Advertising campaigns are generally run on television, radio, and the Internet as well as in print. The Microsoft adCenter API enables you to programmatically access Microsoft adCenter to create and manage advertising campaigns that are run on the Internet. For example, the adCenter API provides the AddCampaigns service operation for creating an advertising campaign and the UpdateCampaigns service operation for modifying an existing campaign. Other examples of adCenter API functionality include the ability to retrieve reports and to create and manage user accounts.
Advantages of using the API instead of the adCenter Web user interface include the following:
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Tasks can be automated (scripted).
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Large volumes of transactions can be handled efficiently as bulk operations.
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Custom Web user interface applications and desktop applications can be created as either alternatives to or enhancements to the adCenter Web user interface.
In addition to handling API calls, Microsoft adCenter consists of a database of advertising campaigns and related information that is used to display ads. For an example of how adCenter serves ads, consider a search advertisement. When a search user searches for a keyword or set of keywords, adCenter returns the search results to the user and any ads that are applicable. Factors such as keyword bid amounts determine which ads are returned to the search user.
Your application can be written in any language that works with Web services. Your application relies on the adCenter Web Services Description Language (WSDL) documents for the XML contract that contains the adCenter API interface and service operation definitions. The adCenter API uses a separate WSDL document for each area of functionality. For example, the Campaign Management WSDL defines the Campaign Management service operations and its associated data objects, such as the Campaign data object.
The following table describes the Web services that are provided by adCenter.
For more information, see Web Services Overview and WSDL Overview.
Version control is applied to the adCenter API WSDL documents. When new features are added to the API, they sometimes break existing applications. Should this be the case, a new WSDL version is usually released. The old WSDL version remains supported for at least 120 days to allow time for applications to be migrated to the new version. For more information about versioning, see Versioning in the Microsoft adCenter API.
The adCenter API uses a quota system that controls the number of API units available to each customer per month. These units include service operation calls and array volumes. For more information, see Quotas in Microsoft adCenter.
When your application calls the API, the API call becomes a SOAP request that is sent to adCenter by using the Internet. Microsoft adCenter processes the SOAP request, and then returns a SOAP response. For more information, see SOAP Requests and Responses.
The following diagram illustrates how your application uses the adCenter API to programmatically manage an advertising campaign and how Microsoft adCenter displays ads to a user.
For examples of simple adCenter applications in various programming languages, see Hello Microsoft adCenter Samples.
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