how to succeed with new bing product ads - cpc strategy€¦ · how to succeed with new bing...

How to succeed witH

new bing product ads

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to our readers,

At CPC Strategy our goal is to create resources, webinars, tutorials, and guides that help make the Retail Search world easy to navigate - a map of the ecommerce world if you will. If at any time you have questions, suggestions or are simply just unclear, reach out to [email protected]. Happy learning!

Sincerely,

Rick Backus | Co-Founder, CEO

mailto:[email protected]

tabLe oF contents

what are bing product ads?

who sees bing product ads?

bing ads vs. googLe product ads

bing product ads vs. bing text ads

why shouLd i care about bing product ads?

how can i set up bing product ads?

bing product ads requirements

create bing product ads

bing product ads cataLog

bing product ads best practices

cataLog management

campaign optimization

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gLossary

Ad Group – Product Ads which segment your catalog/feed using product targets.

Bing search – Search engine powered by Yahoo.

Bing Network – Combined advertising marketplace made up of Yahoo, Bing, and syndicated partner sites.

Bing Ads – Text and display ads which appear on Bing search and leverage advertiser product information.

Bing Product Ad – Product display ad that appears on Bing search for retail queries.

Bing Merchant center – Part of the Bing Ads interface where advertisers upload product and store information.

catalog – Product Inventory file for Bing. (This is similar to the Google data feed)

Product extension – Campaign-level ; tells the Bing Ads login that your Product Ads campaign should be linked to your catalog in the Bing Merchant Center.

Product target – Defines which products show up for certain queries; you can set product target-level bids (ex. All Products, Brand, Category, etc.)


chapter 1


6


In March of 2014, Bing announced Bing Product Ads, a new ad program which highlights product display ads in Bing search for all US advertisers.

Here is an example of what Bing Product Ads look like in Bing search:

Here is a closer look at those Bing Product Ads:

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/blogpost/129114/bing-ads-blog/introducing-product-ads-a-great-way-to-advertise-on-bing-ads

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/help-topic/how-to/51082/what-are-product-ads


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Just like Google Product Listing Ads, Bing Product Ads appear on search pages alongside Bing text Ads and general search results. In the image below, text ads (blue) appear at the top of search next to Product Ads (orange), which appear above the rest of the general search results (green):

Here’s a quick overview of Bing Product Ads:

Appear to the right of search results (maximum 6 at a time)

Feature product images

Link to a merchant’s site

Features inventory images and related information

Features advertiser information, pricing & promotional text (optional)

Highlights products to Bing searchers

only available in the us

Appear on the Yahoo Bing Network

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/where-will-my-ads-display


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Bing’s Product Ads explanation video:

If you click the first Bing Product Ad it leads to that merchant’s site (Macy’s):

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/global/videogallery_video.aspx?uuid=6b948201-7640-423c-a0a5-bca02c8f3ec8


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For retail advertisers, Bing Product Ads are a pay per click (PPC) program, a.k.a. cost per click (CPC), which charges an advertiser for each ad click that leads to their site.

Product Ads allow you to showcase your products in an engaging ad format by including images, promotional text, pricing and your company name. Serving Product Ads on the Yahoo Bing Network allows you to reach 31 million retail searchers that don’t use Google in the u.s.- Bing


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Retail Search advertisers can modify which inventory appears on Bing Product Ads and and how much they want to spend using the Bing Product Ads Login. You can find Bing Product Ads setup, and best practices later in this guide.

who sees bing product ads?

Bing’s network accounts for 117 million retail clicks a month, or 22% of all US retail paid clicks. When combined, the Yahoo Bing network receives roughly a third of all search queries online. Product Ads allow advertisers to target this often overlooked but significant consumer audience with targeted product ads.

Here are some highlights of Yahoo Bing Network traffic:

510 miLLion

Total Retail Searches Per Month

Retail paid clicks

Total Retail Searchers

Of all Retail paid clicks

Retail searchers not reached on Google

65 miLLion

31 miLLion

117 miLLion

22%

https://bingads.microsoft.com/


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bing ads vs. googLe product Listing ads

Bing Product Ads have a very similar functionality to Google PLAs. They are almost the same program, just specific to different search engines.

