adCenter Blog : bing holiday

SearchIgnite Report Shows Conversion Rates Up, Bing Average Order Value Highest

Emily Chandler-MSFT — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:00:00 GMT

After a rough year for retailers, it looks like things are perking up for the holidays, especially on Bing. According to the SearchIgnite Mid Q4 Search Marketing Report published last week, in the first half of Q4 conversion rates were up across all major search engines by 17% year over year. US search spend is following the same trend, up 7% over the same time period.

Conversion rates and spend are clearly on the rise, however average order value is not trending in the same direction. Average transaction value has dropped 27% year over year. Despite consumers scaling back a bit this holiday, the report shows you're in good hands with the Bing audience. SearchIgnite's research found that average order values on Bing are 21% higher than across all engines. In a time when ROI comes first, Bing will give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now behind us, but its not to late to optimize for those holiday shoppers. Research released by CrownPeak shows we can all gain from making sure we are driving customers to a relevant landing page this holiday. According to CrownPeak, "the majority of online ad campaigns and website content were not linked, a core strategy often required to drive successful online advertising efforts." Close to two-thirds of holiday ads are directing to a broader page (homepage, search page, or category page) rather than directly to the product in the search ad. With 22 shopping days to go, now is the perfect time to update your landing pages, and make sure you are bringing customer's one click away from that holiday purchase.

Happy Holidays!

Bing Buzz and The Holidays: Advertising on Bing Shopping

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:00:00 GMT

As I mentioned in a previous Bing Buzz and The Holidays post, the current economic climate is forcing consumers to make price more of a priority in their holiday shopping decisions, which will make comparison shopping that much more important this year. Given Bing's branding as a decision engine from Microsoft that connects advertisers with more than 72 million unique searchers while they are in decision mode (and the marketing momentum that's building around this message as the holidays approach), I wanted to take a minute to point out another Bing opportunity that helps get your business's name and products in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

Bing Shopping is a section of Bing.com that's specifically designed to help online shoppers find and research the products they're looking for. As a Microsoft adCenter advertiser, you can capitalize on the recent surge of Bing's popularity by signing up to be included in Bing Shopping's retailer listings under the "Compare Prices" tab in the info for the products you sell:

With features like categorized results, opinion ranking and product reviews, Bing Shopping is poised to quickly become an important part of users' online shopping experiences and as such, an indispensable tool for advertisers in reaching target audiences. With product categories ranging from daily essentials to technology to clothing and everything in between, there's plenty of opportunity to make the most of Bing Shopping during the holidays.

For more detailed information on Bing Shopping opportunities and how to sign up, visit the Bing Shopping page on the Microsoft Advertising site.

Bing Buzz and the Holidays: Bing Travel

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:51:00 GMT

In my last Bing Buzz and the Holidays post, I pointed out how the marketing momentum surrounding Bing's release over the summer is only increasing as it reaches more and more people, encouraging them to "Bing and decide" for themselves over the holiday season. Given the metrics surrounding Bing's success thus far, there is ample opportunity for advertisers of all shapes and sizes to capitalize on that buzz in directing gift-seeker holiday traffic to their websites.

When I think about the approaching holiday season, two things come to mind. First, shopping for gifts. most notably toys and games for my son. Second, making travel plans to visit family back in New England. As the purpose of this post is to make you, Dear Advertiser, aware of how the buzz around Bing can work to your benefit, I'm going to focus on the latter of those two top-of-mind holiday priorities.

Bing Travel

Have you checked out Bing Travel yet? Other than following that link, you can also get there from the main Bing page by clicking on "More" from the links along the top:

And from there, "Travel":

Once there, you'll find an interface very similar to those you see on other travel search related sites like Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. a search box where you enter your flight information to search for the best deals.

Looking at the example below, I've entered in my travel information to fly from Seattle to Boston on the dates before and after the holidays. When the results come back, not only do I get information about flights that might fit my schedule based on the criteria I entered, I'm also informed that I should hold off on booking it because trends show an 80% chance that prices may drop soon (circled in red) and I also see several ads run by adCenter advertisers (blue arrows):

As a consumer, this information is incredibly helpful; the less money I spend on travel, the more I can spend on gifts for my friends and family this year. I think you see where I'm going with this.

Because Bing's value proposition and branding is all about helping users make better-informed decisions, illustrated here by the 7-day Price Predictor tips, the potential of Bing Travel becoming a valuable travel resource could help increase opportunity for adCenter advertisers within the travel vertical.

