In a bid to capitalize on widespread discontent and outrage in the SEM community over Google AdWords enhanced campaigns, Bing today re-iterated their view that EC's are essentially a dumb move and indicated that they will not be following Google's lead as far as their product development efforts are concerned.
Bing Champions "Advertiser Choice" – Implies that Google Doesn't Care
While Bing's announcement itself is pretty straightforward, they used a pretty long 1200 word blog post to indict Google of not providing "advertiser choice".
The blog post enumerates a litany of complaints that have been leveled against Google in recent months, including the notion that:
- Bundling of tablet and desktop advertising as a single target is worrisome given that there is research that shows tablets convert better than PCs with a lower cost-per-click (CPC)
- Eliminating of mobile device targeting removes choice from sophisticated advertisers, because a mobile campaign must now always be a subset of a desktop search marketing campaign
- Losing the ability to create specific campaigns for mobile devices going forward has led to the creation of complicated and impractical workarounds by advertisers.
Bing concludes:
We're committed in giving advertisers the tools to control their spending, target the most relevant audience, and ensure they can get the best return on investment. Thus, we do not believe bundling together mobile, desktop and tablet advertising in an opaque manner is in the best interest of our customer base or the industry at large. The Bing Ads team wants to ensure you, our customers, have maximum transparency.
Bing Reminds Us that You Can Still Export Your AdWords Account to Bing
I had to laugh a bit when Google Announced enhanced campaigns on February 6 and then only 2 weeks later updated their AdWords API Terms To Comply With FTC Antitrust Settlement to allow easier exporting of AdWords Campaign data into Bing. Why?
Because with such a radical change in campaign structure, it meant that campaigns cannot be brought over to Bing if there aren't concepts and constructs that mirror those in enhanced campaigns.
Nevertheless, Bing now says they'll update their AdWords to Bing account conversion tools to ensure advertisers can continue to seamlessly transition between both products. For example, in the updated account converter which will be available in a few months, advertisers who import enhanced campaigns from AdWords, Bing will support the ability to mark ads as being mobile optimized, etc.
Kowtowing to Search Marketers Concerns a Brilliant PR Move
In a recent WordStream webinar poll of approximately 200 search marketers on March 21, 2013, AdWords enhanced campaign detractors outnumbered supporters by roughly a 5:1 ratio, when excluding those who are indifferent, as illustrated here:
It appears that Bing is piling on the band-wagon, hoping to pick up some market share among upset search marketers by providing "advertiser choice". The strategy may be working based on a sample of enthousiastic anonymous blog comments, as shown here:
Have Your Say
Does Bing's announcement to not follow Google Enhanced Campaigns make you more or less likely to advertise on Bing? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
No comments:
Post a Comment