What are Bing ads and why use them for your business?

by | Apr 6, 2017 | Internet Business Glossary, PPC Marketing

What is Bing?

Bing is nothing more than Microsoft’s proprietary search engine. It was formerly known as the “windows live search” service, and later as the “live search” engine. It has been integrated into windows services since the MSN days, so it is more than likely that you have used it at some point.

Bing is a search engine just like Google. Despite not being as popular as the latter, it still accounts for more than 20% of web searches currently made in the US. It is integrated into Windows operating systems, and offers a number of attractive features including:

  • Advanced multimedia searches
  • Sub links on search result URLs
  • Mathematical calculations, rate conversions and computational calculations can be made on the Bing platform, directly from the Bing search bar
  • Integration with the Oxford dictionary to make finding definitions easier

The Bing search engine also allows users to scour the web for images, videos and news, while also giving them access to Windows tools such as “Office” and “Outlook”.

Bing Benefits for Businesses

The Bing search engine has quite a good list of benefits for business, especially when it comes to helping businesses acquire a wider reach on the internet which makes their products, apps and services easier to find.

Don’t limit yourself to Google if you also want to:

  • Get more web based traffic. Send your business’ website to the Bing search engine to get more visibility, more leads and more sales.
  • Give more detailed data about your business to your potential clients through all types of
  • reach that 30% of people that don’t use Google as their search engine of choice
  • It offers a very robust advertising platform that will further help you and your business reach that elusive 30% of

Bing Shocking Facts

  • Some studies have been made to compare how Bing and Google measure against each other and have found that Bing gives better and more specific results for the majority of search queries used in these studies (source)
  • It is said that the feature that launched Bing to stardom was its daily changing background, which showcases a photograph of landmark landscapes and buildings around the world (source)
  • The Bing search engine indexes over 2 billion Facebook updates and half a billion tweets on a daily basis (source)
  • The Bing search engine powers the Yahoo! search engine, which means that when you use Yahoo’s engine, you are basically using Bing
  • Bing incorporates Facebook data in its algorithm as a source of social media input (source)

What are Bing Ads All about?

Much in the same way that Bing is Microsoft’s answer to the wildly popular Google search engine, Bing Ads is the company’s answer to AdWords, the industry leading pay per click advertising platform for those wanting to advertise to people using the Google network.

This time around, ads will be served to people using Bing, and advertising material will be shown to consumers doing their searches in the Bing search network. Let’s take a deeper look at this magnificent online advertising service.

What are Bing Ads?

Bing ads are pay-per-click ads displayed in the Bing search network. These ads work under the same pay-per-click system employed by Bing’s competitor, Google AdWords. Bing ads will show a variety of ads to people according to demographic data specified by the advertiser.

The success of a Bing Ads marketing campaign will depend greatly on two factors: how much money do advertisers put on their bids, and the advertisement’s click through rate, or the number of times users being served the ads click on them. This determines how frequently ads are shown in the network.

The bid placed by advertisers is nothing more than the max amount that they are willing to pay for the placement of their ads. Ads from one advertiser will not show in certain places when another advertiser outbids them with a higher amount for the same place.

Bing Ads Benefits for Businesses

Any business looking to grow online needs to adequately run a display advertising program. Without the exposure provided by paid advertising, a business will inevitably get lost in the sea of businesses that have an established presence online. Bing Ads offer the following benefits to businesses all around the world.

  • Bing Ads can reach customers across all devices, no matter if they are looking for your products or services at home, at work or on the go!
  • Bing Ads will help you go local or global by way of millions of unique searches on the Bing network. Bing provides customers specific information at the national, regional and local level
  • If you are already running a successful ad campaign on Google AdWords, you can easily import it from there to your Bing Ads account without having to create it from scratch!
  • Signing up to the service is free and you can start advertising with any budget
  • Pay only for clicks, nothing else!

Bing Ads Shocking Facts

  • Bing Ads have a reach of 6 billion monthly searches on the network (source)
  • Local, travel, shopping and health related searches account for up to 40% of search queries, which gives an advantage to businesses in those industries (source)
  • Searchers on the Bing network are likely to spend 21.5% more than the average web searcher and 0.76% more than searchers on Google (source)
  • 58% of searchers on the Bing network are female, which impacts ad campaigns differently when compared to the Google network, where 45% of searchers are female (source)
  • The demographic available to target with Bing Ads is older, has achieved a higher education and earns a higher income than the demographics than you can target on the Google network (source)

What advertising goals does Bing actually offer for your business?

