Category: Bing

For the opening session of SMX Advanced, we were treated to a keynote by Bing’s Fabrice Canel. Here are my notes from that session. Fabrice started by pointing out that search is becoming more intelligent. For example, search engines are getting better at sentiment analysis. If you search on whether video games are good for you, you’ll get one set of results, and if you search on whether they are bad for you, you’ll get a different set of results. You can also get multiperspective answers offering different opinions. Bing…

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With Google starting to mark HTTP URLs as “not secure” in its Chrome browser this month, Bing Ads is recommending advertisers update their final ad URLs to HTTPS. For sites that support HTTPS, Bing Ads suggests three options for bulk updating HTTP URLs. The bulk uploads feature in the Bing Ads web interface. Bing Ads Editor. Bing Ads API, for those with access. If you’ve got a list of to-do’s, you might check your analytics to see how much traffic from your Bing campaigns comes from Chrome and prioritize this…

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Bing is expanding the scope of its policy prohibiting certain weapons-related advertising. As of July 1, 2018, Bing will no longer allow ads for BB guns, paintball guns, air rifles or parts that can be attached to weapons, used to create ammunition or aid in the reloading of a weapon. This update expands on the existing ban on ads for firearms, integral weapon parts and ammunition. “Many of the recreational type guns like air rifles look like real guns and consumers may be led to click on offers that are…

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I covered this news at Search Engine Land last week, but now it is making its way to the SEO community. Bing is beginning to build their index of native app content for iOS, Android and even their own Windows 10 apps, for search and discoverability purposes. Bing said: Now that we’ve seen how to apply app linking and app actions using markup, you may wonder when it is a good time to start to do this for you site. Well, we’ve already started analyzing the web specifically for App…

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Audiences are the dotted lines that have the potential to connect nearly all of our digital channels. Audiences can help improve performance within a campaign, and they can also help influence strategies in other campaigns, and even in other channels. Using audiences within paid search, we can strategically share content based upon where the prospect is in the funnel and bid accordingly. We can start to gather information about their interests, their demographics and the ways that they’ve engaged with the brand. Today, I’d like to talk about all of…

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Following in Google’s footsteps, Bing is removing text ads from the sidebar in desktop search results. Starting today, March 26, Bing will begin to stop showing sidebar text ads in the US. Like Google, Bing has concluded that removing text ads in the sidebar leads to an overall increase in ads clicks for mainline text ads and product ads and “an immaterial impressions impact.” Bing will add text in an extra ad spot at the bottom of the search results, meaning as many as four text ads may display below…

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Almost exactly a year ago, data onboarding and identity resolution provider LiveRamp announced a new people-based search targeting service for IdentityLink. The first effort for that service was designed for Google’s Customer Match. IdentityLink is LiveRamp’s people-based identity resolution service. With Google’s Customer Match, a brand can target customers with ads in Google Search results. A Honda dealer in Boston, for instance, can target previous and current customers for a sale at its dealership when that user searches for, say, “Honda CRV.” The dealership can upload the email addresses, phone…

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In another blow to cryptocurrency marketers, Bing Ads is banning ads promoting cryptocurrency sales, offerings and related products. Facebook, Google and Twitter banned cryptocurrency ads earlier this year. “Because cryptocurrency and related products are not regulated, we have found them to present a possible elevated risk to our users with the potential for bad actors to participate in predatory behaviors, or otherwise scam consumers,” wrote Melissa Alsoszatai-Petheo, a Bing advertiser policy manager, in the announcement. Bing Ads is disallowing ads for cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency-related products and unregulated binary options (also called…

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Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about the bizarre Q4 rise of brand text ad cost per click (CPC) on Google, following a Q3 in which brand CPC was actually declining. This despite the fact that Google brand top-of-the-page and first-page minimum bid estimates continued to decline steadily through the end of 2017. While this sudden reversal continues to be somewhat of a mystery, another brand cost-per-click trend continues to take hold on Google’s primary US-based competitor, Bing, where CPC growth has accelerated quickly over the past several months…

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Now out of pilot with over 170 audiences determined to be in buy mode. Bing Ads announced the availability of in-market audiences in the US on Tuesday, after piloting the audience targeting feature since last summer. In-market audiences are groups of users determined to be actively in the market for a particular product or service category. In building in-market audiences, Bing Ads takes into account user purchase intent signals from Bing, MSN and other Microsoft properties. There are now more than 170 in-market audiences to choose from — up from…

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