Bing Ad Editor

The concept behind Bing ads is essentially the same as Google Ads. Microsoft Advertising is a pay-per-click (PPC) platform that is designed to help you reach a specific audience, increase traffic to your website and increase your revenue.

Bing ads look mostly the same in the SERP as ads on Google and their overall title and meta data length is about the same. Bing ads works on an auction system that is similar to Google’s where advertisers can show relevant ads to users who are searching those keywords. Marketers can target search keywords for a chance to have their ad appear in search results pages, and pay a small fee for every click. This form of search advertising remains one of the most popular forms of internet advertising because it’s still so successful. All that’s needed is a campaign set up through the Microsoft Merchant Center and a budget.

Depending on what you’re selling and who you’re targeting, Bing could be the missing piece of the puzzle for your marketing strategy. Here’s why:

• Bing has a 6.7 percent market share, making it the world’s second-largest search engine. That might not sound like much, but there’s huge growth potential here.
• Over 1 billion people use Windows 10. Since Microsoft owns Bing, they direct a lot of traffic to their own search engine through Cortana and the search bar at the bottom of the computer screen. That’s some easy, reliable traffic right there! 
• According to a Wordstream study, the average click-through rate (CTR) for Bing Ads is 1.25 percent, while it’s only 0.86 percent for Google Ads.

How to Set Up Your Bing Ads Campaign

1. Create a Microsoft Advertising Account 

To start, you need a Microsoft Advertising account since Bing Ads is now a part of Microsoft advertising. It’s free to sign up, and you can use an existing email address to do so. 

First, head over to Microsoft Advertising, and click “Sign Up Now” to register.

On the next page, click “Create One” to set up a new Microsoft Advertising account.

You can either use an existing email address or create a new one to run your account. 

Next, simply follow the onscreen instructions. You’ll need to input some basic details like your name and your business location. Agree to the Terms of Service and create your account.

2. Import an Existing Google Ads Campaign (Optional)

If you’re creating Bing Ad from scratch, move on to step 3. If you’ve already got a Google Ads campaign you want to run on Bing, this step is for you. 

First, go to your top menu, select “Import,” then select “Import from Google Ads.” Then, just sign in to Google. Go to “Choose Accounts,” select the account you want to import an ad from, and hit “Next.”

If you’re happy to import your Google Ad with no changes, name the imported campaign and click “Start Import” or hit “Customize Report” to tweak things like your bids and bid strategies.

Want to import multiple Google Ads simultaneously? You can import up to 10 at one time, and the steps are pretty much the same. 

Once you’ve imported your desired campaigns, double-check all the details to ensure they’ve moved over correctly, paying particular attention to your targeting settings, bids, and budgets. 

Make any adjustments as necessary, and you’re good to go.   

3. Choose the Right Keywords

Before you create your campaign, you need to choose your target keywords. Microsoft advertising has a built-in keyword planner to help you do just that. 

First, sign in to your account. Select “Tools” from the top menu and scroll down to “Keyword Planner.” You can then enter details like your business name, location, and service, and the keyword planner will show you suggested keywords to bid on.

To improve the search results, input any keywords you know you want to use and note down any negative keywords you want to exclude from the results.

You can also check for search volumes, trends, and cost estimates to help focus your keyword research.

How do you know which keywords to go with? Stick with keywords connected to “commercial intent.” These are the keywords people generally use when they’re ready to buy a product or sign up with a service, so it makes sense to target them in your Bing Ads campaign.

Say you sell wine. A phrase you might use is “buy wine” because, unsurprisingly, most people using this search term want to actually buy wine. When you search for this keyword and related suggestions, this list appears:

While all the columns matter, pay close attention to the CTR and cost-per-click (CPC) columns. The higher the CTR, the more people click through the ad. Balance this against how much the average click actually costs you to determine which keywords might be best for your campaign and your ad budget.

4. Create Your Bing Ads Campaign

If you didn’t import any campaigns in step two, or if you’re creating a new Bing Ads campaign, this step is for you.

First, go to your “Campaigns” page and then click the “Create Campaign” button in the middle of your screen.

Then, set your goal. Next, simply follow the onscreen instructions to complete your Bing Ads campaign. Once you hit “Save,” your ad will go live. 

Before you finish setting up your Bing Ad, you can go ahead and set customized parameters to maximize your chances of reaching the right audience. For example, you could choose which times you want to show your ad or which age groups you want to see your ad.

Setting up custom parameters ensures you’re getting the most from your Bing Ads. 

5. Track Your Results

It’s all well and good setting up a Bing Ads campaign, but you also need to ensure it’s bringing you the desired results! To assess the effectiveness of your campaign, you need to track two metrics: conversion rate and CPC.

How do you track these metrics? Well, let’s start with conversion rates. You can easily track conversions by simply clicking on the “Campaigns” tab and checking out the number in the “Conv.” column.

From here, you can tell how many conversions you’re getting per campaign. You’ll notice you can track everything from impressions to your CTR from this tab, so you can quickly track whichever metrics you deem the most important, all from one page.

Similarly, then, you can view your CPC from the “Campaigns” tab. Check how much you’re spending per single click and confirm it’s in line with your expectations and marketing budget. 

If you’re spending too much, consider bidding on different keywords or amending your campaign somehow.  

5 Tips for Creating a Successful Bing Ads Campaign

A successful Bing Ads campaign is about more than just keyword research and metrics tracking. To get the most from your campaign and maximize your ROI, follow these tips.

• Know Your Audience
• Import High-Performing Google Ads
• Improve Your Targeting

You could track segments including:

• audience
• time of day
• device
• geography

You’ll find all the tracking tools you need on the “Campaigns” page. 

• Use the UET Tag

To track your conversions accurately, you need to set up the “Universal Event Tracking” (UET) tag. Why? This tag allows you to see exactly what users do after they click on your ad and visit your site. 

It’s easy to set up. First, go to your “Campaigns” page, click “Conversion Tracking,” then “UET tags.” Give it a name to help you identify it. In the description box, enter your URL or website name. Save the tag you’ve just created.

Next, copy the code and paste it into the pages of your website you wish to track. WordPress plugins can help here.

Finally, add some conversion goals to your tag, whether it’s tracking how long someone spends on your website, purchases they make, and so on. 

• Monitor Your Quality Score

To view your score, click the “Keywords” tab on the “Campaigns” page and check out the “Qual. score” column. Check it frequently to confirm your ads are performing well.