When creating an advertisement to run on Bing there are a lot of things to consider.  Since it is a fairly small advertisement, you need to make sure every word is optimized perfectly to get the results you desire.  Many people find that even with the best of intentions, they don’t get the conversion rates they were expecting.

You can make a very attractive text ad that draws people in to click, but if they aren’t seeing what they want on the initial page, they may browse away.  This is frustrating to advertisers because they are paying for the click, but the user isn’t even staying around long enough to really see the product or service that is for sale.

Bing recommends a solution to help reduce the frequency that this occurs.  They have an option called Sitelink Extensions, which are essentially links to different pages within your site. This way, you can give your users multiple different links to click on, which will reduce the chances that they land on a page they aren’t interested in.

The sample that they gave was for a search for “holiday vacation packages.”  When you do a search for this in Bing, you’ll see that several of the ads on the page are displaying multiple links to different areas within the site.  For one of them, you will have the option to click on the main link, a link to book vacations, a link to book flights, or a link to book hotels.

As you can see, each option will give you a different area of the site so that users can get exactly where they are going more quickly.  This has been shown to help improve CTR, but also improve conversion rates dramatically.  It can also help to lower the bounce rate that your site experiences from these ads.

Adding Sitelink Extensions

If you want to add Sitelink Extensions to your ads go through to the enhanced options within your Bing dashboard and enable them.  In order for them to display, however, they will need to be approved.  To help ensure you get approved, Bing recommends you follow each of these steps (taken directly from the Bing page HERE:

1. Make sure that each Sitelink clicks through to a working URL and landing page with relevant information and price points.
2. Make sure your Sitelinks will fast-track your customers to unique points of interest that can be found on your site.
3. Do not duplicate Sitelinks; each one should lead to a different page of your site.
4. Proactively alert your account rep or the Bing Ads Support team for any potential editorial disapprovals. Examples are listed below:
   1. “Trips to Curacao” – “Curacao” might be disapproved for “alcohol” content even if your site is selling vacations to the tropical island.
   2. “Pharmacy Hours of Operation” – “Pharmacy” will be disapproved for “pharma – related terms”.
   3. “Nokia Phone Sale” – If you are a genuine reseller, your Sitelinks can still be disapproved for suspected sale of “counterfeit goods.” Make sure you proactively alert the editorial team.
5. If your site advertises products that are risky, like over-the-counter medicines or ammunition, your site domain might be disapproved and your Sitelinks will suffer the same fate. Always obeyeditorial policyso that your site can serve as much as possible during the holiday season.
6. Do not add special characters to your Sitelinks, like : ) or <3’s. These will automatically generate disapprovals for “Disallowed Special Characters”. If you are going to have an “FAQ” or “Q&A” page, make sure you follow the guidance in #4 above to alert your rep or the Support teams for allowed use of “Excessive Capitalization”.
7. In order to catch all disapprovals in theAd Extensionspectrum, check if brick & mortar addresses included in your Location Extensions are allowed. For example, if your shop is located on “Gunmetal Road” or in “Cannon Beach, Oregon.”

While the steps are not difficult, they are quite important for getting your extensions approved quickly and easily.  If you haven’t already added this feature, you may want to do it now before the holiday shopping really kicks in.  Now is the perfect time to really boost your ads to maximize your return on investment.