Bing

Bing Ads (formerly Microsoft adCenter and MSN adCenter) is a service that provides pay per click advertising on both the Bing and Yahoo! networks. Its interface is almost identical to the AdWords Editor and both networks provide display and search advertisement.

Main Differences between Google and Microsoft

Ad Location

The main difference is the location of advertisements. You use Bing Ads to advertise on Bing, Yahoo! and their syndicated search partners. Google AdWords is used for advertising on Google and its partners. In the Search Network you can exclude to be shown on certain network sites. In Google, this is not possible.

Budgeting options

Both platforms offer users the ability to limit their campaign spend on a daily basis. Compared to Google and Yahoo!, Bing also offers to specify a monthly budget. Minimum bids also differ being 0.05 on Bing.

Ad Text

Google uses two description lines in one ad (each limited to 35 characters), while Bing Ads uses only one which is limited to 71 characters. Even when importing ads from one platform to another successfully, it should be made sure that these requirements are met correctly.

Negative keywords

Bing Ads does not use broad match negative keywords. If you have set up broad match negative keywords in Google and transfer them to Bing, they will be treated as phrase match negatives.

Targeting options

Targeting options such as location targeting and time of day targeting are different in each platform. The settings used in one product will very likely not be appropriate for the other product. For example, in Bing Ads there is an option to place an optional extra bid for targeting, known as an incremental bid. Placing an incremental bid increases the likelihood that your ad is displayed in a better position for customers who meet your targeting criteria. When you place an incremental bid for geographical location, device, day of the week, or time of day, you can choose whether to display your ads only to target customers or to all customers. When you place an incremental bid for age or gender, your ads are displayed to all customers, but your incremental bid can increase the likelihood of your ad being displayed to the specified gender and age segments. Moreover, using Exclusion feature for search ads you can limit which websites display them.

Quality score

The means of determining your QS and how it is used in determining the performance of you keywords and ads is different between the products. As you examine your QS in one product and determine ways to optimize, realize those same optimization strategies might not be applicable in the other product.

Final URL

Google AdWords prioritizes the use of the keyword URL as a final URL, so that when an ad with whatever ad final URL is triggered, a user is redirected to the keyword URL. On Bing Ads, the ad URL has the higher priority (and has to be used). In order to be compatible with Adwords the ad URL can include a parameter referring to the specific keyword-url if you want to create a specific keyword-url. And of course, you can also put a static value into the ad URL. When you import data into the AdCenter you will be asked if the keyword url should be used in the ad URL.

Match types

The three main types of matches available through Bing Ads are exact, phrase, and broad. Former users of Yahoo! Search Marketing will be accustomed to only standard match and advanced match, set at the account, campaign, ad group and keyword levels. Yahoo! Search Marketing did not allow users to bid separately by match type within the same ad group.

The table below provides an overview of the different match types in Bing.

Match type Punctuation What happens Why do this An example
Broad match none Your ad is eligible to be displayed when a search query includes individual words in your keyword, in any order, as well as words closely related to your keyword. Your goal is brand awareness; actual clicks are secondary.To include keywords similar to the ones you’ve bid on without having to add them to your actual keyword list. If you set your keyword to be red flower, your ad is eligible to display when someone searches for red flower, flower is red, and other variations. It might also be displayed when someone searches for crimson flower or red roses, because those words are closely related to red and flower.
Broad match modifier +keyword You can fine-tune broad match keywords by using the broad match modifier. To give you the ability to fine-tune or restrict how liberally Bing Ads matches closely related broad match terms. If you create the broad match keyword Hawaii Hotels, a query for Hawaii Rentals might also trigger your ads, since “rentals” is closely related to hotels. If you add the “+” broad match modifier to your keyword to make it Hawaii +Hotels, this tells Bing Ads that the word Hotels must be in the query in order for your ads to be eligible to be served.
Phrase match “keyword” Your ad is eligible to be displayed when a search query includes the word or words in your keyword in the same order as a customer’s search query – even if other words are present in that query. To show your ads to more potential customers than with an exact match, but get more clicks than with a broad match. If you set your keyword to be “red flower”, your ad is eligible to display when someone searches for big red flower and red flower, but not yellow flower or flower red.
Exact match [keyword] Your ad is eligible to be displayed only for a search query with the exact word or words in your keyword, in exactly the same order. To target your ads at your most likely customers and avoid unproductive clicks. If you set your keyword to be [red roses], your ad is eligible to display only when someone types the exact search query red roses, with no spelling variations.

