Content Ads - Training

With Bing Ads, you get two ways to place and distribute advertisements online:  search ads and content ads.  Search ads display when a customer’s input matches an ad’s keyword.  Content ads display on webpages that have content related to your product or service.  For example, if a webpage features content about canoeing, your ads about canoeing trips or supplies can be displayed on that page.

After reading this training, you will understand how to:

• Explain the benefits of Bing Ads content ads.
• Describe how content ads work.
• Set up content ads using keyword bids.
• Set up content ads using placement bids.

Benefits
Content ads are beneficial to your advertising strategy because they offer more flexibility and broader reach.  Bing Ads content ads display on websites owned by Microsoft, Yahoo!, or syndicated partners.  This means your content ads are seen by an audience that is already viewing content related to your product or service. 

Regional considerations
Currently, content ads are only available to advertisers who run campaigns in the United States, Canada, and Latin America.  In the United States and Canada only, content ads can be displayed on:

• MSN webpages, such as Healthy Living, Money, and Travel.
• NBC Universal, such as NBC.com and Bravotv.com.
• Syndication partners, such as The Wall Street Journal and ABC.
• Yahoo! webpages, such as yahoo news, yahoo finance, yahoo movies, and yahoo autos.
• Yahoo! syndication partners, such as MTV,VH1, and WebMD.

In Latin America, content ads can only be displayed on:

• Yahoo! webpages, such as yahoo news, yahoo finance, yahoo movies, and yahoo autos.

However, advertisers from around the world can use content ads to help add traffic to their U.S. and Canada campaigns.

How content ads work
Content ads work in one of two ways based on the way you choose to bid for the ad group.  If you bid on keywords, the keywords in your list are compared to the keywords associated with the content pages across the Bing Ads content network.  Your content ads are then displayed on relevant pages.

If you bid on placements, your ads are displayed on the specific websites that you select.  Bidding on placements can require more preparation, but it allows you to pinpoint exactly where your ads will display.  What if you want a bigger range of content?  You could choose the Microsoft Media Network and syndicated partner sites, which would eliminate the tedium of selecting individual websites or keywords. Then, to hone it down, you could narrow your audience through targeting and website exclusions.

You can also bid on any website within the content network, as well as specific ad placements within those sites.  When creating your strategy, remember that content ads are priced using the cost-per-click method, so your campaign budget is charged each time a potential customer clicks your ad.  Also, after you create your ad group and assign it as either a keyword bid or placement bid, you can’t change it. 

How to set up a keyword bid type
To set up a keyword bid type, you must first create a new ad group.  Be sure to choose Keywords in the Bid type drop-down menu and specify that your keywords are Content in the Type drop-down menus. 
 

Once you save the ad group, additional settings — Bid, targeting, and Advance settings — appear at the bottom of the screen.  On this page, enter a default search network bid, and a default content network bid.  These bids apply to all keywords in the ad group, but you can change them later.

By default, Bing Ads distributes your ads to both the search and content networks.  However, under Advanced settings, you can modify the ad distribution.  Save your ad group and your ads will be displayed on relevant pages within the content network.

Tip:  Always keep your content campaigns separate from your search campaigns because they use different success metrics and you’ll want to maintain clean reports.

How to set up a placement bid type
To set up a placement bid type, create an ad group and ads.  In Choose your placements, click the Bid Type drop-down menu and select Placements.  When you make this selection, two new tabs appear: Networks and Websites.  On these tabs, specify the network websites or specific websites on which you’d like to bid.  In this example, the entire Microsoft Media Network is selected.

 

Then, if you’d like to see what placements are available for the network or websites you’ve chosen, click View available placements to see a complete list of ad types and sizes that can run on your chosen sites.  Click Save and your ad group page opens.  On the Site placements tab, edit the Current bid column to enter a bid that will compete against other advertisers’ keyword and website bids. 

 

Remember, once the ad group is saved, you cannot change the bid type.  However, you can modify many of the ad group settings, as well as the keyword or website bids at any time.

Just select the ad group and choose one of the tabs: Ads, Site Placements, Settings, or Opportunities.  If you’ve chosen the keyword bid type, you can modify your ad distribution options by clicking the Settings tab and adjusting the ad distribution settings.  If using the content bid type, you can exclude a website from your content ads by entering the URL. 
 

When you’re finished, click Save.  Remember, you can also apply website exclusions at the campaign level.  Also, it’s good practice to run website placement reports on a regular basis to identify sites that do not perform well. 

Keyword estimation
U.S. customers can get keyword or website bid suggestions and performance estimates for their content ads.  From the Keywords page, select one or more keywords.  Then, click the Estimation drop-down.

To automatically replace each current keyword or website bid with a bid that is estimated to help boost your ad to the best position, click Best position estimation.  You can also manually update your bids by entering new bids into the Current bid column.  As you experiment with bids, you can always revert to the ad-group level bid.

Summary
Content ads can be a powerful addition to your campaign strategy.  By displaying your ads next to web content that relates to your product or service, you broaden your segment of target customers.  With content ads, you reach out to people who may be interested in knowing about your product, but are not yet actively searching for it.  As you create your campaign strategy, remember these key points about content ads.

Content ads are valuable because they can help:

• Boost brand exposure to a new segment.
• Increase conversions.
• Enhance your ad campaigns.

Thank you for reading this training on Content Ads. Continue training here or move onto the exam to become accredited.

 

Please note all features in this training may not be available in your market.