PPC DOUBLE SERVING WITH BING

December 18, 2013

Are Top Ad Spots Being Served Up Twice?

Just the other day, I read an interesting article from Ginny Marvin via PPC double serving in Search Engine Land. However, I just noticed something with our PPC campaign on Bing (for our RentalHomes.com brand) that I hadn’t seen elsewhere, so I thought I would share. It appears that Bing is either testing or has made a switch that if your ad is appearing in either the first or second ad slot, you are also served up at the bottom of the page. In essence, they are double-serving your ad to the web searcher.

From a monetization perspective, it makes sense for Bing. As an advertiser in positions #1 or #2, we’re paying more for a click than the traditional person who is appearing on the right side or at the bottom. My assumption is that whether a visitor clicks on the top or the bottom ad, we are paying as though we are in position #1. The advertisers who are bidding to the bottom are also less relevant to the searcher (more often than not), so a typical searcher may even deem the results to be more relevant to their needs, so Bing wins on all accounts

It is always interesting to see how the search networks are displaying your advertising and see their motivations.

In case Bing changes things, here is a screen grab.