The Bing Audience Network is Microsoft’s native advertising platform that allows advertisers to show ads on both Bing’s search engine as well as a network of partner sites across the web. The Bing Audience Network reaches over 90% of internet users in the US and provides targeted ad opportunities to engage potential customers.
How does the Bing Audience Network work?
The Bing Audience Network functions similarly to other native ad networks like Google AdSense. Advertisers can target their ads based on contextual keywords, user demographics, interests, behaviors, and locations. When a user visits a site within the Bing Audience Network, relevant ads from advertisers are shown natively within the site’s content. This provides a less disruptive ad experience for the user compared to banner ads.
For publishers, joining the Bing Audience Network allows them to monetize their sites by showing native ads to their visitors. Microsoft pays publishers a revenue share of the ads shown and clicked on their sites. By accessing Bing’s pool of advertisers, publishers can make more money through native ads than typically possible on their own.
Key capabilities of the Bing Audience Network include:
- Native ad formats like text, image, and video ads
- Contextual targeting based on page content
- Demographic, geographic, and custom audience targeting
- Real-time bidding (RTB) platform
- Ads shown across devices – desktop, tablet, and mobile
What are the benefits of the Bing Audience Network?
There are several advantages to using the Bing Audience Network for both advertisers and publishers:
Benefits for advertisers:
- Reach a large audience – access to millions of sites expands reach beyond just Bing users
- Native ad formats lead to higher CTRs compared to banner ads
- Targeting capabilities allow efficient spending on relevant audiences
- Pay only for clicks or actions, not impressions
- Reporting provides insights into audience targeting and engagement
Benefits for publishers:
- Monetize sites through native ads which are less disruptive to users
- Fill all ad slots and maximize inventory through Bing’s advertiser reach
- Revenue share model provides monetization at different volume levels
- Bing provides technology to seamlessly serve ads on sites
- Enhance content with relevant ads through contextual targeting
What types of sites work best with the Bing Audience Network?
The Bing Audience Network can monetize a wide range of sites and content types. Here are some examples of sites that tend to see success with the network:
Types of sites ideal for Bing Audience Network:
- News and media sites – monetize breaking news and trending stories
- Blog networks – access relevant text and image ads for different content
- Forums and communities – contextual ads based on user discussions
- Reviews and advice sites – target by product category and buying keywords
- Entertainment and gaming sites – reach engaged niche audiences
- Informational sites – ads relevant to content improve experience
Generally, sites with quality traffic and content in text, image, and video formats tend to see the best results. Sites with at least 25,000 page views per month are preferred to maximize ad revenue.
How does site traffic impact earnings in the Bing Audience Network?
The amount of revenue a publisher can earn on the Bing Audience Network depends on the site’s traffic volume and quality. Some key factors that impact potential earnings include:
Traffic Volume:
- More pageviews allow publishers to show more ads and earn higher revenues
- Bing recommends at least 25,000 pageviews per month for meaningful revenue
Traffic Quality:
- Higher click-through and conversion rates on ads will increase publisher earnings
- Targeted geographical traffic works better for location-based ads
- Mobile and desktop traffic allow publishers to monetize all devices
Ad Position:
- In-feed/content ads tend to have higher CTRs than sidebar ads
- Above the fold ads generally perform better than below the fold
By optimizing these factors, publishers can maximize their RPMs and revenues on the Bing Audience Network. The below table summarizes how different traffic profiles might impact potential earnings:
| Traffic Profile | Estimated RPM |
|---|---|
| Niche site with 100k US visits/month | $10 RPM |
| General site with 50k visits/month globally | $5 RPM |
| Targeted US financial site with 500k visits/month | $15 RPM |
What are the standard ad formats on the Bing Audience Network?
The Bing Audience Network supports a range of native ad formats for publishers to match with their site’s design and layout. Standard ad units include:
Text Ads
- Short text ads with headline, description and URL
- Ideal for content sites and articles
- 125 x 125 pixels to 300 x 250 pixels
Display Ads
- Banner image ads in vertical and horizontal sizes
- Run of site or targeted by page content
- Sizes include 160×600, 300×250, 728×90, 300×600
Native Ads
- Custom designed to match site’s look and feel
- In-Feed, In-Article, Recommendation Units
- Text, images, video
Video Ads
- In-stream and out-stream video ad units
- 15 to 30 second spots
- Overlay, post-roll, and mid-roll options
Within these ad units, placements can be optimized through A/B testing different formats, sizes, positions to maximize revenues.
How does ad targeting work on the Bing Audience Network?
Advertisers on the Bing Audience Network have several options to target their ads and reach specific audiences across sites. Targeting approaches include:
Contextual Targeting
- Places ads based on page content, keywords, and topics
- Automated through semantic analysis algorithms
- Useful for informational and news content
Audience Targeting
- Targets user demographics like age, gender, parental status
- Can also target interests, behaviors, and intent signals
- Leverages Microsoft Graph data and insights
Geographic Targeting
- Target ads by country, region, metro, city levels
- Location determined from IPs and other signals
- Ideal for local businesses and services
Keyword Targeting
- