Microsoft Advertising
Search Engine Land is your go-to source for Microsoft Ads news, strategies, and in-depth content. You’ll find a wide range of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.
Optimizing your Microsoft Ads campaigns
Microsoft Ads offers unique opportunities to reach high-intent audiences across platforms like Bing, MSN, and the Microsoft Audience Network. This page provides practical advice and insights for optimizing your campaigns, from structuring effective ad groups to leveraging advanced targeting options.
Stay informed on updates to Microsoft’s advertising tools, including AI-powered enhancements, new bidding strategies, and cross-platform integrations. Whether you’re exploring audience targeting, different ad formats, or conversion tracking, you’ll find the guidance you need to make the most of Microsoft’s advertising ecosystem.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, as well as subject matter experts from agencies and top-performing brands leveraging Microsoft’s advertising ecosystem.
Discover how businesses are effectively using Microsoft Ads to tap into unique audiences and improve performance across channels.
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IgnitionOne: Q1 US Paid Search Growth Strongest In 3 Years
Yahoo Bing Network gains share for third straight quarter.
Google Still Dominant, But Baidu Benefitting From Google Ban In China Says eMarketer
As China's search revenue share continues to grow, Google will largely be missing out while its sites are blocked on the mainland.
Bing Ads Unified Device Targeting Is Here: Explicit Smartphone Campaigns End This Week
The forced migration could lead to competing ad serving in your account if you haven't take action.
Report: Brands May Lose 10K to 60K Visitors Per Month To PPC Trademark Bidding
BrandVerity's Q4 study looks at trademark usage in paid search across 10 industry verticals.
New Bing Ads Editor Version (10.7) Now Available
Changes include some subtle but welcome usability updates and, best of all, the ability to edit the text of keywords that have already been synced.
Competitive Bid Opportunities Arrive On Bing To Help Advertisers Analyze Themselves Against Rivals
A new tool allows advertisers to stack themselves up against the competition, and instantly make changes where they see fit.
Bing Ads Offers Search Insights For Mother’s Day Marketers
Now A $20 billion holiday in the U.S., Mother's Day-related searches start rising roughly a month in advance, though search habits vary by gift category.
Bing Ads Auction Insights Now Available Globally
Reports show you how your ads compete against other advertisers' ads on the Yahoo Bing Network.
Bing Ads Rolling Out Updates To Quality Score Reporting
Changes are designed to make quality score more informative and easier to use.
Bing Ads Discusses 3 New Initiatives: Native Ads On MSN.com, Mobile Ad Formats, Remarketing
The company's foray into native advertising will harness intent signals from Bing Ads.
Bing Ads Reduces Campaign Reporting Lag To 1 Hour
Impression and click performance data is now delivered much faster.
Bing Ads New Bid Preview Tool Lets You See Effects Of Bid Changes In Real Time
See how ads will display with bid increases before committing to new keyword bids.
Bing Ads Rolls Out Enhanced Sitelinks Globally, Adds Sitelink Device Preference
Additional copy below each Sitelink extension is available in most markets and languages supported by Bing Ads.
Smartphones Account For 40 Percent Of US Search Ad Spend In Q4 [Marin]
Desktop's influence, while still dominant, continued to wane in the fourth quarter.
Bing Ads, Too, Says Goodbye To Phone Numbers In PPC Ad Copy
Advertisers will need to use call or location extensions to display phone numbers.