There are several ways to get people through your doors, and online advertising has made this a lot more versatile than it has ever been.

The ultimate goal of an advertising campaign is always to get more customers, and to keep them interested in our business for the long term.

Bing offers a good number of options to do so through their Bing Ads platform, so let’s take a brief look at them.

Visits to my website

Your website can be as important as your physical business location. In some instances, it can be much more important, because that is where you’ll be getting most of your clients.

Do you think that Amazon.com would be as big as it is now if it were only a lot of distribution warehouses? Not even close!

That is why increasing your website traffic is on the forefront of the advertising goals offered by Bing Ads. When more people start visiting your website, the better your chances of acquiring a client, making a sale or closing a deal.

This advertising goal will allow you to:

  • Increase your ads position to make it easier for your customers to find your offers by increasing your keyword bids
  • Broaden your reach by updating your geo-targeting settings to include a larger market
  • Stay up to date with new search terms
  • Extend ads to partner sites

Visits to my business location

Your online presence matters a lot, but you also want to maximize your actual in-store traffic to drive more sales, especially if you are running a location- dominant type of business, such as a restaurant or a bakery.

Bing Ads will allow you to effectively market your physical business location by giving more visibility to your business location through the most relevant searches.

  • You’ll be able to draw customers in by including your address and directions links in your ads
  • You can focus on local customers by directing your advertising to people located near your business. You can do this by targeting a very specific demographic within a certain distance, city, zip code or radius!

Conversions in my website

It is true that the main goal of your advertising campaign is to make more money for you and your business, but if you really want to convert people clicking through your ads to your site into actual customers, then you need them to take action right on the spot. Bing Ads can help you use a campaign to grow customer conversions.

  • Conversions on your website are a metric indirectly telling you how well your advertising campaigns are working
  • Website conversions can help you identify what your customers actually want
  • You’ll be able to track website conversions through actions taken by your customers, such as registering for newsletters, signing in for a service and purchases

Phone calls to my business

Increasing phone calls to your business is a long term goal that will allow you to capture more deals and boost your revenue. Customer service through email just cannot beat an old fashioned phone call in some instances, so it is important for you to learn how to drive more phone calls to your business.

  • Bing Ads will allow you to place a clickable phone number on your ads, which is great for getting smartphone users to call you with a simple tap on their phone screens!
  • Strong calls to action included in your ads will inspire a sense of urgency in your customers, which is good for driving leads to contact you first
  • You can easily track call forwarding details through your “Reports” page
  • You can increase your bids during business hours to serve your ads to people in working mode!

What you should do right before creating Bing Ads

With all that we have told you about how great it is to have your business in the Bing network, and after checking out how awesome it will be to market your business using Bing Ads, we are sure that you are excited and hyped up about getting started.

There are three important actions to take before you can create and run your Bing Ads. In this chapter, you’ll learn what you should do right before creating Bing Ads.

Creating your website

You need to prepare a website for your business if you want to run Bing Ads. First, because it is a Bing Ads requirement, and secondly, because you need a place to send your leads when they click on your Ads. If you already have a website for your business, congratulations! You are one step ahead in the process.

If you don’t have a business website yet, here are the easy steps that you have to follow to create one.

First, you’ll need to think up a name for your website domain. Your website domain is, to put it simply, the name of your website address.

The domain name for your business website should be something directly related to the name of your business. Ideally, it should include the name of your business, plus something else if necessary.

You can always check to see if your domain name is available in your domain vendor website. We recommend you buy your domain name from “hostgator”.

Go to hostgator.com, and click on “domains”.

Enter the domain name that you would like to use in the “choose your new web address” bar, and click on “search” to check if it is available. Once you check availability, buy it.

Now that your domain name is ready, you need hosting and tools to easily create your website. We recommend you buy both hosting and your website builder from HostGator, because the company offers a hosting plus website builder bundle for an amazing price.