Bing uses ad terms that can be linked to existing Google Shopping terms, which will help you understand how Bing Product Ads work a little faster:

Google shopping term

Campaign

Data Feed

AdWords

Ad Group

Targets Tag

Google Merchant Login

Campaign

Catalog

Bing Ads

Product Target

Product Extension

Bing Merchant Center

Bing Product Ads term

Bing Product Ads and PLAs are both based on PPC, feature product images and information, and click out to the retailer website.

In addition to different search networks, Google Product Listing Ads are featured on Google’s comparison pages while Bing Product Ads do not have a comparison page.


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Here are some of the major differences between Bing Product Ads and Google Product Listing Ads:

Display Ads

Comparison Page

Features Inventory & Merchant Information

PPC

Lead to Advertiser Site

Yahoo Bing Network

Available Worldwide

Network Google Display Network

Google Product Listing Ads Bing Product Ads


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bing product ads vs. bing text ads

Google Product Listings Ads are different than AdWords text ads in terms of ad structure, target audience, and campaign strategy. Bing Product Ads, too, are fundamentally different than traditional Bing Ads.

Both Bing Product Ads and text ads rely on a pay per click (PPC) cost basis. However, Product Ads appear as images and segment inventory based on products. Text ads are keyword based, which translates to completely different campaign structure and strategy.

Bing Product Ads

Display Ads

Keyword Based

PPC

Inventory Based

Bing text Ads

Text ad management requires keyword development and ad copy creation, whereas Bing Product Ads rely on product inventory information such as product title, description, image, etc.


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Keep in mind Bing Ads and AdWords (text) also have several different features and set up factors.

why shouLd i care about bing product ads?

The arrival of Bing Product Ads (BPA) is one of the largest announcements in the retail search space since Google announced their switch to a paid model, Product Listing Ads. The new program is significant for retail advertisers in several ways:

More control

Before the switch, retailers had little control over which products showed up and how well those products ranked. Essentially, all the emphasis was on the data provided in the retailer’s catalog. Now, in addition to optimizing the catalog, retail advertisers can enhance campaign performance by making bid modifications and setting different product targets.

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/help-topic/how-to/51017/how-is-bing-ads-different-from-adwords


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With the new pay-to-play model, retailers are essentially playing high(er) stakes poker. Those who take advantage of low CPCs and bid aggressively early on (with fundamental campaign best practices in use, of course) are primed for more success with the program.

More Volume

Like we’ve seen with Google, Bing is now more incentivized to increase exposure for its new Product Ads. This fact combined with advertisers’ enhanced ability to optimize ad performance (mentioned above) indicates that the sheer number of shoppers clicking on paid product ads will increase.

Because of this, it’s more important than ever to ensure that campaigns are updated regularly in order to keep click spend in check.

Microsoft Network

According to a ComScore report on search engine share in Q4 2013, Google dominates with 66.7% of overall search queries. On the other hand, Bing pulls in just 18.1% of search share while Yahoo falls in 3rd with 11.1%.

Bing Product Ads will run on both Bing/Microsoft and Yahoo network sites, and so the potential reach of the program is just shy of one third of overall search queries.

That’s a significant chunk of the consumer market that retail advertisers can now target with an ad format that has already made huge waves in ecommerce (as we’ve seen with PLAs).


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According to another ComScore study, the Yahoo Bing Network receives 510 million retail search from 65 million retail searchers monthly.

And if our Comparison Shopping Report is any indication, Bing’s retail search traffic is qualified. As a free engine, Bing had the highest overall conversion rate in Q4 2013 with a CR of 4.52%, beating out Amazon Product Ads and Google PLAs (3.48% and 3.20%, respectively) in the process.

