#bingads choose your words carefully
TRANSCRIPT
Choose your words carefully: Education editionHow word choice can make or break pay-per-click search ads
Education is a multi-billion dollar market.
Is your search campaign working as hard as it can to capture some of that?
The researchers at Bing Ads recently tackled a couple of
big questions about performance for PPC education ads.
What combinations of words in the title and description get the highest Ad Quality ranking?*
*Ad Quality is a calculation which factors in both the clickability (the likelihood of an ad being clicked, agnostic of position) of the ad and other indicators of ad quality. Ads with better ad quality not only have a better CTR, they get rewarded with better ad ranking and lower CPCs than other ads with lower ad quality.
Does this change depending on what device the audience is using?
We analyzed
100,000+ ads running on the Yahoo Bing Network.
These ads generated 15 million impressions.
1 ad on the Yahoo
Bing Network reaches
168 million searchers
5.5 billion monthly searches on
Yahoo Bing Network
We limited our study to
January 2013.
The phrases and/or
words we analyzed
had to appear in
ads from at least
10 advertisers
We analyzed more
than 20 of the most
commonly used
words/phrases
We analyzed word
choice and
clickability across
devices: PC, mobile
and tablet
Take note
Microsoft Confidential
There is no prescriptive set of ad copy that will generate the same results across devices. People use different devices for different things – they don’t look for the same info on their PC as they do on their phone.
Across the board, in every category, you’ll get
a significant lift (54% or more!) in clicks if you add Sitelinks to your ad.
Here’s how to read a heatmapA
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Accredited
At Home
Bachelors Degree
Career
Certification
Classes
College
Degree
Diploma
DKI
Earn
Enroll Now
Financial Aid
Geo
Learn More
Master's Degree
Online
Profession
Program
School
Training
University
NoVar
Insufficient dataGreat Good Poor
Our study results show that an education services ad with “at home” in the title and “profession” in the description has high ad quality.
Ad Description
Earn your degree at home
KaplanUniversity.edu
Nutrition science, child nutrition
Education Services ad performance heatmap ̶ All devicesA
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itle
Ad Description
Acc
red
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At
Ho
me
Bach
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Deg
ree
Care
er
Cert
ific
ati
o
n
Cla
sses
Co
lleg
e
Co
urs
es
Deg
ree
Dip
lom
a
Earn
En
roll N
ow
Fin
an
cial
Aid
Geo
Learn
Mo
re
Mast
er'
s
Deg
ree
On
lin
e
Pro
fess
ion
Pro
gra
m
Req
uest
Info
Reso
urc
e
Sch
oo
l
Tra
inin
g
Un
ivers
ity
No
Var
Accredited
At Home
Bachelors Degree
Career
Certification
Classes
College
Degree
Diploma
DKI
Earn
Enroll Now
Financial Aid
Geo
Learn More
Master's Degree
Online
Profession
Program
School
Training
University
NoVar
Insufficient dataGreat Good Poor
Two significant things rapped our knuckles right away:
1. People looking for education information match their devices: PC users want “at home” opportunities. Mobile users respond to hurry-up words like “earn” and “learn more.”
2. Some of the most clicks in our study go to education ads with “Film” in the title or description – but relatively few ads are serving on that keyword. There’s a great market opportunity for film schools!
Education: Top word combos
Mobile
TITLE DESCRIPTION
Bachelor’s degree Program
Bachelor’s degree University
Learn more Program
Accredited Learn more
Bachelor’s degree Geo
Tablet
TITLE DESCRIPTION
School Career
Enroll now School
Profession Career
Earn Bachelor’s degree
At home Learn more
PC
TITLE DESCRIPTION
School Career
At home At home
At home Earn
Profession Career
At home Profession
Ads with “school” in
the title and “career”
in the description do
well on both PC and
tablet, but are dunces
on the mobile users
screen.
Insights by device
PC users appear very
focused on education
opportunities that can
be accomplished
online, “at home”.
Mobile users seem
very specific in their
education search –
they already know
they’re interested in
a Bachelor’s degree
from a university.
Tablet users appear
open to possibility,
responsive to a range
of calls-to-action
(“Learn more”, “Earn”
and “Enroll now”).