Go to hostgator.com and click on “WordPress hosting”. There are three plans available. For a business just establishing a presence online, we recommend you pick the “standard plan.” It includes two WordPress website installations on the same server, up to 200,000 visitors a month and 150 GB of storage space.

You can always upgrade your plan once your business website starts getting more traffic. From then on, it will be a simple matter of logging into your HostGator account, installing WordPress and begin customizing your business websites.

Now that you know how to create a website for Bing Ads with a few clicks of your mouse, we would like to give you some advice for creating the best website possible for the Bing Ads platform.

  • The Bing Ads platform tends to favor older domains when it comes to positioning websites in the first page of results. If you are creating your business website from scratch, we recommend you look for older domains that are for sale that could fit your business’
  • The Bing platform puts more emphasis on relevant results than Google

does, which puts greater emphasis on socially relevant results. Focus on using straightforward keywords for the SEO in your business website, as opposed to broad matching keywords.

  • If you plan to promote CPA or affiliate offers through your site, you won’t need to create landing pages on your site for your Ads. Instead, you can simply redirect your leads from your Ads all the way through your site!
  • Create opportunities for conversions on your site and promote them through your website. For example, you can invite your leads to sign up for a free newsletter, or to sign up to receive notifications for upcoming promotions in your store’s location!

Your Business location

Your business is important to your customers, so it is important to give them the right information at the right moment. With Bing Ads you can get online customers to your store by allowing them to find your business on all their devices.

First, you’ll need to add your business to Bing with “Bing places for business”.

Simply go to “www.bingplaces.com” and do the following.

  • Claim your listing: It is possible that Bing already has a listing for your If that’s the case, simply claim your listing. If there is no listing for your business on Bing, you can always add a new one.
  • Complete your listing profile: After you claim or create your business listing on Bing, you have to add all the information that you know will help people find your business on the first try. Information such as services offered, hours of operation, help with directions and photos are essential!
  • Verify your listing: You have to verify that your listing is in fact for your

business in order to gain exclusive access to it, so no unauthorized changes can be made to it by any means. You can verify your business by receiving and confirming a PIN number to your business address, by phone or by email.

After you list your business on Bing, the platform offers you a solution called “location extension.” It will allow you to put your “Bing places for business” listing information right in front of your customers through your ads!

Your Business Phone Number

When you add “location extension” to your ads, they will show the business phone number that you provided Bing when you claimed or added your business listing.

Of course, this phone number is the one that will be associated with your specific business location, which can be a limitation in some instances.

Thanks to the “call extensions” feature, you can also add an additional phone number to your ads, one that is not limited to one location, but that is appropriate to promote all locations where your ad is served, so customers from different locations can contact your business by phone without a hassle!

Visits to my website

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create campaigns that will drive traffic from the Bing network to your website through Bing Ads. This is a good starting point, because getting as many website visits as possible is the ultimate goal of most online marketers. Let’s quit the chit-chat, and get to work!

Getting started

The first step is to sign in to your Bing Ads account. Once there, simply click on

the “campaigns” tab, locate the “create campaign” button and hit it. Each time that you access the “create campaign” section, you’ll be presented with an item box titled “what’s the goal of this campaign?”. This is where you’ll select the type of campaign that you’ll create each time.

Visits to my business location

As you saw in our first step by step campaign creation chapter, the process becomes hassle free when you proceed as instructed. The present and the upcoming section 3 chapters will follow a similar streamlined path, so stay tuned to learn how to create a set of ads that will respond to all of your customers’ needs!

Getting started

Sign in to your Bing Ads account, go to the “campaigns” tab and hit the “create campaign” button to continue. Select “visits to my business location,” because your advertising goal is to create a campaign that will lead potential customers to your business!

Campaign Settings

This is the basic configuration section. Enter a name for your campaign in the “campaign name” field. Now, let’s set up your budget in the “campaign budget”. Your daily budget will be set at $20, but you can change this number according to your needs.

Now, check “individual budget” if you want to use this specific amount for this specific campaign, or check “apply a budget from your shared library” if you plan to use a fixed budget from your campaign library.

Click on “Daily budget options” below. Select “standard” if you want to spend your budget evenly through the day, or select “accelerated” if you want to spend your budget as quickly as possible.

