Google Ads, the dominant force in the advertising world, is undoubtedly the most recognized and widely used advertising platform—yet its competitors are also striving to expand their market shares with their own strengths. One of the standout players in this space is Bing Ads. Over the years, Bing Ads has successfully increased its market share and has gained prominence through features such as UET and Goal (Objective) tracking.
If you’re considering entering the dynamic world of advertising with Bing Ads, this article will provide you with a wealth of useful information.
Among the leading platforms, a common objective is to enable advertisers to reach their target audiences more accurately, improve conversion rates, and efficiently utilize their advertising budgets. However, in terms of performance, the success of advertising campaigns can vary significantly depending on the platform and industry. This highlights that selecting the most suitable advertising platform for a specific target audience should be a key consideration.
Bing Ads is a service that allows advertisers to publish ads on Microsoft’s search engine, Bing. Bing Ads offers businesses across various industries the opportunity to conduct marketing and advertising through search networks, visual advertising, and other advertising models1 2.
Bing Ads possesses several key features that differentiate it from other advertising platforms. These features include:
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Lower competition: Bing Ads faces lower competition compared to other major advertising platforms such as Google Ads. This means lower advertising costs and higher conversion rates even with fewer clicks.
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Demographic targeting: Bing Ads offers a more advanced demographic targeting option compared to other platforms. Advertisers can target based on characteristics such as age, gender, income, and education level.
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Lower-cost keywords: Keyword costs on Bing Ads are lower than those on other major platforms such as Google Ads. This enables more efficient use of advertising budgets.
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Bing Search Network: Bing Ads runs on Bing’s search engine, which is owned by Microsoft. Advertisers on the Bing Search Network face less competition compared to advertisers on the Google Search Network.
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Integration: Bing Ads integrates with other Microsoft products. Tools such as Microsoft Advertising Intelligence, Excel, and Power BI help in better managing and improving the performance of Bing Ads campaigns.
These features differentiate Bing Ads from other advertising platforms and influence advertisers to prefer using Bing Ads. Bing Ads campaign performance is measured through UET and Goal definitions.
What is UET?
UET (Universal Event Tracking) is a Bing Ads feature and a unique identifier used to measure and optimize ad campaign performance3. This identifier is referred to as the Tag ID. UET enables you to track and monitor visitor behavior on your website. Additionally, UET is required for goal tracking. When a goal is created, the associated UET can be selected.
Conversion data is grouped under unique UET (Universal Event Tracking) definitions. Multiple UET definitions can be created in a Bing Ads account for different domain names or different goals.
This enables measuring the number of users who performed specific actions and which campaigns triggered those actions. For example, a specific e-commerce action such as a user purchasing a product on your website, form submissions, page views, or actions by domain or action can be separately evaluated. This allows for more efficient use of ad budget and improves conversion rates and campaign performance.
The UET tag or Google Tag Manager (GTM) tag can be added.
If added via Google Tag Manager, access to the corresponding container must be granted.
After access is granted, Bing scans the tags within the Bing container and adds the appropriate Bing Ads tags.
However, verifying the relevant tags, associated triggers, and parameters through both Google Tag Manager - Preview Mode and UET Tag Helper will be appropriate4.
What Is a Goal?
In Bing Ads, a Goal (target) is a conversion tracking tag used to measure the success of a campaign.
Goals consist of a sequence of actions required to reach a specific target, initiated through ad campaigns. For example, actions such as purchasing a product, visiting a thank-you page, or completing a form can be used to define a goal. Goals help you measure the performance of your campaigns and assist in optimizing them when needed5.
Bing Ads offers separate goal types for offline, mobile app, and website campaigns. Within the scope of this article, the website goal types I’ve selected include sales, form interactions & lead collection, and other categories.
How Is UET and Goal Setup Performed?
Setting up UET and Goals in Bing Ads is quite straightforward. First, you must log in to your Bing Ads account, and then select Conversion Tracking from the Tools menu6 5. Here, you can create new UET and Goals, as well as manage existing ones.