Why Bing Product Ads is worth an investment:

Large volume of online shoppers

Bottom-of-the-funnel traffic

Product Ads feature images, which are more visually striking

Product Ads occupy more space on search pages

Product Ads can also show simultaneously with your text ads, giving you even more real estate

Utilize information directly from your data catalog to create ads vs. identifying keywords & creating ad copy

Product Ads allow advertisers to import existing Google

Product Listing Ads campaigns into Bing Ads account

Bing Product Ads carries on a proven ad format that has had much success in ecommerce already


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In many ways, we can use Google’s similar transition to forecast the trajectory for Bing Product Ads. The outlook is positive for Bing and we fully expect Bing PA to become a reliably effective, bottom-of-the-funnel advertising channel for retailers, especially during Q4.

At the end of the day, Bing is a NEW way drive to orders to a NEW audience. We can expect the program to build out much the same Google Product Listing Ads was. Remember, when Google introduced their new ad format in Q3 2012, the initial functionality and design was underwhelming. Fast forward 2 years later, and Google Shopping is arguably the biggest thing in ecommerce. Retailers who jump on this train early on will be at a significant advantage over their competitors in the long run.

bing product ads webinar

sign me up for webinar

Learn exclusively from Bing & CPC Strategy how to use the new Bing Product Ads program to drive more sales and qualified traffic to your site.

http://cpcstrategy.com/bing-product-ads-webinar/


chapter 2


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bing product ads requirements

Before you set up Bing Product Ads, make sure you meet all of the ad requirements. Here are some of the major requirements:

sell retail products and have at least one product or sKu

Not eligible for adult-product advertisers

Have a u.s. billing address in Bing Ads to indicate a clear u.s. presence

Utilize a secure online checkout option. (Either internal or external)

use a Bing shopping Account and a Bing Ads Account

use this link for guidelines on how to set up Bing Ads

Meet Advertising guidelines

don’t include any disallowed content (e.g alcohol)

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/editorial-guidelines

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/editorial-disallowed-content-guidelines


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create bing product ads

Create your Bing Merchant Center Store

Upload your product catalog to Bing

Create a PA Campaign or import campaigns from Google

and create Product Targets

claim your domain and create a Bing Merchant center store

Set up your catalog

Create Product Ads campaigns

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/product-ads/#uuid=7cd0e0a7-5a31-4d19-bb61-53344f7543c9


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Claim Your Domain & Create A Bing Merchant center store

Before you can get started creating Bing Product Ads, you need to tell Bing that you:

Have a reliable website (verify your URL)

Communicate inventory information to Bing (create a Bing Merchant Center Store)

Verify Your uRL

Follow the steps below to verify your website URL.

1.) Go to the Bing Webmaster Tools URL: http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster


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2.) Sign in using the same Microsoft account that you use to sign in to Bings Ads:

If you are just creating your account you’ll need to set your account information.

3.) Click Profile and then fill out the About Me, contact Preference, and Alert Preference sections.


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4.) Enter your website address (where your ads will go):

And select add:





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5.) Complete your basic site information, contact info and preferences:


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6.) Choose how you would prefer to verify your site:

Place an XML file on your web server

copy and paste a <meta> tag in your default webpage

Add cNAMe record to dNs


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7.) Click Verify:


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You will see the dashboard page if your URL is verified or pending verification:

set up Your store

*If you haven’t validated your store you cannot complete this step.

create Bing Merchant center store

1.) In Bing Ads, click tools in the upper right corner:

https://bingads.microsoft.com/


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2.) Select Bing Merchant center:

3.) Choose create a store:


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4.) Enter your store information:


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5.) PRo tip: Be sure to choose Product Ads in the catalogs settings list:

If you don’t do this when first creating your store, you can select this option by going to the Bing Merchant Center> your store> Store Settings and selecting Product Ads:


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Check out Bing’s resource on the Bing Merchant Center for more information.

bing product ads cataLog

To feature Bing Product Ads on search, you need to send your inventory information to Bing using a Bing-specific data catalog. Your Bing catalog should include all of your product data in a .txt excel file, and be uploaded to the Bing Merchant Center Regularly.