Now, select the language of the websites where your ads will show up, and then select the geographical “locations” where to serve your ads. You can show your ads in your region by default, you can show your ads in all available regions or you can select specific countries, states and regions where your ads will be served by checking the “let me choose specific locations” option.

In the “who should see your ads?,” section you can select to show your ads only to “people in your targeted locations” or to “people searching or viewing pages about your targeted locations”, or you can simply leave both options checked, which is recommended in some instances. Now, click on “save and continue to the next step”.

Conversions on my website

We feel very confident in assuming that you are already getting the handle on how to use the Bing Ads dashboard to create your own ad campaigns. We want you to learn the catch behind each advertising goal, so you can safely decide which one works the best in line with the way that you want to interact with your customers.

In this chapter, we will guide you through the creation of a campaign with a goal to increase and track conversions on your business website, so let’s get to it!

Phone calls to my business

As you can see, creating advertising campaigns with Bing Ads is a walk in the

park when you follow our streamlined methodology, so let’s get to work on creating a campaign to cover the final advertising goal offered by the Bing Ads platform!

Getting started

Start in your Bing Ads account, go to the “campaigns” tab and click on “create campaign”. Select “Phone calls to my business” from under the “what is your advertising goal?” boxAdvanced Level Advantages of the Bing Ads Platform

It is undeniable that the Bing Ads platform is an overlooked one, judging from the number of AdWords adopters out there. It just so happens that Bing Ads offers a number of advantages that are not apparent until you strip down its features to a purely technical level.

Let’s explore such features in an easy to understand way, so you can introduce them into your next Bing Ads advertising campaign!

Bing Ads has lower competition and lower Cost-Per-Click

This advantage is of special interest for small and medium sized business, because they would benefit the most from lowering their advertising costs. Right now, one of the advantages of advertising in the Bing network is the low amount of competition present in the platform.

That not only means that your ads will compete for placements with fewer advertisers than on the Google network, but it also means that your Bids will cost you a lot less! In fact, costs per click are 33% lower on the Bing ad network, and ads get better positions!

Bing ads allows you to customize time zones at the ad group level

One of the greatest advantages offered by Bing ads is that it allows you to schedule your ads according to your customers’ time zones at the ad group level, whereas AdWords would stick to your business time zone, making you plan ahead and compare both time zones before scheduling your ads.

Importing Campaigns from Google AdWords

Importing your AdWords campaign into Bing Ads is the easiest way to get started without the hassle of having to start everything from scratch, because you can basically import every campaign setting with a few clicks.Going by the numbers alone, it is safe to assume that perhaps you are a previous AdWords user, and you want to either expand your reach or migrate from your platform of choice. In this chapter, you are going to learn how to easily import your campaigns from AdWords, so you don’t have to create them from scratch in Bing Ads!

To import your AdWords campaign to Bing ads, start by going to your Bing Ads account. Once there, click on the “import campaigns” tab on top. Now, click on the “import from Google AdWords” tab on the display menu.

To start importing AdWords campaigns, you’ll be asked to sign in to your AdWords account from your Bing Ads account. Click on “Sign in to Google” and enter your Google credentials in the new window to sign in. Now, click the “allow” button.

Now, your AdWords account will be linked to your Bing Ads account, allowing you to import your campaigns. You can either “import all existing and new campaigns” or “import specific campaigns”.

When you choose to “import all existing and new campaigns,” all your AdWords campaigns will be imported. When you choose to “import specific campaigns,” you’ll be presented with a list with all your AdWords campaigns. You’ll only need to tick the check box beside each campaign name to import them.

Once you make your choices, click on “continue.” You’ll now be taken to the “choose import options” stage. Here, you’ll be able to select what to import and what to adjust according to Bing Ads settings; which includes budgets, keywords and ad extensions.

Optimizing with Advanced Campaign Settings

Now that you’ve mastered the basics, you should be ready to go deeper, and learn some new advanced strategies.

The first trick to learn is how to optimize an ad campaign after it starts running. This will allow you to get better results from a campaign after you learn what is working.

“Advanced campaign settings” are, as the name implies, campaign settings that target deeper aspects of your campaign. You can configure advanced campaign settings when you are first creating your campaigns, yet advanced settings can be very useful to adjust after your campaign has started running.