If you're already running travel related PPC campaigns in adCenter, you don't need to do anything different to be included in the search results page on Bing Travel, results are pulled from adCenter the same way they would be for ads on the main Bing page. In this case, the ads I'm seeing were populated based on the fact that I'm flying out of Seattle and into Boston. Alaska Air is a major player at SeaTac Airport (the first result in the right-hand column) and there are four ads between the two columns that reference Boston specifically.

If you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future topics, please feel free to leave a comment or visit our forums - thanks for reading!

Bing Buzz and The Holidays: Opportunities for Advertisers

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:05:00 GMT

Like most single-income families who've had to do some belt tightening in recent months, I'd like to think I'm a fairly well-educated consumer when it comes to making decisions about purchases that fall outside the realm of every day necessities. While most of my friends are well-versed at bargain hunting and have been doing it for years, I've never paid much attention simply because I'm not a huge fan of shopping in general (so much for that female stereotype!). Now that I find myself looking at every product or service with a more discriminating eye, I know that I'm getting the best value for my money on a consistent basis.

Because this carefulness around spending isn't limited to personal finances, now more than ever it's important for businesses to position themselves in the best possible marketing venues in order to compete in today's economy. Like bargain hunters scouring the shelves and racks for the best quality products at the best prices, advertisers should be taking a long, hard look at how effectively their search engine marketing campaigns are performing and whether they're getting the best return-on-investment.

If you're unsure what questions you should be asking yourself as you review your adCenter reports, I recommend visiting Shefali Singla's post, Campaign Optimization Quick Reference Guide.

While these tips should be helpful for Bing advertisers who are already running campaigns through adCenter, I want to take a minute to address all of you who are doing some bargain hunting of your own in collecting information on what search engine marketing (SEM) options are available and what the benefits are of adding Bing to your marketing mix.

It's probably no surprise to most of you who have seen Bing ads on TV or heard them on the radio to learn that Microsoft is driving a huge marketing push to attract and retain new searchers and advertisers. As the holiday season approaches, these marketing initiatives are going to shift into high gear in an effort to build upon the buzz momentum that began with Bing's release this summer.

If you're new to search engine marketing, or simply new to advertising on Bing, here are a few things to keep in mind as you start considering how to allocate your holiday marketing dollars:

. Bing has over 73 million unique searchers¹ and reaches 32% of the internet population in the US.²

. Bing searches have increased +7% month-over-month (MOM); the 7% search volume increase equates to 75 million searches.³

For more detailed, in-depth analysis of how Bing can help your marketing efforts this holiday season, be sure to check out the attached PDF presentation, Holiday Advertising on Bing.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Bing Buzz posts about opportunities for advertisers on Bing Shopping and Bing Travel this holiday season.

1. comScore qSearch Key Measures, U.S., August, 2009, 2. comScore Media Metrix, August 2009, 3. comScore qSearch Trend Report, July v. August, 2009, U.S.

Toys and Travel: Tips for the Holiday Season

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:16:00 GMT

For families like mine who are split between two coasts, the holiday season can be very expensive after gifts, shipping and travel arrangements are taken into account. This has never been truer than now given the current state of our economy; everyone’s looking for the most cost-effective ways to get things done.

Although this financial hyper-vigilance may seem like gathering clouds for advertisers, that’s not necessarily the case. Most people are not going to forgo their holiday plans entirely, they’re just going to be on the lookout for the best deals. If you can show them that you’re going to beat the competition and give them the most bang for their buck, you’re going to get the sale.

As a parent and holiday traveler myself, here are some tips that would help you earn my click:

1.) Specific ad titles – If I’m searching for “Bob the Builder” toys and I’m presented with a string of ads with generalized references like “great toys for boys” or “building/construction toys”, I’m going to scan right over them and stop at the one that says “Bob the Builder Toys”. The advertiser who understands that I’m looking for something very specific and is able to show me that they have what I’m looking for is going to be the one to earn my attention. If you haven’t already been using dynamic text in your ads, that can be a great way to ensure that your ad titles are as specific as possible. For more information on implementing dynamic text in your holiday ads, visit Lara Hanif’s post: Customizing Your Holiday Ads with adCenter Dynamic Text

2.) Holiday perks – Provided your ad has caught my attention with a specific title, if your ad copy contains offers of “Free Shipping”, “Overnight Delivery”, “Lowest Price Guarantee” or “Free Gift Wrapping”, there’s a really good chance that I’m going to be enticed enough to click on your ad and visit your web site. It’s a lot easier to be a bargain shopper when you don’t have to traipse around from store to store looking for the best deal. If you tell me right in your ad that you’re offering a great deal by way of one of these types of perks, the chances of my clicking on your ad to see for myself go up exponentially. For more specific info on making your ads as effective as possible, visit Shefali Singla’s post, Constructing an Effective Call to Action for Your Ad Copy.

