Whether you want to promote a product, drive more traffic to your website, or simply increase your online visibility, Bing Ads can be a powerful tool for reaching your marketing goals. We will walk you through how to get started, create compelling ads, set an appropriate budget, and track your campaign performance to maximize your return on investment.
Understanding the Microsoft Search Network Audience
According to Microsoft, the Microsoft Search Network reaches 724 million unique searchers per month worldwide, including 296 million through native experiences (websites, apps, videos). In France, the Microsoft Search Network reaches 23 million unique searchers per month, representing a 19% market share.
Users of the Microsoft Search Network stand out by their socio-demographic profile and online behavior. Here are a few key characteristics to keep in mind:
- Microsoft Search Network users are predominantly male (56%), aged 35 to 64 (62%), and belong to upper socio-professional categories (49%).
- Microsoft Search Network users are more loyal to Bing than Google users are to Google. On average, they perform 30 searches per month on Bing, compared to 22 searches on Google.
- Microsoft Search Network users show stronger interest in the finance, travel, education, automotive, and healthcare sectors than Google users.
Preparing to Create Your Campaign
Before diving into the creation process, there are a few steps to prepare in order to optimize the performance of your campaigns.
Keyword Research and Selection
- The Bing Ads keyword planning tool, which provides keyword suggestions along with data on search volume, cost per click, competition, and potential performance.
- The Bing Ads performance analysis tool, which lets you analyze the performance of your current keywords and identify improvement opportunities.
- Competitive research, which allows you to observe which keywords your competitors are using and how they rank on the Microsoft Search Network.
- Semantic research, which helps you expand your keyword list by using synonyms, variations, related terms, or frequently asked questions related to your topic.
When choosing your keywords, you need to consider several criteria:
- Relevance: your keywords must match what your prospects are searching for and what you offer.
- Intent: your keywords must reflect the intent of your prospects, whether informational, transactional, or commercial.
- Competition: your keywords must help you stand out from your competitors and avoid overly fierce competition.
- Cost: your keywords must fit your budget and deliver a good return on investment.
Once you have selected your keywords, you need to organize them into ad groups.
Creating Ad Groups
To create effective ad groups, follow these rules:
- Create one ad group per product or service you offer.
- Group keywords that are closely related within the same ad group.
- Limit the size of your ad groups to around twenty keywords maximum.
- Use long-tail keywords, meaning more specific and less competitive phrases that generate better conversion rates.
- Use keyword match type options to control how your ads are triggered. You can choose from broad match, modified broad match, phrase match, exact match, or negative match.
Creating ad groups will allow you to write more relevant and more personalized ads for each keyword group.
Understanding Cost Per Click
Cost per click (CPC) is the amount you pay each time a user clicks on your ad. CPC depends on several factors, including competition, ad quality, targeting, and the budget you allocate to your campaign.
- The maximum CPC: the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. You can set it at the keyword, ad group, or campaign level.
- The actual CPC: the actual amount you pay for a click on your ad. It is generally lower than the maximum CPC, as it depends on the outcome of an auction between advertisers competing for the same position.
- The quality score: a rating assigned by Bing Ads to each keyword, measuring the relevance and performance of your ad relative to user queries. The quality score affects the ranking and CPC of your ad.
- The bid estimate: an indication provided by Bing Ads showing the average CPC of competitors targeting the same keyword. The bid estimate helps you adjust your maximum CPC to stay competitive.
To optimize your CPC, you should aim for a high quality score, which will help you achieve better rankings and a lower CPC. You should also monitor the bid estimate and adapt your maximum CPC based on competition and your budget.
Using the Right Tags to Optimize Your Campaign
- Dynamic tags: codes that automatically replace certain elements of your ads with relevant information, such as the keyword, location, or the user's device. Dynamic tags let you create more engaging ads that are better suited to each query.
- UTM tags: codes you add to your ad destination URLs to track traffic sources and user actions on your website. UTM tags allow you to measure the effectiveness of your ads and identify your top-performing levers.
To use dynamic tags, insert the {Parameter} code in the headline, body text, or display URL of your ad. For example, inserting {Keyword} in your ad headline will replace it with the keyword that triggered your ad. You can use different parameters such as {Device}, {Location}, or {MatchType}.