This is because you’ll have real time data about how your campaign is performing. This includes data about your ideal audience, about which type of traffic is benefitting your ads, which devices are giving you the highest click through rates, and so on.

To access these “advanced campaign settings,” go to your Bing Ads account, select any campaign that you would like to make adjustments to from the “campaigns” tab, and click on the “settings” tab. Scroll down and click on “advanced campaign settings” to see the display menu. “Advanced campaign settings” cover three aspects: “targeting”, “exclusions” and “Campaign URL Options”.

Setting up Dynamic Text Ads

Ads are a great way to capture leads and expand your reach, especially when they are run on a fully qualified platform such as Bing. Sometimes, they can be a hit or miss affair, because you’ll be showing the same ad text to the same audience until you refine your ads according to your performance results.

The problem is at this point, you’ll have spent a considerable sum of money on leads that did not click through. What if we told you there is a way to keep this from happening? Well, enter Dynamic Text ads!

Dynamic Text ads are ads that can be customized to automatically show something different to people using different search terms.

Advanced Automated Rules Strategies

Making things easier and more efficient has been a number one priority ever since we started working things out as an intelligent species, and nothing is more satisfying than making productivity and money making related activities easier and more efficient.

That is why Bing Ads introduces you to “automated rules,” a feature that allows you to schedule and automate your top campaign management operations. In this chapter, you’ll learn some advanced “automated rules” strategies that you can apply to let the most complex of tasks run on autopilot!

Remarketing with Bing Ads

It is normal to have a certain margin of error and lose a lead or two from time to time, especially at the beginning. People might not be familiar with what you advertise, or they might prefer a familiar brand, and that’s why they look at your ads or your page and leave.

What if there was a way to get them back? Well, actually there is a way, and it is called remarketing. Remarketing is exactly what the name implies, and it is all about serving new ads to your leads according to their actions, like checking product pages, placing stuff in a shopping cart to later abandon it, and so on.

Most advertising platforms do not offer remarketing tools, which means that you have to use a different advertising platform designed for remarketing, doubling your time and investment. Well, not anymore! We are about to show you how to use Bing Ads for remarketing to target the people that have visited your site!

Add a “UET Tag” to your website 

A “UET Tag” is a piece of code that you can copy from Bing Ads and insert it on your website to send information back to Bing Ads about what your customers are doing while there. This is a great feature, because your remarketing efforts will greatly depend on Bing Ads tracking the behavior of people on your website.

To create a “UET Tag,” go to the “campaigns” tab in your Bing Ads account and click on the “conversion tracking” tab from the left side menu. Now, click on “UET Tags” and then on the “create UET Tag” button. Now, simply enter a name and a description for your “UET Tag” on the respective fields.

Click “save” and copy the JavaScript code from the window that will appear. You can also download it or email it. Click “done” when you are finished here. Now, go to your website and insert your “UET Tag” code there. The method that you will need to use to integrate said code on your website will vary depending on your content management system.

Dos and Don’ts

There is an incessant amount of information that we need to process when we are working on a marketing plan, and it’s tenfold once we execute it. This is especially true for online advertising campaigns, and it is easy to make mistakes while we learn how to do it correctly.

We have learned that the hard way, and because of that we have decided to create a list of Dos and Don’ts that you should be aware of during your Bing Ads adventures!

Dos

Bid on commercial intent keywords

Commercial intent keywords are those keywords used by people who are ready to buy something. They will require higher bid amounts, but they will drive higher sales while giving you back a significant return on investment!

Commercial intent keywords often couple words such as “buy” and “cheaper” along with the name of the product or service that the person ready to buy is after!

Use the “research keywords” tool

It can be hard to determine which keywords are working for driving sales and which are not, so using the “research keywords” tool in your Bing account will help you with that. You just have to enter your keyword and let the “research keywords” tool comb its updated keyword database to see what’s best for your campaign!

Don’ts

Don’t create complicated ad copies

The best approach to follow when creating your ad copies is to write them as if they were aimed at eight year olds. That is because ads that use simple language and specific terms, employ a brief call to action and address the customers directly are the ones that convert the most!

