3 Simple Steps To Boost Performance On Bing Ads In 2015

With the New Year comes resolutions of all shapes and sizes. For advertisers, resolving to spend search ad dollars more effectively and successfully in 2015 has never been easier to achieve.

As has been reported, Bing Ads saw an average CPC of $.78 compared to $.93 on Google (Q3 2014). And in head-to-head comparisons across eight different verticals, the Yahoo Bing Network had a CPC equal to or lower than that of Google in seven of the eight verticals.

While it’s hard to argue with a lower CPC, choosing the best place for your search advertising spend is not just about cost. By providing unique levers that allow advertisers to optimize campaigns even further, Bing Ads offers you a significant opportunity to increase traffic and revenues with even lower CPCs. Simply follow these three easy steps:

Keep An Eye On Quality Score

First, monitor and optimize your quality score. The Bing Ads quality score shows you how competitive your ads are in the marketplace by measuring how relevant your keywords and landing pages are to customers’ search queries and other inputs. A high quality score can help improve your performance and deliver lower CPCs. The key is to understand what is driving low quality scores (landing page relevance, user experience, or keyword relevance) and make changes accordingly.

When compared to AdWords, Bing Ads is unique in factoring relevancy and experience of the consumer into quality score, and not bids, allowing advertisers to focus more on messaging and customers.

Modify Bids Across PC, Tablet, And Smartphone

Second, take advantage of Bing Ads’ device bid modifiers. As any savvy advertiser knows, not all devices are created equal, so having the opportunity to modify bids across devices is critical. This is where Bing Ads is distinct, allowing advertisers to increase or decrease their bids on PCs, tablets, and smartphones – something Google, which combines PC and tablets, doesn’t allow. Specifically, advertisers can increase or decrease tablet bidding on Bing Ads from -20% to +300%. For smartphones, bidding can be adjusted from -100% to +300%.

Don’t Forget Ad Formats And Extensions

Third, make sure you’re leveraging Bing Ads’ ad formats, like our Ad Extensions, which have proven to help boost traffic and performance even more. On average, the use of extensions such as Call, Location or Sitelinks can increase your click through rates 15-25%. Enhanced Sitelinks, launched in October 2014, is a new format of Sitelink Extension that allows you to add up to two lines of customizable, descriptive text. By expanding your current Sitelinks, you can capture a searcher’s attention even more with a more detailed, highly targeted ad. Since its release, we have observed an average click through rate increase of 27%.

In addition to Ad Extensions, Product Ads are a great way to attract customers to your ad. Bing Product Ads use imagery and promotional text to showcase your product in a visually engaging way – and stats show that they work. Serving a product ad generated a 7% increase in CTR vs. a comparable non-brand text ad and revenue per click was 31% higher. In fact, Product Ads produced a 98% higher return on ad spend. That’s tough to beat.

Summary

You can find even more tips and quick wins to boost your performance on Bing Ads from this recent webinar. With just a few easy steps, you can resolve to start 2015 on a high note.

3 Simple Steps To Boost Performance On Bing Ads In 2015