In the ever-expanding world of e-commerce, businesses must find new ways to stand out and reach their target audience. With over 20% market share in the United States, Bing provides advertisers access to millions of users who may not be reachable through other platforms such as Google AdWords.
Should Your Business Use Bing Ads?
Deciding whether your business should use Bing Ads depends on various factors, including your target audience, advertising goals, and budget. Here are some key considerations to help you determine if Bing Ads is a suitable advertising platform for your business:
- Audience reach: While Google dominates the search engine market share, Bing still holds a significant portion of the search market, especially in certain demographics and regions. If your target audience aligns with Bing’s user demographics or if you’re looking to expand your reach to a broader audience, Bing Ads can be beneficial.
- Cost-effectiveness: Bing Ads often have lower competition and cost-per-click (CPC) compared to Google Ads. If you have a limited budget or want to maximise your advertising dollars, Bing Ads may offer a more cost-effective option.
- Ad targeting options: Bing Ads provides various targeting options, including demographics, location, device type, and time of day. If specific targeting criteria align with your target audience or campaign objectives, Bing Ads can be advantageous.
- Enhanced targeting capabilities: Bing Ads offers unique features like LinkedIn profile targeting, which allows you to target users based on their LinkedIn profile information. If your business caters to professionals or B2B audiences, this targeting option can be valuable.
3 Strategies for Bing Ads Success
1. Don't Reinvent the Wheel
“Don’t reinvent the wheel” is indeed a strategy that can contribute to your success with Bing Ads. Here’s how you can apply this strategy:
- Learn from successful campaigns: Study and analyse existing successful Bing Ads campaigns in your industry or niche. Look for patterns, strategies, and tactics that have proven to be effective. By understanding what works well, you can model your own campaigns based on these proven strategies rather than starting from scratch.
- Keyword research: Utilise keyword research tools to identify relevant keywords that are performing well on Bing Ads. Look for high-volume, low-competition keywords that align with your target audience and campaign objectives. Building your keyword strategy based on successful keywords can save time and effort in the testing phase.
- Ad copy best practices: Study high-performing ads on Bing Ads and identify the elements that make them successful. Pay attention to compelling headlines, effective calls-to-action, keyword usage, and ad extensions. By following the best practices observed in successful ads, you can create more impactful and engaging ad copy.
2. View Bing Shopping Ads as a New Experiment
“View Bing Shopping Ads as a new experiment” is an effective strategy for maximising your success with Bing Ads. Bing Shopping Ads allow you to showcase your products directly in search results, reaching potential customers actively searching for products to purchase.Â
Here’s how you can approach it as a strategic experiment:
- Set up Bing Shopping Campaign: Start by setting up a Bing Shopping Campaign within your Bing Ads account. This involves creating a product feed that includes information about your products such as title, description, price, and image. Ensure that your product feed is accurate, up-to-date, and follows Bing’s feed specifications.
- Optimise product feed: Optimise your product feed by including relevant keywords in the titles and descriptions of your products. Use high-quality images that showcase your products effectively. Ensure that the product information matches the landing page and is accurate to provide a seamless user experience.
- Target specific products and categories: Segment your products and target specific categories or individual products based on their performance, popularity, or profitability. This allows you to allocate your budget and bidding strategies more effectively.
3. Focus on Brand & Search
“Focusing on Brand & Search as a new experiment” is a strategy that can contribute to your success with Bing Ads. You can strengthen your brand presence and capture relevant search traffic by emphasising brand visibility and targeting search campaigns. Here’s how you can approach it as a strategic experiment:
- Brand keywords: Allocate a portion of your budget specifically to target brand-related keywords on Bing Ads. This ensures that your ads appear prominently when users search for your brand name or specific branded terms. By targeting brand keywords, you can increase brand awareness, protect your brand reputation, and drive high-converting traffic.
- Ad extensions: Utilise ad extensions, such as sitelink extensions, call extensions, and location extensions, to provide additional information and enhance your ad’s visibility. Ad extensions not only make your ads more informative but also occupy more space in search results, increasing the likelihood of attracting clicks.
- Competitor targeting: Consider targeting competitor brand keywords as part of your strategy. This allows you to capture the attention of users who are searching for your competitors and potentially persuade them to consider your brand instead. However, be mindful of any legal and ethical considerations related to using competitor keywords.
How To Set Up Bing Shopping
To set up Bing Shopping, follow these steps:
- Create a Microsoft Advertising account: If you don’t already have one, visit the Microsoft Advertising website and sign up for an account. Provide the required information and complete the registration process.
- Set up a Bing Merchant Center account: Visit the Bing Merchant Center website and sign in using your Microsoft Advertising account credentials. If you don’t have a Bing Merchant Center account, you can create one by following the prompts.
- Add your store information: In the Bing Merchant Center, navigate to the “Store” tab and provide details about your store, such as the store name, website URL, country/region, and contact information. Ensure that the information is accurate and up-to-date.
- Create a product feed: In the Bing Merchant Center, go to the “Catalogues” tab and click on “Create a catalogue.” Provide the necessary information, such as the catalogue name and country/region. Next, you’ll need to create a product feed. A product feed is a file that contains information about your products, including titles, descriptions, prices, images, and more. You can create the feed manually or use an automated feed if you have an e-commerce platform that integrates with Bing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Bing Ads can be a valuable tool for e-commerce businesses looking to expand their reach and drive more sales. So why not give it a try? Sign up for Bing Ads today and see how it can benefit your e-commerce business!
FAQs
What is Bing Ads?
Bing Ads is an online advertising platform provided by Microsoft that allows advertisers to display their ads on Bing search results pages and partner websites. It helps businesses reach a wider audience and drive traffic to their websites.
Can I import my Google Ads campaigns to Bing Ads?
Yes, Bing Ads provides a feature called “Google Import” that allows you to import your Google Ads campaigns directly into Bing Ads. This can save you time and effort when setting up your campaigns.
How do I target the right audience for my ecommerce ads on Bing Ads?
Bing Ads provides various targeting options to help you reach your desired audience. You can target based on location, demographics (such as age and gender), device type, and even specific time of day. It’s important to understand your target market and use these targeting options effectively to maximise your ad performance.
How can I track the performance of my ecommerce ads on Bing Ads?
Bing Ads provides robust tracking and reporting tools to monitor the performance of your campaigns. You can track metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions, and cost-per-acquisition (CPA) through the Bing Ads interface. Additionally, you can integrate Bing Ads with tools like Google Analytics to gain deeper insights into user behaviour on your website.