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/manage-campaigns/topic?market=en-US&project=adCenter_live_std&querytype=topic&query=MOONSHOT_CONC_AboutBingMerchantCenter.htm


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Basics of Bing Catalog:

.txt excel file

includes your product inventory data

upload to the Bing Merchant store (must be linked to Bing Ads)

Updated regularly to reflect your inventory changes (e.g price change)

Your catalog expires after 30 days (ads will stop showing)



Learn exclusively from Bing & CPC Strategy how to use the new Bing Product Ads program to drive more sales and qualified traffic to your site.



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Bing catalog Format

The product information Bing requires in the data catalog is very similar to other shopping channels, including Google. Bing requires 8 default columns for product information including Product Title and Description:

Minimum Feed Requirements Are:

Merchant Product ID (MPID)Product TitleProduct URLPriceDescriptionImage URL(220x220 pixels or larger)Brand*SellerName (aggregator only)

* You can use this attribute to filter products when creating Product Extensions and Product Targets.

Highly Recommended Feed Attributes:

MPNUPCISBNSKU*GTINAvailability (Stock Status)Condition*Product Type/Merchant Category*Bing CategoryTaxShippingShipping WeightBingads_label*Bingads_grouping*Bingads_redirect


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Below are Bing’s required catalog columns:

(Note information accompanied with a * indicate groups which can be used to create Product Extensions and Product Targets.)

General:Merchant Product ID (MPID)Product TitleProduct URLPriceDescriptionImage URL(220x220 pixels or larger)Brand*SellerName (aggregator only)

Aggregator only:SellerName

Offer Identification:MPNUPCSKU or MerchantSKU*ISBNGTIN

Additional Pricing Items:TaxShippingShippingWeight

Item Identification:Condition*B_Category or BingCategoryProduct Type or MerchantCategory*Availability or StockStatus

Sales & Promotions:PriceWithDiscountDealStartDateDealExpiration

Bing Attributes:Bingads_grouping*Bingads_label*Bingads_redirect


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You can also feature additional pricing information such as tax, shipping weight, and condition for a richer catalog

PRo tip: To highlight promotions in Bing Product Ads, you need to also include the PriceWithDiscount, DealStartDate and DealExpiration columns in your catalog

For more technical requirements and information on catalog columns, check out Bing’s catalog organization

Before you can upload your Bing catalog, be sure you have verified you website URL, and have a Bing store created.

upload Your catalog to Bing

Select Bing Merchant Center under tools:

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/help-topic/how-to/51084/how-is-the-catalog-organized


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Choose your store:

Click Catalog Management Tab:


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Select Create Catalog to create a new Catalog or select an existing Catalog to update:

(Note: you can create multiple catalogs)

If you are creating a new Catalog, you need to fill out the associated catalog file information:


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Bing defaults to uploading catalogs from an FTP, which is a merchant best practice. You can also test how your catalog looks at the bottom of this page.

If you are editing an existing catalog, or would like to change your catalog information, you can do so by selecting your catalog name:


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Here you can edit your catalog name, when your catalog is downloading, and associated catalog information:


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You can also upload your product catalog using the FTP Settings tab which requires a catalog name and password (need to be 6 characters with a number, letter and special character):

The FTP server to use here is ftps://catalogs.adcenter.microsoft.com

You also have the option to download your catalog from a URL, but we won’t go into any logistics for that here. If this is your preferred method of upload, read how to do this through Bing.

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/help-topic/how-to/51086/upload-your-first-product-catalog


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PRo tip: Once your catalog is uploaded, it can take up to 3 days to appear on Bing. If your catalog isn’t new, it can still take up to 36 hours for product information to appear on search, and 2 hours for product information to update.

import Your catalog From Google

Advertisers already using Google PLAs can also import their product information from Google.

To upload your product catalog from Google, select Import From Google Adwords under the Tools> Catalog Management tab:

To do this you’ll need to have your Google login information, and select which Google ad campaign you want to use, for which Bing ad campaign.


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Three big things to remember when importing a product catalog from Google:

Your ad bids do not migrate with your ads

AdWords labels cannot be used to verify Bing ads- you need to rename these colums for Bing Product target values

Google’s traditional-style Product Listing Ads campaign structure can be imported into Bing Product Ads, NOT the newer campaign structure, Shopping Campaigns. (This new format will permanently replace the current format in August 2014.)