3.) Good positioning (competitive bids) – If I don’t see your ad, I’m not going to click on it… it’s that simple. Time is a precious commodity as it is; it becomes even more so during the holiday season as my “to do” list grows just as quickly as my son’s list for Santa does. I’m not going to spend a lot of time clicking through search results pages; if I don’t see your ad on the first page, I’m probably not going to see it at all. As the holidays approach, you may find your position slipping as competition increases for your keywords. Make sure you’re staying on top of your adCenter reports to monitor your position for your best-performing keywords – if you find you’re in danger of slipping off of that first results page, increase your bids to remain competitive. You’ll find more helpful campaign optimization tips by looking over another post by Shefali, Campaign Optimization Quick Reference Guide.

4.) Comprehensive keyword lists – When shopping for the holidays, many times I don’t have a specific item or brand in mind, but I’ll have an idea of what I want and will search on general terms to see if they’ll lead me to something specific that catches my eye. As there are a lot of these types of searches during the holiday season, it’s absolutely crucial to have a fully fleshed out, robust keyword list that covers as many variations on your target terms as possible. This is especially true when it comes to advertising for toys/games and travel; the seasonal holiday spike should make having your campaigns firing on all cylinders a top priority.

For those advertisers who specialize in toys/games and travel, our partners in Media Analytics Services have put together a couple of downloadable keyword lists to help ensure you’re getting adequate keyword coverage. The toys/games tab includes over 3,000 keywords, the travel one has in excess of 20,000 terms that you can leverage in your own campaigns.*

For all other advertisers with gift ideas outside of the toys/games and travel verticals, you can create your own expanded list like those included in this post with our keyword research and optimization tool: Microsoft Advertising Intelligence.

Competition is fierce for popular terms during the holiday season, so much so that you may find your advertising budget can’t reasonably compete for some of the major traffic drivers as bid prices rise with demand. By expanding your keyword list to include less competitive, but still relevant, traffic-driving terms, you’ll be better able to remain within budget while still meeting your ROI goals.

*NOTE: Do not upload any of the items in these attachments without first reviewing each of them to ensure bid prices meet your needs and that all keywords are relevant to your web site’s offerings! Doing so could result in premature budget expiration, editorial disapprovals and/or a poor experience for both you and your disappointed customer.

'Tis the Season for Content Ads (US)

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:07:00 GMT

The other day my husband and I visited our local home improvement superstore and were greeted at the door by a rather large and impressive display full of snowmen, Santas and sleigh bells. That's right, it's official. the holiday shopping season is upon us! If you haven't already started to prepare your campaigns for this seasonal spike in traffic, now's the time to do it.

At the start of this month I wrote a post called "Bing on the Holiday Shopping Season: 3 Tips to Improve ROI in adCenter". Continuing with the theme of helping you prepare for the online holiday shopping season, I wanted to call your attention to Microsoft Content Ads (for US advertisers only at this time).

If you don't already have content ads included in your search marketing mix, you could be losing out on an opportunity to gain valuable exposure to a highly engaged audience. This is especially true during the holiday shopping season as content ad partner sites like MSN, Rodale and iVillage all tailor their content to the holiday season. No doubt you've seen articles with titles like "The Ultimate Electronics Gift Guide" or "Holiday Gifts He'll/She'll Love" during previous holiday seasons. If you have a product or service that people seek out during the holidays, there's a good chance there will be articles written that your keywords will apply to.

Content ads are similar to search ads in that you're bidding on relevant keywords, but instead of these keywords being contained in search queries where users are actively looking for them, they're contained in the text of an online article that's related to your keywords. Here's a quick look at how the two compare:

To help you learn more about best practices, including finding the right keywords, creating enticing ads and more, be sure to visit Kris Clegg's post, Tips and Tricks for Creating Content Ad Campaigns in adCenter.

