Bing Ads Launches Close Variants Test In US

Earlier this month, Google made waves when it announced it is removing the option to turn off close variants targeting, making true exact match keyword targeting a thing of the past in AdWords. Today, Bing Ads said it is testing the same thing in the U.S., although with the option to opt-out of the test. […]

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Earlier this month, Google made waves when it announced it is removing the option to turn off close variants targeting, making true exact match keyword targeting a thing of the past in AdWords. Today, Bing Ads said it is testing the same thing in the U.S., although with the option to opt-out of the test.

During the test, exact match will include “minor grammatical variations, such as plurals, abbreviations, acronyms, spacing and misspellings,” writes Matt Bisson, quickly adding, “Ultimately, this feature will be designed to match your ad to queries that represent exactly the same intent to those you are already using.”

Below is the summary from Bing Ads showing various iterations of close variants that will be included in the test and examples of how the engine aims to insure user intent is adhered to in the matching.

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By default, advertisers are opted-in to the test, but if you want out, go to Advanced Settings in campaign settings and select “No, use only my exact match keywords” under Keyword Matching Options.

If you participate, you can review the search term reports to see what keyword variations trigger your ads.

Update: Bing Ads has announced that close variants will also apply to broad match modifiers.


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About the author

Ginny Marvin
Contributor
Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin wrote about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

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