Report: U.S. Mobile Search Spend Expected To Overtake Desktop Next Year
Starting next year, marketers in the U.S. will spend more on mobile search — both PPC ads and SEO — than on desktop, according to a new report from digital research firm, eMarketer. Just last year, the firm estimates, less than a quarter of search spend went to mobile. The report suggests that the tables […]
Bing Ads Updates Campaign Planner Tool For Search Trends, Keyword And Competitive Research
In September, Bing Ads released its Campaign Planner tool, which includes vertical and product trend data, keyword research and competitive insights. This week, the first update to the tool was released. If you’re not already familiar with this tool, I recommend taking some time and digging into it. It’s located under the Tools menu in […]
Paid Search Revenue Gains Outpaced Retailer Ad Spend On Black Friday, Cyber Monday
Over the Thanksgiving week, retailers increased ad spend on paid search by 49 percent compared to 2013, according to new data from Kenshoo. On the biggest shopping days — Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday — revenue increases outweighed the jump in ad spend from the previous year. Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw the […]
For The Trifecta, Bing Ads Rolling Out Close Variants On Phrase Match
Bing Ads has already announced the switch to include close variants on Exact Match and Broad Match Modifier keywords. Now Phrase Match keywords will also get the close variants treatment. With close variants, ads trigger on search queries that closely resemble the keyword — plurals, misspellings, abbreviations, and the like — while still adhering to […]
More Bulk Editing Capabilities In Bing Ads Web UI Are Now Live
Bing Ads has been rolling out bulk editing capabilities within the web interface over the past few months. Today, more options became available. Bulk bid and destination editing are both relatively new additions, and now advertisers can edit keyword match types in bulk. At the ad group level, bids can be set or adjusted up […]
Bing Ads Adds Competitive “Auction Insights” To Web UI
Bing Ads advertisers will now find competitive auction data in the web interface. First launched earlier this year in Bing Ads Intelligence, Auction Insights is available from the Campaigns page on the web. Auction insights are available at the campaign, ad group and keyword level. There are minimum data thresholds for insights to be available. […]
Search Arbitrage Accounts For Largest Percentage Of Ads Competing On Brand Trademarks
Brands are often struggling with other advertisers encroaching on their trademark terms in search ads. Sometimes brand trademarks are used by “friendly” advertisers such as resellers, but a study released today from BrandVerity shows that search arbitrage accounts for the majority of branded search competition. The study analyzed how core brand terms of more than […]
App Extensions Coming To Bing Ads
App extensions will be available to advertisers on Bing Ads starting next spring. Timed to coincide with the removal of explicit mobile OS targeting, app extensions will be targeted automatically to a user’s OS and device. The extensions will feature an app’s icon and a call-to-action to download the app, as opposed to a click-to-download […]
Bing Ads To Retire Explicit Mobile OS Targeting In March 2015
To complete its path to compatibility with Google AdWords, Bing Ad has announced that explicit OS targeting will be retired in March of next year. No longer will you have the option to target ads to a specific mobile operating systems as you are now. Instead, what advertisers will see beginning in March 2015 is […]
Paid Search Roundup Q3 2014: From Performance Trends To Key Product Updates, What You Need To Know
The quarterly reports and earning statements are in. Overall, all signs point to continued global growth for paid search advertising in Q3. Here’s a look at performance results and the biggest announcements and changes to come from Google AdWords and Bing Ads in the third quarter 2014. What The Search Engines Reported Google reported third […]
Microsoft Execs Lay Out Strategy For Growing Bing’s Market Share: “We’re Putting Search Where People Are”
At a Bing Ads Next event in Redmond, Washington yesterday, Microsoft executives outlined the roadmap ahead for Bing and Bing Ads, which powers paid search advertising on both Bing and Yahoo. In discussing the evolution of Bing and the way Micosoft is thinking about search, Rik van der Kooi, Corporate VP, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions […]
Bing Ads Delivers An MCC: “Accounts Summary” Now Available For Managing Multiple Accounts
Bing Ads is delivering on a long-requested feature to make managing multiple accounts on the platform easier. Accounts Summary is Bing’s answer to the AdWords My Client Center (MCC). From Accounts Summary agencies and advertisers responsible for multiple Bing Ads accounts can toggle between accounts and get an overview of performance metrics for as many […]
