New Image Extensions From Bing Ads

These New Extensions Will Get You More Bang For Your Buck

Say What?! Is it possible? Can it be true? Did Bing Ads actually come out with something useful before Google Adwords? It appears so. For years now, as I can personally recall, we have been wondering “why can’t we have an image next to our ads in the search results?”. It only seems appropriate as it would accomplish a number of different things including to help differentiate paid ads from organic. So why haven’t we seen them yet? Well it appears the wait is over… at least for Bing Ads (so I’m sure Google can’t possibly be that far behind). Now we have image extensions from Bing.

For years now, we have know that having an image next to your ad would increase your Clicks, Click Through Rate and overall attention and brand awareness. We originally found this out when they released Google Product Ads which was followed up by Bing Shopping Ads. The data showed it from the beginning that if someone was searching for a product, and we could show images of those products that the majority of those people searching were going to click on the image listing. So why has it taken so long for us to get what we’ve always wanted all these years? Whatever the reason, it’s here now… at least with Bing Ads Image Extensions. You can find the policies and guidelines for Bing Ads Image Extensions here.

Standout From the Competition With Image Extensions From Bing

As I stated earlier… images can be used to help differentiate Paid ads from Organic. You may ask “why would I want to do that?”. It’s true that there are some people out there that discriminate, or profile, paid ads as promotional or self serving, and well… they are. But not to the degree that they are meant to be misleading or irrelevant to any given search. Are there some bad apples in the bunch… sure, but for the most part we all try and play by the rules. And because of that we are always not only in competition with other “paid” advertisers, but we are also in competition with high ranking organic ads as some hold them in high regard as opposed to paid ads. So what does this have to do with Image Extensions? Image Extensions give added credibility to our paid ads that organic ads don’t have. Again… just look at what it did for Google Shopping and Bing Shopping. The more real estate you own, and the more attention you can draw to yourself the better your chances are of making that sale, or collecting that lead. You now have the ability to visually promote your business and/or products which helps increase visibility, brand awareness and ultimately traffic and sales.

I have yet to actually co
me across any of these Image Extensions while searching myself so far, but Bing shows us what they will look like in their Bing Ads Blog Article (by: Pankesh Jhaveri – Principal Program Manager @ Bing Ads) found here

… in addition to being able to have a picture with your ad now, you can also have a unique URL for each image. So you also have the ability to send visitors to the specific product page associated with your image (assuming that you have a eCommerce site that is). Bing is also continuing to experiment with different multi-image layouts including display text and descriptions. Here are a couple of the sample mock ups you can find in the article I’ve listed above:

…so 2016 is here and I’m excited. We are getting something we’ve wanted for years now from Bing and hopefully Google won’t be to far behind. Let’s get out there and experiment and see what this new feature can bring us. Please share your experiences in the comments section about the new image extensions from Bing.

Ed Z. Cehi – Senior PPC Manager