7 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
7 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Bing Performance Estimates vs Impressions

by nrh
6 replies
  • PPC/SEM
    • |
Hi there,

I'm new to PPC marketing and I've setup a few campaigns with Bing Ads following advices given by solarwarrior. After a few failed tries I've been able to find keywords related to my product's niche with a decent CPC however...

I realized my impressions were pretty low compared to what I see in the Keyword Planner (Traffic & Costs estimates). By pretty low I mean that I only get 1-5% of what is expected according to the planner. In addition, my average position (10-12) is way higher than predicted (4-6).

Is there any reason for this?



Regards,


More details below if it can influence your answers.
  • My account is quite new (a bit less than a week)
  • I used a voucher (I made a small payment with my credit card though)
  • My CTR is OK (slightly better than estimates)
  • I made sure the match type used by the keyword tool and in my ads were the same (phrase both)
  • I have no quality score yet for my 2nd campaign (the 1st one was a total failure and I stopped it the first day).
  • There is no option in the keyword tool to specify age groups or schedules but my settings are not too tight for my campaigns (showing ads 20 hours a day & targeting almost all age groups)
  • Target locations in keyword planner and in my campaign are the same.
  • I tried raising my bid (a lot) on my first campaign to test the water (with some success) but the number of impression was still nowhere near the volume estimated by the keyword tool).
#bing #estimates #impressions #performance
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi nrh,

    Your Max CPC bids are set too low if your are average position is 10-12. You need to increase you bid to get better ad positions or you are not going to see many ad impressions.

    Another potential cause of fewer impressions than expected could be a maximum daily budget that is set too low. The Ad platform will throttle back your ad impressions if your daily ad spend budget limit is set too low. Try temporarily increasing the daily budget limit significantly to see if you get more impressions.
    Signature

    * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
    *     Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10960776].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author nrh
    Hey Don,

    Thanks for the reply.

    I'll try increasing my daily limit as you suggested and see if it gets better. I'm far from reaching my budget right now though. I spent 0.44$ today on my campaign that has a 10$ daily limit.

    About the max CPC... I doubt this is the problem for two reasons.
    • I placed my bid according to estimates given by Bing Keyword Tool
    • In my other campaign, the results were not that significant when I drastically increased my bid.

    Here's a concrete example of massive difference between my results and the estimates... Today I went for a 0.45$ bid on "weight loss diet" (phrase match - search only) in 4 countries (USA, Canada, UK, Australia). According to the Keyword Planner I should have 3.87K - 5.24K impressions a week (which means 500 a day minimum). I got only 1 impression for this keyword. I've attached a screenshot of the planner below.

    Regards,
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10961441].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by nrh View Post

      By pretty low I mean that I only get 1-5% of what is expected according to the planner. In addition, my average position (10-12) is way higher than predicted (4-6).

      Is there any reason for this?
      Originally Posted by nrh View Post

      Hey Don,

      Thanks for the reply.

      I'll try increasing my daily limit as you suggested and see if it gets better. I'm far from reaching my budget right now though. I spent 0.44$ today on my campaign that has a 10$ daily limit.

      About the max CPC... I doubt this is the problem for two reasons.
      • I placed my bid according to estimates given by Bing Keyword Tool
      • In my other campaign, the results were not that significant when I drastically increased my bid.

      Here's a concrete example of massive difference between my results and the estimates... Today I went for a 0.45$ bid on "weight loss diet" (phrase match - search only) in 4 countries (USA, Canada, UK, Australia). According to the Keyword Planner I should have 3.87K - 5.24K impressions a week (which means 500 a day minimum). I got only 1 impression for this keyword. I've attached a screenshot of the planner below.

      Regards,
      Hi nrh,

      Estimates are just that, estimates.

      Quality scores vary for each advertiser, so your actual performance will vary a great deal based on your ad rank score. Ad rank scores are based on a product of your bid, multiplied by your own individual Quality Score.

      Your original post indicated that your ad positions are very poor, so you should expect to receive a very tiny share of the available ad impressions, which is, in fact, exactly what you are seeing. It is a very straight forward case of your bids being way too low to get all available impressions.

      You are getting a tiny share of the available ad impressions due to poor ad position caused by a very low ad rank score. This is how the ad auction is suppose to work.

      You can improve your ad rank score by increasing your bid, in the short run, as well as improving your Quality Scores in the long run.

      Do not rely on the estimates tool because it is never going to be accurate for an individual advertiser, it is just useful in comparing the potential of one keyword verses another. It's not likely to reflect what you can expect for you own personal campaigns because there are too many variable that are not available to the estimate tool.

      Your actual campaign data is the only thing you should be concerned with once you launch your campaigns. Forget about the estimates after you launch a campaign, rely on actual real data as soon as you can get it.

      Also, another thing you should be aware of is that traffic in Bing is almost never consitent. It tends to come in bursts, you might have almost no impression for a few days then suddenly get slammed with 20 times the traffic in a single day. You can rarely rely on a few days of data in Bing, you might need to collect data for weeks before you get enough to indicate a true long term average.

      HTH,

      Don Burk
      Signature

      * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
      *       Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10961518].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author nrh
        Hi Don,

        Thanks for the detailed information it's really appreciated.

        Your actual campaign data is the only thing you should be concerned with once you launch your campaigns. Forget about the estimates after you launch a campaign, rely on actual real data as soon as you can get it.
        I can't agree more. I'll see what can be done from this information to improve my campaign.

        traffic in Bing is almost never consistent. It tends to come in bursts, you might have almost no impression for a few days then suddenly get slammed with 20 times the traffic in a single day.
        Glad to ear it. It gives me some hope I could eventually get decent traffic for low CPC. Also, I'm inclined to believe that this time of the year may be prone to lower search volume in the niche I'm targeting.

        Best regards,
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10961563].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    Also Bing isn't too strict on the number and types of keywords you can use so I would suggest using a tool like Keyword Researcher to find around 200-400 relevant keywords to your niche.

    As long as they are relevant to your ad and website, you can add them to Bing Ads and you will see the impressions and clicks shoot up.

    I love Bing because they have sent me quality leads and their prices aren't crazy like Google.
    Signature

    >>>Get your websites ACTUALLY ranked by checking these out: Quantum SEO Labs, Home Page Link Building & SERP Ability. Want to get rid of negative listings? Check out Reputation Enhancer.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10961533].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author nrh
      Originally Posted by YasirYar View Post

      Also Bing isn't too strict on the number and types of keywords you can use so I would suggest using a tool like Keyword Researcher to find around 200-400 relevant keywords to your niche.

      As long as they are relevant to your ad and website, you can add them to Bing Ads and you will see the impressions and clicks shoot up.

      I love Bing because they have sent me quality leads and their prices aren't crazy like Google.
      Hi Yasir,

      Thanks for the input.

      I didn't go for massive amount of keywords since most information I'd read recommended the opposite. I was tempted to try when I saw no volume though.

      I'm curious about the "quality leads" vs "prices are not crazy like Google"... From the results I've obtained I ended up asking myself if promoting "low priced" products (in the 30-50 USD range) was viable (even on bing). I aware I'm a beginner, but I see so many niches with a SalePrice/CPC ratio so low that I don't understand how it could be profitable... When you said Bing worked for you, is it only for high price tag products?

      Regards,
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10961573].message }}

Trending Topics