Bing On the Holiday Shopping Season: 3 Tips to Improve ROI in adCenter

Tina Kelleher - MSFT — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:59:00 GMT

This morning as I hopped into my trusty Subaru Outback to head in to the office, I noticed the car’s external temperature read out was 52 degrees, quite a bit chillier than it’s been on recent mornings. While it never really gets frigid out here in the Pacific Northwest – I’m from New England (natives to this region don’t know what winter is!) – the onset of fall is just as noticeable here as it is in other temperate areas of the country. As I considered going back into the house to grab the new Red Sox sweatshirt my husband brought back for me from the “boys night out” at Fenway Park during our recent trip back east, it occurred to me that not only does September bring with it the first official day of autumn, it also marks the start of the holiday shopping season, both off and online (…and yes, that’s a completely logical jump for me as our holidays are typically peppered with Red Sox-related gifts).

While there are many shoppers who prefer the hustle and bustle of crowded malls, boutiques and specialty shops, there are many others who, like yours truly, don’t see a need to battle the congested traffic, elusive parking spots and long lines that accompany the average holiday shopping excursion. Why would I put myself through all that when I can run a few quick searches on Bing and be done with the purchase process in a few quick clicks? Call me new-fangled (as opposed to old-fashioned), but with a three-year old little boy at home, I’ve got much better ways to spend my spare time.

If you haven’t already started to put a critical eye to your adCenter campaigns in preparation for seasonal spike in traffic that comes with the holidays, now is the time to start. You’ll find some guidance on things you can do to get ready in the post I wrote around this time last year, Tips on Preparing Your SEM Campaigns for the Online Holiday Shopping Season.

This year, I’m going to address a few things you can do to maximize your return on investment (ROI):

1.) Analyze Your Data

If you’re not already running and reviewing regular reports in adCenter (click on the “Reports” tab along the blue bar), you’re missing out on valuable insights that can help you make the most of your SEM advertising dollars. Perhaps your reports will show that you could be shifting dollars from a poor performing campaign to one that’s going into budget pause on a regular basis? Maybe you should consider targeting a certain time of day that’s bringing in the most conversions (see #3 below)? Are your bids too low to place your ads within the top 5 positions? There’s a ton of information you can glean from paying attention to your performance reports. For detailed information on how to run reports and what to look for, check out Justin Vanning’s posts, Introduction to adCenter Reporting and Help Improve Your adCenter Campaign Performance with adCenter Reports.

2.) Consider a Search/Display Marketing Mix

Radio spots, billboards, TV commercials, magazine ads… every interaction you have with a brand forms a link in the chain of marketing exposure. Search engine marketing, while in and of itself is highly targeted and efficient in comparison to traditional media, is not a silver bullet solution. Savvy marketers know that concentrating on just one form of advertising can significantly reduce the potential of your message, and your product, reaching the masses. That still holds true for SEM, even with its broad reach and targeted exposure. For more information, visit Nick Drew’s post: Search & Display - Research That Proves Multi-Format Campaigns Add Value.

3.) Enable Conversion Tracking

If you have a site where a potential customer could encounter a confirmation page, that is, a page where you’re confirming that their purchase is complete or that their name has been added to your newsletter mailing list or any other action that acknowledges you received and are processing their request, you can enable conversion tracking in your adCenter campaigns. Conversion tracking involves embedding a tracking code on the back end of your web site (typically on the confirmation page) so that when a customer who arrives at your site by clicking on your adCenter ad reaches that page, a ping will be sent back to adCenter and will appear in your conversion tracking data. If you have conversion tracking enabled, you can leverage this data to determine which of your keywords and ads are bringing in the most sales, newsletter signups, etc. Armed with this valuable information, you can expand on those high-performers with Microsoft Advertising Intelligence in the hopes of creating new avenues that will help drive traffic to your site. For more information and step-by-step instructions on enabling conversion tracking, visit Brendan Kitts’ post: adCenter Announces New Conversion Tracking Options.

A quick search on the Community site for “ROI” returned this list of posts that may be a great resource if you’re looking for more tips, tricks and strategies to get the most bang for your adCenter buck as you ramp your campaigns up for the busy holiday shopping season. And while we’re on the subject of ROI, I thought I’d also share this article from MediaPost, Study: Bing Shows Signs of Positive ROI for Marketers.

If you have any holiday-specific pointers you’d like to share with your fellow adCenter Advertiser Community members, be sure to stop by and visit us in the forums.