Setting Up Campaign Parameters
The first step in creating a campaign is to configure the campaign settings. You need to choose a name, an objective, an ad type, a budget, and a targeting option.
The campaign name should be clear and descriptive, so you can easily identify your campaign among others. For example, if you sell shoes online, you might name your campaign "Women's Shoes".
The campaign objective is the result you want to achieve with your campaign. You can choose from several objectives, such as "Increase website visits", "Increase conversions", or "Increase brand awareness". The campaign objective will help you align your ads and settings with your strategy.
The ad type is the format you want to use to run your ads. You can choose from several ad types, such as "Text ads", "Visual ads", "Shopping ads", or "Ad extensions". The ad type depends on the product or service you offer, as well as your campaign objective and budget.
The campaign budget is the maximum amount you want to spend per day or per month on your campaign. You can set a fixed or flexible budget depending on your needs and resources. The campaign budget affects the number of impressions and clicks your ads can generate.
Campaign targeting is the criterion that lets you define who should see your ads and where. You can target your audience based on several criteria, such as geographic location, language, device, LinkedIn profile, or schedule. Campaign targeting helps you increase the relevance and effectiveness of your ads.
Writing Your Ads
The second step in creating a campaign is to write the ads you want to run on the Microsoft Search Network. You should create at least one ad per ad group, but it is recommended to create several in order to test different variants and optimize your performance.
To write effective ads, follow these rules:
- Write catchy and descriptive headlines that include the main keyword of the ad group and encourage users to click. You can use up to three headlines per ad, separated by a "|" sign. Each headline can contain up to 30 characters.
- Write descriptive and persuasive body text that highlights the benefits of your offer and encourages action. You can use up to two body texts per ad, separated by a "|" sign. Each body text can contain up to 90 characters.
- Write clear and consistent display URLs that tell users which website they will be redirected to. You can use up to two display URLs per ad, separated by a "/" sign. Each display URL can contain up to 15 characters.
- Use dynamic or UTM tags to personalize and track your ads if needed.
- Follow Bing Ads editorial guidelines, which prohibit excessive capitalization, spelling errors, inappropriate symbols, and misleading or offensive content.
Here is an example of a text ad for the "Women's Shoes" ad group:
Women's Shoes | Trendy and Comfortable | Free Shipping
Discover our selection of women's shoes, both trendy and comfortable. Enjoy free shipping on orders over $50.
www.example.com/shoes/women
Which Ad Types Should You Choose?
- Visual ads: ads that include an image or video in addition to text. Visual ads let you showcase your product or service in a more compelling way and spark user interest. You can create visual ads from the Bing Ads image gallery or by uploading your own images or videos.
- Shopping ads: ads that display a photo, title, price, and store name for each product you sell. Shopping ads let you promote your product catalog and drive more sales. You can create shopping ads from a product feed that you import into Bing Ads.
- Ad extensions: additional information you can add to your text ads, such as sitelinks, phone numbers, locations, customer reviews, or site snippets. Ad extensions let you enrich your ads and give users more options. You can create ad extensions from the "Extensions" menu in the Bing Ads dashboard.
Importing from Google Ads (if applicable)
If you prefer, you can also import your campaigns directly from Google Ads into Bing Ads. This will save you significant time, while still allowing you to adjust budgets as needed.
Effective Targeting on Bing Ads
How to Configure Device Targeting
Device targeting is an option that lets you choose which types of devices your ads will appear on. You can target devices by operating system (Windows, iOS, Android, etc.), type (desktop, tablet, smartphone, etc.), or model (iPhone, Samsung, etc.).
Device targeting lets you tailor your ads and offers to user preferences and behavior based on the device they use. For example, you can create ads specifically for mobile users that include a call button or a location extension.
To configure device targeting, follow these steps:
- Click on the "Settings" menu in the Bing Ads dashboard.
- Select the campaign or ad group you want to target.
- Click on the "Devices" tab.
- Choose the devices you want to target or exclude.
- Adjust bid adjustments for each device if needed. Bid adjustments let you increase or decrease the CPC for each device based on its importance to your campaign.
Using LinkedIn Profile Targeting
LinkedIn profile targeting is especially useful if you offer products or services aimed at professionals, such as software, training programs, or events. For example, if you sell accounting software, you can target finance professionals or accountants.