Education Services ad performance heatmap ̶ PCA
d T
itle
Insufficient dataGreat Good Poor
Acc
red
ited
At
Ho
me
Bach
elo
rs
Deg
ree
Care
er
Cert
ific
ati
on
Cla
sses
Co
lleg
e
Co
urs
es
Deg
ree
Dip
lom
a
Earn
En
roll N
ow
Fin
an
cial A
id
Geo
Learn
Mo
re
Mast
er'
s
Deg
ree
On
lin
e
Pro
fess
ion
Pro
gra
m
Req
uest
In
fo
Reso
urc
e
Sch
oo
l
Tra
inin
g
Un
ivers
ity
No
Var
Accredited
At Home
Bachelors Degree
Career
Certification
Classes
College
Courses
Degree
Diploma
DKI
Earn
Enroll Now
Financial Aid
Geo
Learn More
Master's Degree
Online
Profession
Program
School
Training
University
NoVar
Ad Description
Insights for ads served on PC
“Learn more” in the ad title
is a solid performer, regardless
of what words are in the ad
description.
Being specific about the career
and profession (“Culinary” or
“dental assistant”) in either ad
title or ad description (or both
together) draws clicks.
Surprisingly, “financial aid”
is not a strong pull when used
in any part of the search ad,
and only attracts attention when
used in the ad description, with
“accredited” in the ad title.
Education Services ad performance heatmap ̶ MobileA
d T
itle
Insufficient dataGreat Good Poor
Acc
red
ited
At
Ho
me
Bach
elo
rs
Deg
ree
Care
er
Cert
ific
ati
on
Cla
sses
Co
lleg
e
Co
urs
es
Deg
ree
Dip
lom
a
Earn
En
roll N
ow
Fin
an
cial A
id
Geo
Learn
Mo
re
Mast
er'
s
Deg
ree
On
lin
e
Pro
fess
ion
Pro
gra
m
Req
uest
In
fo
Reso
urc
e
Sch
oo
l
Tra
inin
g
Un
ivers
ity
No
Var
Accredited
At Home
Bachelors
Degree
Career
Certification
Classes
College
Courses
Degree
Diploma
DKI
Earn
Enroll Now
Geo
Learn More
Master's Degree
Online
Profession
Program
School
Training
University
NoVar
Ad Description
Insights for ads served on mobile
Mobile users are responsive to
ads with “accredited” in the
ad title in combination with
any of the relevant words in the
ad description.
Being specific with a profession
(“film”, “fashion design”) in
the ad title is a solid bet when
used in combination with most
of the relevant words in the
ad description.
“Enroll now” is a lackluster
performer no matter where you
put it in your ad. This is likely
because the actual admissions
process for education services
tends to be complex, and would
require more information from a
providers website.
Ad Description
Education Services ad performance heatmap ̶ TabletA
d T
itle
Insufficient dataGreat Good Poor
Acc
red
ited
At
Ho
me
Bach
elo
rs
Deg
ree
Care
er
Cert
ific
ati
on
Cla
sses
Co
lleg
e
Co
urs
es
Deg
ree
Dip
lom
a
Earn
En
roll N
ow
Fin
an
cial
Aid
Geo
Learn
Mo
re
Mast
er'
s
Deg
ree
On
lin
e
Pro
fess
ion
Pro
gra
m
Req
uest
Info
Reso
urc
e
Sch
oo
l
Tra
inin
g
Un
ivers
ity
No
Var
Accredited
At Home
Bachelors
Degree
Career
Certification
Classes
College
Courses
Degree
Diploma
DKI
Earn
Enroll Now
Geo
Learn More
Master's Degree
Online
Profession
Program
School
Training
University
NoVar
Insights for ads served on tablets
Once again, education ads that
use specific professions in the
ad title (“pharmacy”, “criminal
justice”) fare well when used
with most other relevant words
in the ad description.
Being specific with a profession
(“film”, “fashion design”) in
the ad title is a solid bet when
used in combination with most
of the relevant words in the
ad description.
Action-oriented words in
either the ad title or the ad
description, such as “earn”,
“learn more” and “request info”
can be solid performers for
tablet users.
Before you pour this awesome info into your search ads, consider
three important things:
ONE Test. Then test again. Test some more.
Testing is critical to understanding your ad copy performance across devices, categories and time periods.
TWO Use sitelinks.
Understand the value of sitelink lift and the impact it could have on an entire account. Implement and spread to all your ads.
THREE Scale your execution to all your ads.
Develop a framework for understanding the clickability of your ads and executing top performers on a large scale.
Variable bucket definition
Unless specifically called out below, most buckets mirror the variation of the keyword phrase. For example, “earn” bucket includes: “earn a”, “earn your”, “earn an”.
Profession bucket includes: film, fashion design, RN, pharmacy, care, criminal justice, culinary arts, technician and other lines of professional jobs.
Degree bucket includes: variations of degree terms, or a specific degree, such as nursing degree, design degree, and associate degree.
DKI stands for Dynamic Keyword Insert, including medical bill, pharmacy, pharmacy tech, business, and Le Cordon.