Don’t forget to adjust your campaigns after importing hem

One of the most lauded features of the Bing Ads platform is that it allows users to directly import campaigns from Google AdWords with a simple log in. This is a great feature to have and one that can save you a lot of time, but you have to remember that your campaigns will not perform the same on each platform.

That is why it is important for you to adjust your campaign settings after importing them to Bing Ads, mainly your bids. Then, test how your keywords perform in the Bing platform and adjust them, as well.

Premium tools and Services to consider

Every trade has its most valuable resources and tools, so it is always important to know where to find them, and how to use those that will be of use to you. That is why we have made a list with some of the best tools available for Bing Ads marketers.

Bing Ads Online Tools

The “Bing Ads Online Tools” is nothing short of a spectacular set of tools available right in your Bing Ads account. These tools will empower you from the get go. Each one will allow you to dominate every basic facet of your Bing ads campaign, and all of them are custom made for the Bing network.

  • Bing Ads Editor: The Bing ads editor is a desktop application that will allow you to manage your search engine marketing campaigns even when you are offline. Basically, all that you need to do on your Bing Ads account is in this desktop app!
  • Bing Ads intelligence: This keyword research tool is designed to make keyword research tasks easier than ever, and it interfaces with the Microsoft Excel architecture. It will greatly help you measure the performance of relevant keywords in the Bing network!
  • Keyword planner: The keyword planner is a streamlined graphical interface that will help you identify the most effective ad groups and keywords to boost your campaign’s
  • Ad preview tool: This is a built-in app for your Bing Ads account that will allow you to easily preview and diagnose your campaign’s performance, and see how effectively your ads are showing in the Bing network.
  • Bing ads app: This is a mobile app that will allow mobile users to monitor their Bing advertising campaigns anywhere, anytime, from their Android and iOS devices!

Case Study Diamond candles

Diamond Candles

“Diamond candles” is an internet retailer that sells “aromatic ring candles”, which are rings delivered inside aromatic candles with the intention of creating long lasting memories through meaningful moments full of fragrance.

The objective of the company was to increase the number of searchers stumbling upon their site, and to make its advertising campaigns much more efficient.

The digital marketing agency behind the company’s Bing Ads campaign employed Sitelink extensions on their ads along with branded campaigns and achieved great success. It also included other strategies, such as breaking out smaller ad groups that had specific bases of keywords.

Results: The results were nothing short of impressive, with a 1,002% return on investment in just a month! The company has also discovered that over 14% of its acquisitions have come from the Bing network ever since.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you have gotten this far into our training, chances are that you have learned a lot about what makes the Bing Ads service so special among all of the other search engine marketing platforms in the market. Yet, we believe that you’ll stumble upon some questions that you’ll need to answer once you get started. Here are some of the most requested ones.

Where will your ads appear with Bing Ads?

When you advertise with Bing Ads, your ads will display across the internet. Mainly, your ads will appear in the Bing network when users search in the Bing search engine, but they will also appear in other search sites and across multiple devices.

Depending on what your customers like, want and where they’re located, your ads will display in a plethora of sites that are part of the Bing network:

  • Bing
  • AOL
  • Yahoo!
  • Syndicated partner sites such as MSN.com or co.uk

Where your ads appear will greatly depend on which devices people use to make their searches, their specific locations, such as cities and countries, as well as the language that your customers speak.

What are the system requirements for using Bing Ads?

They’ll appear on any computer with Windows 7 or newer for Windows users and Mac OS X 10.9 or newer for Mac users. These will allow you to run Bing Ads, because they’re web based platforms. However, there are some basic system configurations that will help you have a smoother experience:

  • Optimal web browsers to use Bing Ads are Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer 11 or newer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox 38 or newer, and Apple Safari 9 or newer
  • You need to allow pop-ups in your browser
  • Your screen resolution should ideally be at least 1280 by 960 or higher
  • You have to disable ad-blocking extensions
  • You need to enable JavaScript

Top Resources

Bing Ads Videos

Bing Ads Tools & Services

Bing Ads Training Courses

Bing Ads Blogs

Bing Ads Forums

Affiliate Programs

  • https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bing+ads
  • https://accounts.clickbank.com/mkplSearchResult.htm?dores=true&includeKeywords=bing+ads

Bing Ads Webinars

Bing Ads Infographics

Bing Ads Case Studies

Bing Ads Facts

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