The UET setup requires adding a JavaScript snippet. This snippet should be included on all pages of your website and must be matched with the UET code you created in your Bing Ads account. The UET code will track visitor behavior on your website.
The Goal setup can be performed only after confirming that the UET code is functioning correctly. During the Goal setup, you can define the required actions and targets. The goal definition is accomplished using event and page-level information.
Bing goal definitions are similar to Universal Analytics goal definitions. A goal must be associated with a page or event in order to be included in a data stream.
Goals associated with a page can be defined as a goal URL and an event. When using a goal URL, URL patterns such as starts with, contains, etc. can be associated.
For goals associated with events, the event category, action/interaction, label, and value fields are used for rule definitions.
When using events, the conditions specified for goal tracking must be met. Otherwise, the associated goal will not be counted.
Goals create conversion values through display and value metrics. In order for a goal to be designated as a conversion, the “Include in ‘Conversions’” option must be enabled.
If the “Include in ‘Conversions’” option is not enabled, even if the goal is counted, it will not appear in the campaign’s conversion column. Goals not marked as conversions are not included in campaign performance measurements.
An event can be associated with a page load or an in-page action (inline action).
The JavaScript snippet sent after the relevant selection can be directly or via Clarity linked to the website.
When the goal setup is performed using Google Tag Manager, Bing Ads can assist in creating the necessary tags. Additionally, if the goal is set up, the Microsoft Advertising Universal Event Tracking template can be used similarly to Bing Ads.
After both UET and goal setup are completed, campaign performance can be monitored and optimized as needed. This enables the advertising budget to be used more efficiently and conversion rates to be improved.
Verification of UET and Goals
For UET and goals to be processed, the data flow must occur smoothly and correctly. A newly created UET tag and goal will not be verified if there is no data flow. Verification of UET and goals is particularly important in terms of the performance of advertising campaigns in Bing Ads. A smooth and correct data flow is required for UET and goal processing.
If data flow is present but UET and/or goals are not verified, it is appropriate to review the relevant UET trigger and goal rules. In the case where UET is verified but the goal is not, the relevant goal network signals and the UET Tag Helper should additionally be reviewed.
The data flow for UET tags can be examined. UET tag page values under the UET ID can be viewed when clicked, and the data sent to that ID can be viewed in detail and exported in CSV format.
If the event definition for the relevant UET includes parameters, those parameters can be reviewed under the “Parameters Received” column. This data flow can be used as a basis when setting up a goal.
The UET data flow exported for a purchase event is shown below.
Event Detail Report: 03/14/2023 - 03/27/2023
Event Type: purchase
Last Received: 03/27/2023 11:12:00
Event Summary:
Date,Events Received
03/24/2023,0
03/25/2023,0
03/26/2023,10
03/27/2023,10
Event Details:
Event Date,Event Time,URL,Parameter received,Parameter value
03/27/2023,11:12:00,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,11:12:00,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,11:12:00,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,11:12:00,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200
03/27/2023,10:56:27,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,10:56:27,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,10:56:27,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,10:56:27,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200
03/27/2023,10:08:50,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,10:08:50,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,10:08:50,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,10:08:50,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200
03/27/2023,09:57:02,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,09:57:02,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,09:57:02,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,09:57:02,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200
03/27/2023,09:53:24,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,09:53:24,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,09:53:24,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,09:53:24,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200
The Event Details section contains parameters related to the goal.
In Summary
In summary, Bing Ads offers many features that differentiate it from other major advertising platforms. Demographic targeting options, lower-cost keywords, low competition, and integration advantages make Bing Ads more effective and advantageous compared to other platforms.
Proper configuration of UET and goals is crucial for improving ad campaign performance. Correctly verifying these elements ensures campaigns reach the intended audience and achieve higher conversion rates.
Bing Ads is a platform equipped with the tools and features necessary for managing advertising campaigns. Advertisers can use this platform to enhance the performance of their campaigns, reach their target audiences more effectively, and contribute to the growth of their businesses.
*[UET]: Universal Event Tracking