Microsoft announced the launch of The Bing Ads Traffic Quality Resource Center today, a website designed to give advertisers and publishers visibility into the traffic quality protection systems of the Yahoo! Bing Network. The site includes sections that cover terminology, network protection methods, an overview of where ads on the Yahoo! Bing network will appear, as well as best practice resources for advertisers and publishers. Google has a similar service, the Ad Traffic Quality Resource, that launched in 2007. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

Bing Ads announced a number of updates last month, including new campaign filter options, improved search query reports, more visibility with appealable ads, and new keyword competition insights. Also, the Keyword Suggestions feature was made available to Bing advertisers in the UK. New Filter Options The new filtering options let advertisers filter and search from the Opportunities tab on the Campaigns page. Now, advertisers can view a subset of bids and keyword suggestions that meet specific campaign criteria without browsing through individual suggestions. Improved Search Query Reports [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads | SEM Industry: General | Yahoo: Display Ads

Perhaps in response to reports that Yahoo is unhappy with its search deal with Microsoft and looking for a way out, David Pann, GM, Microsoft Advertising Search Group, has written a post on the Bing Ads blog ahead of  "state of the state" meetings with clients in Europe that aims to reassure advertisers that the relationship is sound and the partnership is making progress. In his post, Pann writes, We are pleased with our partnership with Yahoo! and very encouraged by the momentum we are seeing in terms of revenue per thousand searches (RPM), ad relevance and the growth trajector [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News | Yahoo: Search Ads

Bing announced today a new version of their Bing It On Challenge, an online campaign launched last September that offers users a side-by-side comparison of Bing and Google search results. In the latest Bing It On Challenge, Bing asks users to perform five separate search queries on BingItOn.com and choose the unbranded search result list they prefer after each query. Users are told whether they prefer Bing or Google based on the search results they selected. An study commissioned by Bing last year revealed that Bing search results were chosen nearly 2:1 over Google search results in blin [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Bing Videos | Top News

Bing Ads has made several announcements about upcoming feature updates over the past few weeks (see below in Related Articles), and they've made another today. Soon, the Ad Preview Tool will get a new name and added functionality. In its current form, you can use the Ad Preview Tool to validate whether your ads are showing for specific keywords. That functionality will remain, but the newly named Ad Preview and Diagnostics Tool will also show you why your ads are not showing on the first page of Bing Ads results for a specific keyword. According to the post, the new diagnostics featur [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads

For enterprise SEM practitioners looking to set budgets or otherwise anticipate their needs in the space for the months and years ahead, it's been a particularly difficult time to get a read on how the industry is really trending. Conflicting data and opinions abound; new threats to the hegemony of search, real or just perceived, continue to spring up; and, there are times when all of us may wonder just how much the numbers are actually changing and whether we should be concerned. Case in point: comScore recently showed U.S. core searches increasing 11% year-over-year to hit an all-time [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Ads | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Stats: Search Behavior

It's not live yet, but Bing Ads is teeing up a new keyword visualization tool designed to help PPC managers analyze and identify optimization opportunities faster. Young Shi, a program manager at Microsoft who is responsible for Reporting and BI data visualization for Bing Ads, posted a sneak peek on the Bing Ads blog today. The new tool allows you to visualize your entire keyword set. Keywords are lumped into performance buckets based on the metric you choose to look at. Each bucket is shown as a blue bar on the graph, and the size of the bar represents the number of keywords in the buck [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Bing Ads announced it is working on adding a Search Terms Report to make mining search query data more accessible from within the Web UI. Currently in the Web UI, search query data is only available under the Reports section. With the update, search terms reporting will be available in-line on the Keywords tab. Here's a screenshot Bing Ads provided: According to the announcement, there will also be filtering capabilities to find specific search queries and to filter out those queries that are already included as keywords in an ad group. The Search Terms Report will eventually be a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

Efforts by Bing Ads to increase click volumes and gain market share from Google appear to be paying off, according to a report by The Search Agency. The Search Agency's Quarterly State of Paid Search, released today, shows Bing's share of spend rose 3.6% year-over-year to 21%. The market share grab comes after four consecutive quarters of a relatively stable split between Google and Bing. Bing spend rose 42% driven by a 7.4% increase in CPC year-over-year and a 46% increase in CTR year-over-year. Google’s spend increased 17.1% year-over-year. Bing’s clicks increased both year- [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Ads | Stats | Top News

A year ago, I was firmly anti-Google. Not in the sense that I disliked Google -- I just felt that Google did not provide the best tools in the business to analyze and make decisions on their own advertising placements. When asked if an advertiser should consider a 3rd party technology to help manage ad spend, I would undoubtedly say "yes" because Google Analytics, AdWords, and Merchant Center were (and remain) imperfectly bound systems requiring a lot of proprietary work to merge and make informed decisions. Much has changed in the last year. Google has made some significant changes (PLA [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: AdWords | Google: Analytics | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search & Analytics

Are those sweet efficiencies early adopters of AdWords product listing ads saw in their holiday numbers coming to an end?  Well, CPCs are rising, but ROI is still solid. RKG's Q1 Digital Marketing Report finds that as more merchants come on board, product listing ad CPCs are now just 10% lower than comparable text ads. Yet, even with the stiffer competition, RKGs client base saw 22% higher ROI from PLAs than non-brand text ads in Q1. PLAs garnered 33% of their e-commerce clients' Google search spend, a sharp increase from Q4. Product Listing Ads   PLAs helped drive up Google' [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Marketing: General | Stats: General | Stats: Spend Projections