With each match type, you can choose to bid separately on the singular and plural forms of a keyword. Or, you can simply bid on one form and Bing Ads will automatically deliver relevant traffic on the keyword’s singular and plural versions, as long as the meaning is preserved. For example, if you bid on “car,” your bid and ad copy will also apply to searches for “cars” and a bid on the keyword “cars” will apply to searches for “car.” If you prefer to only bid on either the singular or plural form of a keyword, you can exclude traffic on the other form by applying it as a negative keyword.

Import Data into AdCenter

If you already have campaigns in other online advertising programs, you can move them to Bing Ads. You have two options to do this. You can create an import file and upload that to Bing Ads, or if you are using Google AdWords, you can import directly from your Google AdWords account. Keep in mind, that you can only import whole accounts.

Import Directly from Google AdWords
  1. Click the Campaigns tab.
  2. Click Import your campaigns.
  3. Click Directly from Google AdWords.
  4. Enter your Google sign-in information, and click Continue.
  5. Choose which of your Google accounts you want to import campaigns from. Most people will only have one account. Click Continue.
  6. Under Bing Ads account, choose which account in Bing Ads you want to import your Google campaigns into. Most people will only have one Bing Ads account.
  7. Select the appropriate time zone.
  8. Under What to import, choose the appropriate options.
  9. If desired, select the options to increase your bids to the minimums allowed by Bing Ads. (This is highly recommended!)
  10. (Optional) If you want to update the destination URLs that get imported, you can click Destination URL and make your changes. This is an advanced feature that most people will not need, so you can safely leave these options unchecked. The most common use for these options is if you have specific destination URLs for searchers coming from Bing and Yahoo! as opposed to other search sites.
  11. Click Import.

After the import process is completed, you will have the opportunity to fix any import issues, and then view your imported data.
More from Microsoft

Import Using an Import File
  1. Get familiar with the file import requirements (see Requirements part below).
  2. Create an import file.
  3. Click the Campaigns tab.
  4. Click Import your campaigns.
  5. Click From a file.
  6. Designate a file to import and click Continue.
  7. On the Confirm matching page, use the drop-down lists to adjust any Bing Ads column headings to match the column headings in your import file, and then click Continue. Unmatched columns will not be imported. (Which is OK, as long as that is what you want to happen.)
  8. Under Bing Ads account, choose which account in Bing Ads you want to import your Google campaigns into. Most people will only have one Bing Ads account.
  9. Select the appropriate time zone.
  10. Under What to import, choose the appropriate options.
  11. If desired, select the options to increase your bids to the minimums allowed by Bing Ads. (This is highly recommended!)
  12. (Optional) If you want to update the destination URLs that get imported, you can click Destination URL and make your changes. This is an advanced feature that most people will not need, so you can safely leave these options unchecked. The most common use for these options is if you have specific destination URLs for searchers coming from Bing and Yahoo! as opposed to other search sites.
  13. Click Import.

After the import process completes, you will have the opportunity to fix any import issues, then view your imported data.

Importing your campaigns: Requirements

When you import your campaigns (or prepare your data for export from Google AdWords using Google AdWords Editor), you should keep these requirements in mind:

  • If you are using an import file (as opposed to importing directly from Google AdWords), your import file must be closed before you try to import it.
  • Your web browser must be set to allow pop-up windows. For more information, see the help documentation for your web browser.
  • If you are using an import file, the data must be in the correct order. If you download information from Google AdWords or another online advertising program, copy the information into the template, save it, and then import the saved file.
    • Remove duplicate keywords in the import file—for example, “Apple” and “apple” will appear as duplicates.
    • Remove keywords that are not allowed—for example, “gambling” and “firearms.”
    • The data you import must not exceed the following character limits:
Imported Data Limit
Ad title 25 characters
Ad text 71 charactersIf you use keywords as dynamic text, make sure that they do not exceed 71 characters. If you have two lines of ad text, each line can be a maximum of 35 characters. Bing Ads puts these two lines together with a space in between, thus reaching the maximum of 71 characters.
Display URL 35 characters
Destination URL 1022 characters
Keyword or phrase 100 characters
Ad groups 10000 keywords