent reports and templates from the reporting tab; use drag-and-drop for reordering of custom-reports columns; and view totals and averages.

The adCenter team also announced on October 29 that has kicked off its "Gatineau" analytics beta test by sending invitations to customers.

Gatineau is slated to be a free complement to adCenter and will provide click- and visitor-tracking reports; marketing-campaign reporting; conversion tracking data; and demographic and geographic information from site visitors, the company has said. Microsoft hasn't said when it plans to roll out the final version of Gatineau, which is based on technology Microsoft aquired when it purchased DeepMetrix in 2006.