Bing Ads rolled out some new reporting features in their March release. Here's a look at the two of the biggest changes. Ad Extensions Details Adding to its suite of ad extensions reports, Bing Ads included a new "Ad Extensions Details" report. This reporting view shows sitelink performance data by campaign (and ad group if selected). Ad extension reporting by keyword and by ad was already available. Top vs. Other The Keyword Performance Report got a new feature with the "Top vs. Other" column. This new column shows the performance of ads when they are in the mainline (top of the pag [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

Today Bing Ads announced on its Developer blog that they plan to roll out Product Ads in the U.S. sometime early this summer. The ad unit follows AdWords Product Listing Ads format with thumbnail image, merchant information, price and optional promotional text included in the ad. Bing says they are testing the Product Ads format with a handful of advertisers.  Bing provided the screenshot below, but I haven't been able to see the ads in the wild yet.   Just as AdWords pulls data from Google Merchant Center for Product Listing Ads, Bing Ads will grab product details from the Bing [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

The proliferation of tablet devices has begun to lower the value of the tablet segment overall for paid search marketers, even as competition heats up. That's according to the Q1 Digital Marketing Report by RKG, which finds that tablets generated 15% lower revenue per click than traditional computers. Revenue Per Click by Device Type vs Computer "Discrepancy is More Likely to Increase" Much has been made of Google's decision to combine tablets and PCs in enhanced campaigns. The RKG  report is not alone in challenging Google's claim that usage behavior and ad performance among the devices [...]

Related Topics: 1 | Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords: Enhanced Campaigns | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Marketing: Mobile | SEM Industry: Stats | Stats: Search Behavior | Stats: Spend Projections | Top News

Reiterating statements he made at SMX West last month, David Pann, general manager of the Search Network at Microsoft, is making it clear that Bing Ads will not go the way of AdWords Enhanced Campaigns in reducing device targeting options. He spoke to advertisers at a San Francisco Forum yesterday about the concern and addressed the question formally in a blog post yesterday. Under a bold "ADVERTISERS DESERVE CONTROL" headline, Pann writes: "At Bing Ads, we believe very strongly in giving advertisers the tools and flexibility to control their spending, target the most relevant audiences, a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords: Enhanced Campaigns | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Top News

Bing announced today that it will be launching Bing Ads in Australia and New Zealand. Australia site, BandT.com, is reporting that the launch date will be in July. Bing Ads is partnering with Mi9, a digital media company in Australia that is a joint venture between Microsoft and Nine Entertainment Co. Bing's search ads will be added to Mi9's advertising capabilities which already includes advertising through Microsoft Advertising Exchange, Windows 8,  Xbox and the Microsoft Media Network. Google AdWords is the market leader in search advertising in both New Zealand and Australia. Steve [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Partnerships | SEM Industry | SEM Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX

Bing Ads has launched a redesign of its search advertising site. The site is designed to provide a single access point for content and resources about Bing Ads and search advertising on the Yahoo! Bing Network. It consolidates materials from the Bing Ads Community site, the Bing Ads search advertising support center and the help files found within the Bing Ads platform itself.  The Bing Ads blog, forum and training materials  as well as vertical insights (which covers the finance, health & fitness, home & garden and travel industries) and tool downloads like Bing Ads Editor are [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Ads: General | Search Marketing: General | Top News

We may have seen the end of CPC stagnation. Covario's Global Paid Search Spend Analysis for Q1, released today, suggests that the cost-per-click trends of the last six quarters have reversed with CPC prices rising 7% from the previous quarter and 23% year-over-year. Overall paid search spend grew 9% quarter-over-quarter and 33% year-over-year. The following chart shows global paid search activity for Q1 ‘13:                   Google CPCs Rise 39% Year-Over-Year The study suggests that rising CPCs on Google a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Ads: General | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Search Marketing | SEM Industry: Stats | Stats: Spend Projections

AdGooroo has released a new study titled Yahoo! Bing PPC Performance Metrics that analyzes advertiser participation and performance metrics on the Yahoo! Bing network through Bing Ads compared to Google AdWords. The study looked at U.S. advertisers in six verticals during Q312. Backing up one of the loudest complaints among advertisers about the Yahoo! Bing network, the study found that AdWords out-delivered Bing Ads by serving 7.3 million more ad impressions in the Shopping and Classified category. A surprise, however, was to see Bing Ads come out ahead in the Financial Services categor [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: Analysis | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Marketing | SEM Industry: Stats | Top News | Yahoo

In its Februrary release, Bing Ads made changes to how ad group and campaign targets relate to each other. Prior to the release on February 18th, ad group targets overrode campaign targets. Now, both target settings will be considered together to improve ad relevancy and delivery. Here is the company's summary of the change: If you are using ad group level targets, Bing recommends looking for any intended or unintended differences in chosen targets at your campaign and ad group levels. Also in the February release, keyword research tool upgrades and Bing Ads Intelligence rolle [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Search Marketing: General