Google’s Product Listing Ads columns differ from Bing, so you’ll need to rename certain Bing Columns in order for them to validate Product Ads. However, any additional columns from Google that aren’t used by Bing can be uploaded without any issues; Bing will simply ignore these columns.

PRo tip: You need to validate each Product Target in Bing once they’ve been imported from Google.

create Product Ad campaigns

Thus far you’ve told Bing about you and your store (Bing Store), and what you sell (Bing Catalog). Next you’ll want to set up a campaign to organize your Bing Product Ads.

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2

3


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The Bing Ads login houses both Bing Text and Product Ads, so be sure you structure and name your campaigns so that you can differentiate between the two.

Create your Campaign under the Campaigns tab:

Click Campaigns> Create Campaigns> Product Ad Campaign:


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You can also do this at the bottom of the page:


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Fill out your campaign information:

This is also where you’ll set up your target location, which you may want to modify for geo targeting.


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Create a Product Extension:

Remember, your Product Extensions identify catalog information in the Bing Merchant Center so that you can segment your catalog with Product Targets later on.

Product extensions are needed for your ads to communicate with the info in your catalog

Product extensions rely on required catalog labels such as brand, but you can also create custom Bing catalog labels for specific product extensions

You can only create product extensions at the campaign level


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PRo tip: Your first Product Extension should use the All Products target, but you will want to use the Filtered Product Target for each following Product Ad group.

create Product targets

Once you have a Product Ads campaign set up, you’ll want to create Product Targets for different product groups in your product catalog. Product Targets are similar to the Targets Tag for Google Shopping, and allow advertisers to identify attributes in their product catalog to segment Product Ads.


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Product Targets identify information in your product catalog to create ad groups within Bing Product Ads. You need to identify which product attributes you’d like to segment as ad to create Product Targets.

PRo tip: If you’re just getting started with Bing Product Ads, begin with an All Products Product Target, and then build out your Product Ad Targets based on your major store attributes and products such as Category. Once you start building performance data you can then get more granular with Product Targets for brands and custom dimensions such as best sellers.

A Product target tells Bing Ads what products in your catalog that you want to trigger for your Product Ad. think of a Product target as your keywords for your Product Ads. Just like keywords for text ads, Product targets will be compared to a customer’s search query or other input and potentially trigger an ad. - Bing


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create A Product target

On the campaigns page select Product targets:

Click create Product target:


get more on googLe, amazon, adwords, & retaiL search

Find out how to increase your ROI on Google, Amazon, Adwords, and retail search campaigns without logging into a platform, dealing with technical elements of your data feed, or poring over performance data.

dominate Retail search

http://cpcstrategy.com/packages/


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Choose your ad group, and bid:

Once you’ve created your All Products Ad campaign, you’ll want to select Filtered Products for your Product target here:


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The Filtered Products option can identify product information in the Bing catalog so that you can create an ad group based on inventory attributes such as brand, category or seasonal products. For custom product attributes you’ll use the Bingads_grouping and Bingads_label columns in the Bing Catalog.

Also be sure to change your Product target bid for each ad group depending on the volume you’d like to see. For example, you’ll want to have different bids for a Furniture Product Target and a seasonal Product Target.

Select save:


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Product Target Best Practices

Product Targets apply to the ad group level, where Product Extensions are at the campaign level. Be sure to avoid confusion between the two. Your Product Targets apply to a subset of your campaign (ad groups), so Product Targets should be compatible with the Product Extensions you create.

Bing Product Ads aren’t based on Keywords, but you can create negative keywords to limit visibility to ads based on search queries with particular words

You can use your ad group bid as the bid for your Product Target, or use a custom bid

Set different bids for each Product Target based on desired visibility and product performance

Be sure to use the Filtered Products option for ads which are based on catalog attributes or labels

Instead of bidding on keywords, you’ll define and bid on Product Targets.

In order for you ads to show, you must choose Product Targets using attributes from your Bing Merchant catalog.

Your Product Target can be as broad as all products in your catalog, or as specific as your brand, SKU or color.