To use LinkedIn profile targeting, follow these steps:
- Click on the "Settings" menu in the Bing Ads dashboard.
- Select the campaign or ad group you want to target.
- Click on the "LinkedIn Profile Targeting" tab.
- Choose the criteria you want to use to target professionals on LinkedIn: industry, company, or job function.
- Select the values that match your audience. You can choose up to 1,000 values per criterion.
- Adjust bid adjustments for each value if needed. Bid adjustments let you increase or decrease the CPC for each value based on its importance to your campaign.
Tracking and Evaluating Your Campaign
To install the UET tag on your website, follow these steps:
- Click on the "Tools" menu in the Bing Ads dashboard.
- Click on the "UET Tags" option.
- Click on the "Create a UET Tag" button.
- Give your UET tag a name and description.
- Copy the UET tag code displayed on screen.
- Paste the UET tag code on all pages of your website, just before the </head> tag.
To create a conversion goal, follow these steps:
- Click on the "Create a goal" button.
- Choose a goal type from the options available, such as "Duration", "Pages viewed", "Custom event", or "Destination URL".
- Give your goal a name and description.
- Define the parameters of your goal, such as value, delay, or number of occurrences.
- Associate your goal with one or more UET tags.
Evaluating Ad Performance
There are several types of reports and statistics you can use to evaluate ad performance, including:
- The campaign performance report, which gives you an overview of the key performance indicators for your campaigns, such as impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), total cost, conversion rate (CVR), and return on ad spend (ROAS).
- The keyword performance report, which provides detailed information on the performance of your keywords, such as quality score, bid estimate, average position, and impression share.
- The ad performance report, which provides detailed information on your ad performance, including headline, body text, display URL, and final URL.
- The ad extension performance report, which provides detailed information on the performance of your ad extensions, such as type, text, URL, and number of clicks.
- The LinkedIn profile targeting performance report, which provides detailed information on the performance of your LinkedIn profile targeting, such as the industry, company, or job function targeted.
To evaluate ad performance, you should select the reports and statistics that match your objectives and needs. You should also define a time period to analyze the data and compare results against your expectations.
How to Optimize Your Campaign Based on Performance
There are several tools and recommendations you can use to optimize your campaign based on performance, including:
- The performance analysis tool, which lets you analyze the performance of your current keywords and identify improvement opportunities.
- The bid estimation tool, which lets you estimate the potential impact of your bid adjustments on impressions, clicks, and costs.
- The ad optimization tool, which lets you test different variants of your ads and choose the ones that generate the best results.
- Personalized recommendations, which suggest ways to optimize your campaign, such as adding or removing keywords, improving quality scores, or using ad extensions.
To optimize your campaign based on performance, you should select the tools and recommendations that align with your objectives and budget. You should also test and measure the impact of your actions on your results and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Conclusion
We encourage you to put the knowledge gained in this guide into practice and to explore the opportunities that Bing Ads offers to grow your online presence, generate leads, and increase your sales. With careful planning, meticulous execution, and ongoing analysis, you can get the most out of this often-underestimated advertising platform.
Next Steps After Your First Campaign
Here are a few next steps you can take after your first campaign:
- Analyze the data collected through Bing Ads tracking and the reports available in the Bing Ads portal. Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that match your objective and budget. Evaluate your campaign performance against those KPIs.
- Optimize your campaign based on the results obtained. Use the optimization levers that can have a positive impact on your campaign, such as budget, bids, keywords, ads, ad extensions, or targeting. Test different variants and compare their performance.
- Adapt your campaign to market changes and the evolving needs of your audience. Stay on top of trends and opportunities in your industry. Listen to feedback and suggestions from your potential customers. Evolve your offer and messaging based on those insights.
Want guidance on your digital marketing strategy? Feel free to reach out!
FAQs
Q: Why use Bing Ads?
A: Bing Ads offers full transparency on campaign and ad performance. It lets you reach a specific audience that does not use Google. Additionally, Bing Ads typically has a lower cost of acquisition and gives you the ability to import campaigns from Google Ads.
Q: How do I create a Bing Ads account?
A: To create a Bing Ads account, go to the Microsoft Advertising sign-up page. You can use an existing email address or create a new one. After signing up, you can create your first account, import or create a campaign, and set your billing options.
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