Category: Bing

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Structuring Your Account to Use Dynamic Text – Part I

It is a known fact that using dynamic text in your ad program will increase the click through rate and may even increase conversions. A crucial step for success is to properly structure your Bing Ads account to make dynamic text work for you. More often than not, a haphazard use of dynamic text may actually increase impressions without an increase in clicks and can potentially lower your program’s click through rate (CTR). By carefully structuring your account to use dynamic text properly you can increase CTR and improve conversions all at the same time.

Here’s what I do when using dynamic text in a Bing Ads account for best results:

  1. I typically do not add dynamic text insertion ad groups until I have an idea of keywords that generate leads in an account. I wait to set up a dynamic text ad group as it does take time both in creating a keyword list that is workable and time to create ad text that makes sense with the dynamic word or phrase insertion. I want to know what will be workable before I invest the time in set up. Plus, by waiting, I can pick specific high performance keywords or create break out programs based on past performance. I will typically do dynamic text programs in the first thirty days of account creation.
  2. I usually create small ad groups with a very small list of broad and phrase matched keywords when I am creating a program where I will use dynamic text insertion. Sometimes, my program may have only 10 to 20 keywords as I am doing testing. If I am promoting products for a florist, I would not use general keywords such as roses or daffodils, but rather “buy roses”; “buy daffodils” as my keywords and even variations in the same ad group with “purchase” and “order” in addition to “buy”. I may use broad match or just start out with phrase match keywords. The actual match types I will use will be based on what has happened in the rest of the account based on ad spend per day, cost per click, and number of impressions.

Come back to read the rest of the post on Wednesday.

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Why I Am Watching Bing Ads for My Clients

Nancy McCord is an Accredited Bing Ads Professional.

I just asked all the time what are you watching, what’s new and exciting, what trends to you see happening? This week I will be writing three blog posts about what I’m watching and why. Today’s post is about why I am watching Bing Ads.

First, I think there is real and sometimes hidden potential for clients to advertise on Bing Ads. I very much like the platform and am using it already for my own advertising and a number of key clients.

Why Do I Like Bing Ads?

1. The system is easy to use and very much like AdWords. Although the traffic overall is smaller quality conversions happen and typically at a lower cost than on Google AdWords.

2. I like the versatility of the dynamic variables. You can create several dynamic insertion variables not just keyword insertion as at AdWords. With Bing you can dynamically add variables by the keyword for promotions and URLs.

3. The quality of the content network is excellent. There is not the volume of low traffic sites as at AdWords. In the content network at Bing, you’ll get access to really top notch quality sites in the Microsoft, MSN and Yahoo parent network. In fact for clients typically using Bing Ads I will enable the ads to show in the content network unlike my typical protocol in AdWords.

4. Bing Ads tells me that call tracking is coming. Since Bing bought Skype I have been expecting to see the addition of click to call in ads and Bing Ads tells me that this is coming soon for US clients. Currently Bing is testing ad calling in the UK and areas of Europe. We’ve asked to be early embracers of this new technology for our clients.

Why am I watching Bing Ads – it’s the value and quality of the platform. If you want to get involved with Bing Ads, I invite you to visit our Bing Ads services page to find out more about how we can help you.

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The New Face of SEO Has Three Sides

If you have a website, are a webmaster, or are simply tired of paying per click and want to improve your organic search placement, you’ve got a very hard job ahead of you now that Google has shifted its racking and stacking algorithm that determines who is in what position.

SEO as we’ve known it before is dying. Although for now, there are some strategies that still seem to work, Google is effectively and actively targeting them one by one with filters in their index. This is very bad news for sites that have leaned heavily in code optimization and keyword density for organic placement, but good news for those that have built authority content-rich websites.

I feel that the new face of SEO has a three pronged focus: content, social media, and blogging.

Content

There is a new focus on having quality unique content on your website. Content that is more than a brochure about your services; rather content that explains the why and importance in the broader scheme of what you do. Content you create should be natural and readable. Mention the phrase you want to place for two times on the page and then use synonyms in a natural way. This means that pages should be smaller and really no more than 350 to 400 words long.

Social Media

There is no faster way to build links, share information, and build a community than to participate in social media. Specifically I mean Twitter. It is very important to understand that although there has been a huge push to move businesses into Facebook, Google does not index Facebook updates, but it does index Twitter updates. If you have to choose a place to invest your time and money right now, choose Twitter.

Blogging

Blogging is an easy way to not only build fresh content for your website, improve stickiness, but to build inbound links to your website and on-domain blog in a slow natural way – a way that Google likes. It is not unusual for a website to have several thousand inbound links to blog content after blogging just a year or so.

There are several very important things to remember when you are setting up a blog. Make sure your blog is installed on the same server and using the same domain name as your website. Be consistent in writing to build content and make sure your content is on topic and unique.

If you are interested in having help with any of these needs that reflect the new face of SEO, I invite you to visit our company website to find out more about Twitter, blogging, and website content.

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Bing Webmaster Tools Offer Real Help for Understanding Your Website

In the last few weeks Bing has upgraded its webmaster control panel from insignificant to significant. In fact, in many ways Bing Webmaster Tools make Google Webmaster Tools appear superfluous.

In the new Bing interface here are some new things you can now do:

  • Link Explorer. You can now review backlinks for your own Bing verified site or for pages on a competing website.
  • SEO Analyzer. Get real page specific help highlighted for you with recommendations.
  • SEO Report. Bing will even create a report for you of which pages in your site need code help for better optimization.
  • Canonical Alerts. Bing will let you know if it finds a problem in your message box.
  • URL Removal tool. Don’t like a URL? Get rid of it from the Bing index tied to your site.
  • Keyword Research. Bing integrates a keyword search tool in their site helping you to focus on optimizing your website for better search terms.

Personally I find many of the tools very user friendly and helpful. I think Bing has done a wonderful job at integrating these new tools into their webmaster control panel and making them highly understandable and helpful for website owners and site webmasters.