Product target examples:All ProductsShoesNike Running ShoesNike Running Shoes Over $100

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/manage-campaigns/topic?market=en-US&project=adCenter_live_std&querytype=topic&query=MOONSHOT_CONC_AboutNegativeKeywords.htm


chapter 3


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cataLog management

in-catalog Labels And Groupings

In addition to the required General fields for your Bing catalog, you should be utilizing Groupings and Labels within the catalog:

Header Value

Bingads_grouping* Bingads_label*

Description

Min Length/ Value

Max Length/ Value

sample

Additional Notes

Used to group products for filters in ad campaigns

0

1,000

Comforters

Can be used for product filters to limit a campaign to a group of products or Product Targets to bid differently for a group of products. It can only hold one value.

Used to identify products for filters in ad campaigns

0

1,000

Comforters

Can hold up to 10 comma seperated values. Should not have empty spaces between commas.

data type Alphanumeric Alphanumeric


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You can use both columns to be much more efficient at creating Product Targets by product type/category/group in the Bing Ads login:

On a similar note, include as many fields as possible. The more relevant information you can provide to Bing upfront, the better they can direct shoppers to your products. If you’re able to provide additional information, you should be filling out these optional fields:

MPN

uPc

isBN

sKu

GtiN

Availability (stock)

Condition

Product type/Merchant

category

Bing category

tax

shipping

shippingweight


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Transfer Your Existing PLA Catalog

If you’re running Product Listing Ad campaigns, you can save time by simply transferring the XML catalog you’re already sending to Google over to the Bing Merchant Center.

PRo tip: Before you migrate your Google Feed to Bing, edit the “adwords_labels” column in your Google catalog to be “Bingads_label.” This way, your current labels, including custom, can transfer over.

Here is a comprehensive guide on how to integrate your catalog with the Bing Merchant Center.

send the whole catalog

There’s no reason not to market your entire product inventory on Bing. Sending limited catalogs makes sense only for shopping engines with rate cards for minimum CPCs. However, (like Google) Bing Product Ads offers open-market bidding, meaning only competition will drive average CPCs higher.

XML

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/wwdocs/user/search/en-us/BingMerchantCenter_Integration_Guide.pdf

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/wwdocs/user/search/en-us/BingMerchantCenter_Integration_Guide.pdf


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With this model, advertisers should be sending a full catalog because you can bid as low as 1 cent on a given product (and these clicks do happen). This way, all of your products have a chance to be seen on BPA and Bing has the opportunity to build catalog relevancy for your entire product catalog.

PRo tip: Use custom labels to segment poor performers in your catalog so you can set a lower bid (even lower than the All Products bid) for this group.

enhanced Product titles

You almost never want to default to your manufacturer-provid-ed product title. Optimizing product titles in the catalog (head-er is “title”) is essential to showing up for longtail searches and ranking as high as your product should be.

The main point here is to include the keywords shoppers are using to find your type of product. For example, if you sell the Canon EOS Rebel T3i camera, your product title should ac-count for at least “Canon EOS Rebel T3i” as well as any other potential modifiers in the query, such as:

“canon eos Rebel t3i digital DSLR camera”

“canon eos Rebel t3i 55mm”

“canon eos Rebel t3i black camera ”


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This retailer’s product title includes many of these potential modifiers, which, in addition to their bid, played a factor in their product ranking for the query “Canon EOS Rebel T3i camera.” At the end of the day, a shopper that indicates they know the exact model they want is more likely to convert.

PRo tip: We’ve found that keywords earlier on in a given product title are more heavily weighted for search queries, so this might be something to consider when optimizing your Bing product catalog.

Removing Restricted Products

Including a restricted product in your catalog puts your campaign at great risk for suspension. This is a no-brainer, but it’s important to make sure that your allowable products don’t include keywords in the title or description that can be misconstrued to be illicit content.

Bing’s restricted product list is here, with a more comprehensive ad content restriction list here. Like for Product Listing Ads, it’s likely that there will be a growing list of “unlisted” restricted products. So to be on the safe side, don’t list it in your catalog if it’s not allowed on Google Shopping.

