Tag: Bing

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Skype Is Coming Soon to Your Outloook.com Account

My office assistant works remotely and he and I manage our work together through a calendar in Outlook.com, Sky Drive, and Skype. I am excited that soon Microsoft will integrate Skype into Outlook.com making it easier for us to do business.

My son is my assistant and when he returned to college three hours north of us we needed a way to stay in touch with tasking and to effectively manage files we both work on. Plus we found out that his cell phone doesn’t work great up in the mountainous Frostburg area. In preparation for him leaving we tried all types of applications to stay in touch. We settled on the ease of use of Outlook.com and Skype.

For over a year Microsoft has promised to include Skype in its set of online tools. Right now Skype is available in Outlook.com in the UK and the recent announcement states that Skype will be available for USA users in summer 2013.  When it’s available you’ll need to download a browser plug-in, but one will be available for Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox.

To access the new feature you’ll simply click an new icon near a contact, in an instant message, or in an email. This new integration will make Outlook.com a terrific tool for business and personal use. I’ll let you know when I see this appear in my own account, but for now, just know it is coming and something to definitely consider checking out.

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Structuring Your Account to Use Dynamic Text – Part II

Continued from Monday.

  • I am very careful in crafting my ad text so that when the dynamic keyword or phrase is inserted it makes sense to a reader. This is why my keyword trigger lists are small and concise and include a desired reader action such as buy, order, or purchase in the phrase. I will not duplicate these action words in my ad text; rather let the keyword phrase contain them.
  • Bing Ads has recently added some nice new capitalization options that you may not be aware of when it comes to dynamic text use. Here are some examples that now allow you to have total control over how your dynamic text appears in your ad’s title and description. Using the keyword phrase buy roses as an example:
  • {KeyWord} translates into Buy Roses (note the caps on B and R)
  • {keyword} translates into buy roses (note all lower case)
  • {Keyword} translates into Buy roses (note the caps on the B and lower case on the r)
  • There are even options for All Caps where appropriate based on how you capitalize the keyword contained within the brackets. For all examples, please visit the ‘How to use dynamic text to insert keywords in ads’ article to see all examples and uses.
  • Did you know that Bing Ads allows you to use one keyword in an ad that is all caps? So my dynamic text for Buy ROSES would be installed in the account as {KeyWORD:Buy ROSES}. Note the all caps on the word I want to be in all caps in the ad text. If I wanted BUY Roses, I would enter in {KEYWord:BUY Roses} instead. Be aware that excessive use of capitalization is not allowed. Check the editorial style guidelines here.
  • Where possible, but not always, I use {param1} insertion for unique URLs by keyword, and sometimes even {param2} and {param3} for promotional discount text by item. Read more about how to use the different forms of dynamic text here.
  • I always include default text when I am doing dynamic text insertion. For a keyword, use this format: {KeyWord:Buy Roses} note the colon with no space and then the default text capitalized the way I want it to appear. Bing Ads will automatically show your default ad text when you exceed your character count with a keyword phrase you had wanted inserted.

I have personally found that the click through rate is higher on ads where I am using dynamic text insertion and in many cases the conversion rate will be higher as well. If you haven’t tried using dynamic text in your Bing Ads program, now’s the time to do a little testing by creating a small ad group. Use your top converting keywords crafted into meaningful phrases for your program to test if you can boost conversions even more by using keyword and phrase insertion. Remember Bing Ads will bold this special text item when it is inserted into your ad when your phrase matches a search query – drawing the reader’s eye right to your ad!

If you need a Bing Ads savvy account manager, please visit our Bing Ads services page to find out more about how we can help you.

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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.