PPCBig Bing Ads 2013 Recap

Big Bing Ads 2013 Recap

Bing Ads has released a flurry of new and improved features of late. Here's a recap of some of the biggest improvements and new features, as well as some small but important changes you might have missed, plus some things in the works now.

For search marketers, enhanced campaigns probably led to a busy July instead of a vacation. Mid-summer seems like the perfect time to reflect on both progress and opportunities in 2013. You’ve just invested in fundamental changes to your AdWords campaigns, but there is another search platform making waves – Bing Ads.

Let’s get the update in one big (ads) post.

Last month Bing Ads announced new search ad experiences within Windows 8.1, a different approach to the traditional 10 blue links. They also delivered hundreds of platform updates over the last year – let’s outline many of those updates:

Bing Ads Details for Enhanced Campaigns

Within the search marketing community there was uncertainty around the impact of change to the new structure. What is Bing Ads doing for enhanced campaigns?

In a recent post, Dare Obasanjo, Program Manager for Bing Ads wrote:

Bing Ads customers will get the new capabilities of enhanced campaigns without losing any of the targeting capabilities that you’ve come to depend on to maximize your return on investment. We will continue to support device targeting at the campaign and ad group level. Enhanced campaigns in Bing Ads will truly be an enhancement to your search advertising experience.

Obasanjo also outlines upcoming changes which will be made by the fall release to support AdWords changes:

  • Support the notion of device preference to ads. This will indicate that an ad prefers to be shown on mobile devices. In addition, continue to support device targeting at the campaign and ad group level.
  • Add new dynamic text variables. Dynamic text for destination URLs will be added, specifically {ifmobile} and {ifnotmobile} to specify what destination URL to use depending on whether the user is on a mobile device or not.
  • New bid adjustment options. Changes to bid adjustments including adding negative bid adjustments, increased ranges for bid adjustments, more granularity and introduction of bid adjustments for device targets. To be consistent with AdWords, this will also include a move to multiplicative incremental bidding.
  • Ad group level site link extensions. Ad group level site links will be added which can override the site link extensions associated with the campaign (only site link extensions will support this functionality in the near future).

New and Improved Features in 2013

The list of improvements and new features is long, though many of the changes are small tweaks. Before listing out many of the smaller changes, here are the 5 more interesting enhancements:

  • Search Term Report in the UI. Bing Ads moved the search term report into the web UI, a frequent request finally fulfilled.

search-term-report-bing

  • Keywords Distribution Graph. As Melissa Mackey wrote, “Keyword Distribution Graph is revolutionary in many ways” due to the unique way it graphically displays your keyword data to help you identify outliers and hone in on problem areas quickly.

keyword-distribution-chart-bing

  • Change History Graph. The new Change History Graph is now available in the web UI, showing you the relationship between your actions and performance.

change-history-graph-bing

  • Local Ad Extensions Improvements. In time for the holidays, local ad extensions now have Click-to-Directions, the capability to display up to three locations with more detailed reporting. Bing Ads estimates a 35 percent CTR improvement for US advertisers using local ad extensions.

Bing Local Ad Extension

  • Improved Bing Ads Intelligence. Updated the Bing Ads Intelligence plug-in for Excel for easier import by creating bulksheets for Bing Ads, more account specific options and a simplified ribbon.

Bing Ads Intelligence

Here’s a list of some other small but important changes to improve usability and our day-to-day:

  • Sitelink Extensions Availability. Now available in all Bing Ads markets.
  • Improved Reporting. In reporting, multiple small improvements were added: Top vs. Other, keywords status, international time zone support & option to download report as Excel format.
  • New Editorial Appeals. Added the ability to request editorial exceptions (a.k.a., appeals) via web UI and Bing Ads Editor.
  • Landing Pages by Match Type. Added commonly requested ability to set landing page by match type.
  • Improved Opportunities Tab. Improved the Opportunities tab with filtering, more keyword suggestions and a new competition index for the US and UK markets.
  • Improved Keyword Research. Keyword estimates can be broken out by mobile, tablet or PC. And a very useful feature is excluding keyword suggestions with trademarks name detection.
  • Improved Ad Preview Tool. Upgraded the Ad Preview and Diagnostics Tool to identify the reasons why your ads may not be showing including low quality scores, bids, budget, targeting, or negative keywords and then providing actionable feedback to address the reasons.
  • Bing Ads Editor Speed. Ping Jen recently detailed upcoming changes, with Operation Four Horseman to drive speed improvements.
  • Traffic Quality Resource Center. A new hub to help understand the definition, process, and management of Bing Ads traffic quality along with some important resources to help ensure your success.
  • Bing Ads Developer Center. A resource for the developer community with the latest information on features and ways to connect with our team and other developers.
  • Bing Ads Accreditation Program. Overhauled and updated content to include 29 training topics, a refreshed exam and award Bing Ad Pro’s certificates.

Quick Audience Details and Numbers

At an all up audience level, according to comScore, in June Yahoo and Bing had 159 million unique searchers in the US, 51 million of whom do not use Google. But new details from comScore showed that users between Bing and Google can vary widely between verticals.

For example, 73 percent of the searchers on Bing and Yahoo in Travel are exclusive, which means you can only find these U.S. travel searchers on the Bing and Yahoo, not on Google. This held true for other verticals as well: 82 percent of Telecom, 76 percent of Automotive, 70 percent of Business/Finance, 58 percent of Education, and 46 percent of Retail.

And here are a handful of other high-level audience numbers found from the Bing Ads blog:

  • Now with recent launches in Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, Bing Ads is available in 29 countries, and will be available in 50 by the end of the year.
  • Over the last year, click volume has increased 25 percent.
  • 60 percent more businesses running campaigns on the platform than one year ago.

More to Come

Believe it or not, this isn’t the complete list of the work the team has been working on. The Bing Ads team has heard your feedback loud and clear and you expect more changes to come heading forward.

Would love to hear your thoughts on what can be improved or added in the comments section below.

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