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/cl/4748/bing-rich-captions/product-restrictions

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/editorial-disallowed-content-guidelines


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Pricing

Surprisingly, Bing does not (yet) have a “Shopping” tab or “Shop for ______ on Bing” equivalent (the text highlighted in the green box does not click-through to a comparison page). This means that the grid of product ads you see on the right are all that the shopper has to make a click decision. The 3 main factors that you can control? Product image, product title, and pricing.

As you can imagine, price is going to be the most influential factor in lobbying for a shopper’s interest and click, so price competitiveness on Bing Product Ads is key.

However, it’s likely that a Shopping-like interface will be implemented in the foreseeable future, thus introducing much more factors/filters that will influence the shopper’s click.


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campaign optimization

Transfer Your Existing AdWords Campaign Into Bing

Bing makes it easier for current PLA advertisers to start on Product Ads. There are a couple caveats to this, however.

1.) You can only import the traditional PLA format (pre-Shopping Campaigns)

And on April 2nd 2014, Google announced that all advertisers will automatically be transferred to the Shopping Campaigns format by August of 2014, so there’s only a small window to transfer the older campaign format into Bing.

http://www.cpcstrategy.com/blog/2014/04/rip-regular-pla-campaigns-long-live-shopping-campaigns/


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2.) only some of the information from Adwords is transferred into Bing. Here are the fields that do transfer:

campaigns

Ad groups

Keywords

Negative keywords

Ads

sitelink extensions

Location targets such as

country/Region

state/Province

city

Notably absent are Product Extensions. Here are instructions on how to transfer your AdWords campaign into Bing.

If you’re transferring using the AdWords editor, it’s possible that you will have to manually input product targets and validate them in the BingAds login.

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/help-topic/how-to/51050/how-to-import-a-campaign-from-adwords-or-other-programs


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campaign structure

Optimal campaign structure with Bing looks about the same as quality ad group structure on Google PLAs (traditional model, not Shopping Campaigns). We’ve found that building out campaigns using fundamental Product Targets like All Products, Brand, and Category are essential.

All Products

category / type

Brand

custom

category / type

Brand

custom

category / type

Brand

custom

category / type

Brand

custom

Bid

Let’s run through the above graphic, which is a simplified representation of how product targets should be structured for your Product Ad campaign. creating product targets around brands, product categories, or custom labels should be data-driven. It’s important to identify your top brands and product categories when structuring your campaign.


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All Products

This should have been made when you created a Product Ads campaign from scratch. An All Products acts a catch-all, ensuring that all the products in your catalog are being bid on and advertised. In most cases, this ad group will have the lowest bid out of any.

category or type

The ad groups with the next highest bids (the 2nd tier) should be segmented by product category or type. If you’re a Home & Garden retailer, this would include something like Lawn Furniture, Garden Tools, Kitchenware, etc. These ad groups are still broad but will give you an idea of how your different product categories perform.

Brand

If you sell multiple brands, then you can create 3rd tier product targets by brand. Queries with brand names in them are typically more specific and targeted than more general queries (ie. “Kitchenaid dish rack” vs. “plastic dish rack”), and so these product targets typically warrant higher bids. Being a Home & Garden retailer, specific brand product targets may include John Deere, Behr, Black & Decker, etc.

custom

This highest tier of product targets can range widely from high AOV products, seasonal products, best sellers, etc. These are more segmented than other product targets so they’ll typically have a higher bid, however this isn’t always true. You can create these product targets based on custom labels you’re using in your catalog.


