The Bing Cashback program now has 1,200 active merchants, 44 million offers, and has distributed over $100 million in earned rewards for consumers.
Meagan Rochelle, search solutions specialist for Cashback, offered those statistics to the audience at #SMX West on Wednesday during her presentation on the Cashback program. Interest in the Cashback program was rising at the conference after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer discussed it in his keynote talk on Tuesday.
The Cashback program rewards consumers with a cash back rebate for a purchase, and gives advertisers the opportunity to sell on a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) basis. Search users find the best price on products with Bing shopping and Microsoft passes on the discount, 100 percent, to the consumers.
From a community point of view, it’s nice to see presentations like the Bing Cashback presentation where independent customer evangelists talking about Microsoft services have a chance to say something nice.
Microsoft’s own representative gave a detailed and impressive walkthrough for the audience on how the Cashback program works for merchants and consumers. But the next speaker on the panel, Nicholas Ward, of Range Online Media, described the program from the client’s point of view: including his successes (He’s very happy with the 500 percent year-over-year traffic growth) and some of the things he’d like to see Microsoft improve (the story around ease of use should be improved).
The potential users of any program, especially an online technology marketing program, want to hear about it from other users who’ve tested the waters, decided if the program is valuable, and figured out the shortcuts.
Nicholas had mostly positive experiences to share with the audience about his results using Bing Cashback. His clients from value-brands to luxury brands have seen effective results. The most difficult question is deciding if the experience is right for the client. Implementation of Cashback is relatively easy for merchants but Nicholas suggested the ease of use story is something Microsoft can work on.
Microsoft Search Solutions Specialist Meagan Rochelle offered the audience an overview of the program and how to get products listed. Merchants get the best results with these best practices:
- Use the highest rebate your margin will allow.
- Review the performance of your offers periodically and remove offers that do not perform.
- Use information about Bing Cashback in offline promotions
- Capitalize on Bing Cashback Marketing Promotions (extra rebates offered by Microsoft, etc.)
To qualify to advertise with Bing cashback, your business must be:
- Headquartered in the United States.
- A retail site with e-commerce capabilities.
- Able to fulfill the physical shipment of a product.
- Able to create and maintain a product data feed.
- Able to implement a standard tracking pixel on your web site’s order confirmation page.
How to Get Started
Contact your Microsoft account executive to learn more about Bing cashback. Or, if you do not have an account executive, please fill out the interest form.