Bing Ads has increased the amount of demographic information that they collect from their users, so that advertisers can target a narrower audience, based on things like gender and age. Bing has doubled the coverage of their demographic data, and with their new and improved targeting capabilities they hope that they will be able to offer an increased click-through rate, and also help to improve the conversion rate that advertisers see when visitors land on their site. The overall goal is to improve advertiser ROI.
Automatic Bid Adjustment
Using the Advanced Targeting section of the Bing Ads dashboard, advertisers can select specific audience segments according to device, time, range, gender and age. When someone who meets the targeting is searching, Bing Ads will automatically increase the bid for that particular search. It’s interesting to note that the Bing Ads user base skews very slightly female, and that the majority of Bing searchers are in the 35-44 age range, or older. According to Comscore, one fifth of Bing Ads viewers are 35-44, and just over one fifth are 45-54. This makes Bing a good complement to Pinterest for people who want to attract adult women. These advanced targeting options are ideal for advertisers who want to reach businesses, since they can target searches during office hours. They are also ideal for reaching parents, students, and other narrow demographics where searching habits are likely to be predictable and known to the business owner. While there will always be exceptions to standard searching habits, it is usually safe to assume that searches conducted at a specific time of day will have stronger purchase intent, and that paying more for that traffic will be worthwhile. Facebook is perhaps the best known platform for offering advanced targeting options, allowing users to reach people who like their page, and their friends, or to target by age, gender, interests, location and device. These sophisticated targeting options offer a lot of potential for improving engagement and conversion rate. Paid search targeting has traditionally been less selective – working on the assumption that the keyword alone is enough, although Google has introduced improved targeting in recent times. Bing is working towards achieving parity with Google in terms of features and functionality, and these improved bidding options will go a long way towards improving the performance of ad campaigns and making the platform more appealing to brand owners.