Bing Ads Launches Universal Event Tracking For Goal Tracking
Today, Bing Ads announced the global launch of Universal Event Tracking to allow advertisers to define and track goals specific to their businesses. The company also announced that Universal Event Tracking (UET) sets the stage for audience based remarketing scenarios, which will roll out “soon”. UET will help advertisers understand Which ad campaigns are most […]
Bing Ads Tests Consumer Ratings Annotations
Bing Ads is partnering with reviews service, Viewpoints, to test out displaying consumer ratings annotations in text ads. Like Google’s version, which pulls from its own survey program, the ratings annotations in the Bing ads feature grades on performance features such as customer service, return policies, pricing, and selection. I haven’t been able to see […]
RKG Q3: Paid Search Ad Spend Surged 26 Percent Y/Y
Q3 brought more paid search growth among RKG’s clients according to the firm’s third quarter digital marketing report. Paid search ad spend on Google increased 27 percent and Bing increase ad spend rose 24 percent, for an overall growth rate of 26 percent year-over-year. No surprise, mobile devices and product ads continue to drive paid […]
Bing Ads Showing Twitter Followers In Ads
Bing and Twitter have had a partnership dating back to the ancient days of 2009 and have renewed their deal to feature tweets in the search results every two years since. Now, Bing Ads is testing out an integration to show the number of Twitter followers advertisers have within their ads. The test, first reported […]
Bing Ads Makes Combined Tablet-Desktop Targeting Official
Desktop and tablets are now united across paid search — with one caveat. Bing Ads has officially combined tablet and PC targeting in search campaigns on the platform, following on Google’s move to do so last year with the introduction of Enhanced Campaigns. Bing Ads announced the changes coming to device targeting back in June. […]
Bing Ads Debuts Enhanced Sitelinks In U.S.
Enhanced Sitelinks are now available on Bing Ads in the U.S., and will be rolling out to more global markets through the end of the year. Enhanced Sitelinks offer two additional lines of copy below the link itself. Bing Ads reports that on average, advertisers testing Enhanced Sitelinks saw click-through rates rise 27 percent, without […]
Bing Ads Makes Close Variants On Exact Match Permanent In U.S.
That test didn’t last long. A month ago, Bing Ads announced that it would test close variants on exact match in the U.S. As of yesterday, the switch has been flipped and close variants on exact match keywords are here to stay. Close variants include search queries that are close but not exact matches to […]
Bing Ads Rolling Out Dynamic Sitelinks In U.S.
Bing Ads has debuted Dynamic Sitelinks, new annotations that are automatically created and displayed in the same fashion as standard Sitelinks that advertisers control. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Google introduced the same feature in July. The engines know that sitelinks increase click-through rates, so if you haven’t taken the time to set up […]
Bing Ads Launches Campaign Planner Packed With Competitive Data, Keyword Insights
A powerful new tool is available in Bing Ads that will help search marketers better understand the competitive landscape, get new keyword ideas and fine tune their campaigns. Campaign Planner offers marketplace insights including search traffic trending and forecasting data, industry benchmarks, competitor performance and keyword suggestions. Within the Campaign Planner, advertisers can drill into […]
Bing Ads Refreshes The Change History Report
Bing Ads has rolled out a new look for its Change History reporting. The new format groups changes made by a user at one time, rather than itemizing every change separately as it did previously. Also new is faster data processing and more data availability, which Bing Ads has been addressing throughout the platform. The […]
Bing Ads Preview And Ad Diagnostics Tool: Now For Product And Mobile Ads
The Ad Preview and Diagnostics Tool in Bing Ads now allows advertisers to preview how their ads will look on mobile devices and find out why their product ads aren’t running. A new Product Ads tab in the tool includes a “reason for not showing” column with specific causes such as low quality score, low […]
Use Holiday Search Data To Prep Your SEM Campaigns For The Upcoming Season
What are people searching for and when are people searching on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday?
Close Variants Come To Broad Match Modifier In Bing Ads
A couple of weeks ago, Bing Ads announced it is testing close variants keyword matching on exact and phrase match terms. Today, they added close variants for broad match modifier keywords in the U.S. Using close variants means that the search engine will trigger ads for search queries that contain grammatical variations of the keyword […]