In-market audiences have been available on Bing since June 2018. It allows users to apply and bid on lists of customers who have demonstrated purchase intent signals within a category. The In-market tool helps to expand reach, gain a deeper understanding of customer segments and drive incremental sales, by showing the right offer at the right time.
The tool from Bing is similar to the Google Ads offering, but there are differences across the two engines. In this blog, I'll explore some of the differences and the performance of each engine. The examples below are taken from a travel account and sheds light on Bing’s In-market audience value.
Differences Across Engines
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No campaign level association (yet)
One main difference between the two engines is that lists can be applied / excluded on both Campaign and Ad Group level in Google, however Bing allows lists to be applied at the Ad Group level currently. This is scheduled to change in upcoming months.
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Number of lists
Bing currently has 24 main categories available in the UK, compared to 19 for Google. The majority of categories are the same across engines, with Bing adding Arts & Entertainment, Social, Health, Personal Services and Business & Industrial. However, Google has a larger volume of subcategories. Both engines are set to continue updating lists, adding more options moving forward. Bing are working towards having 263 lists across all verticals.
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Reporting
Bing's powerful analytics tools allows users to delve into the data behind the Ad Groups performance. This is available in six locations: Accounts Summary page, the Campaigns, Ad Groups, Ads, Keywords and the Ad Extension tabs on the Campaign page.
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Default bid adjustment
Bing automatically applies a 15% bid across all newly created lists, however Google bids are set to 0%. Therefore, your brand should take this into consideration if it doesn’t align with the strategy.
Performance
Comparing the performance of In-market audiences across engines on a travel account whilst using the same variables, our team noticed that our client generated stronger results in Bing.
Key points
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The volume of total impressions and clicks from In-market lists is much greater in Bing, that could be due to Bing audiences having greater reach and capturing more potential customers.
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We noticed that CTR is much higher, indicating users included in In-market audiences are more relevant to the account.
Summary
Both engines have focused on audiences as one of the main pillars of success, with each developing more options and optimisation tools. That said, Bing does provide more verticals, although it is not as detailed as the Google counterparts. It is important to note that this example is taken from the travel industry, to achieve the best results, the key is to test and optimise your campaigns as you go.