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If you have an optimized Google PLA campaign (traditional model, NOT Shopping Campaigns), then many of the same principles that worked there will apply to Bing Product Ads. For Product Targets, Bing also makes several good points of their own:

Group products by type or feature

Product Targets based on brands, product categories, or products that align with your business goals will often perform better than more specific ones like sKu-level Product targets

At the very least, create a Product Target that contains all of your products (All Products) to act as a catch-all and ensure that every product is being bid on. typically this bid will be lower than any other Product target bid

PRo tip: It’s highly inadvisable to base your entire campaign on SKU-level product targets, or creating a product target for every product in your catalog. It may seem intuitive that you’ll be able to get more granular with your campaign, but it’s a primitive and unfeasible strategy for merchants with large catalogs. Check out our white paper, How SKU Level Ad Groups Can Kill Your PLA Campaign, to better understand this idea (not Bing-specific, but the same principles apply here).

http://cpcstrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PLA-Product-Level-Ad-Groups.pdf

http://cpcstrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/PLA-Product-Level-Ad-Groups.pdf


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Leverage 3rd Party Analytics

Campaign optimization includes consistent cross-referencing of Bing Ads data and an alternate source of product performance. Using a 3rd party analytics service to compare product performance data will allow you to better evaluate the overall impact of the channel on your store. Be sure to include these utm tags in your catalog uRLs.

You’ll also want to make sure you have the Bing Conversion Tracker installed on your site so that you can see revenue and conversion data directly in the Bing Ads login.

Utilize Promotional Text & Columns

Promotional text shows when someone hovers over your product ad. Promotional text applies only to whole Product Targets and is a recommended addition for 1 simple reason: Your ads will be differentiated from the majority of advertisers that don’t have promotional text.

According to Bing, promotional text should call attention to the key selling points of the products you’re targeting in an ad group.

You can create promotional text offers when creating a product target. If you’re creating a product target for the brand Nike, then you can offer a promotion like “Free Shipping on all Nike products” to make your ad more appealing.

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/help-topic/how-to/51049/use-campaign-analytics-to-track-site-activity

http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/help-topic/how-to/51049/use-campaign-analytics-to-track-site-activity


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If you have a sale going on, why wouldn’t you want to call attention to it? You can also fill out these catalog columns to include sales/promotion info:

Header Value

PriceWithDiscount DealStartDate DealExpirationDate

Description

Min Length

/ Value

Max Length

/ Value

sample

Additional Notes

Offer’s sale price,

excluding tax & shipping

0.01

150,000

20.99

Only 2 decimal places.

No symbols ($). Must be

less than price.

Sale’s start date and time Used to identify products

for filters in ad campaigns

N/A 0

N/A 1,000

2013-11-05T08:15-5:00(Nov. 5, 2013 at 8:15 am EST. )

2013-11-09T08:15-5:00(Nov. 9, 2013 at 8:15 am EST. )

Date must be YYYY-MM-DD format, followed by a T (time designator) and the time in hh:mm format. hh:mm:ss can be used but seconds will be truncated. Defaults to US Pacific Standard Time; time-zone offset should be -hh:mm or +hh:mm format off UTC time. Must be earlier than deal expiration time. See example.

Date must be YYYY-MM-DD format, followed by a T (time designator) and the time in hh:mm format. hh:mm:ss can be used but seconds will be truncated. Defaults to US Pacific Standard Time; time-zone offset should be -hh:mm or +hh:mm format off UTC time. Must be earlier than deal expiration time. See example.

data type Numeric Alphanumeric Alphanumeric


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Accounting for Mobile Traffic

Bing Product Ads allows you to shut off tablet and smartphone traffic entirely. When creating a Product Ad campaign, you can specify which devices, including OS, should be active under the Targeting Options section:

This is a good option for smaller merchants or advertisers who have tight ROI goals.

Pro tip: If you don’t have a mobile -optimized website then you’ll probably want to pause smartphone traffic for now. Smartphone traffic can be a heavy but it’s known to have significantly lower conversion rates than desktop traffic. You can always go back to your campaign settings and edit this when you do improve your mobile site.


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take Advantage of cPcs early on

The way Bing Product Ads are shown now, there is a maximum of six ads shown on the Bing SERP. And with no product comparison pages, this leaves your ads the options of cracking the top 6 slots or bust. Unlike Google Shopping, where your products are guaranteed to show up on a comparison page, Bing only shows the top 6 on the SERP:

The more this program matures, the higher average CPCs will get as more competitors enter your product space. While CPCs are relatively low, you should take advantage of the current Bing Product Ads structure and bid aggressively (with calculation, of course) on your historic best sellers.


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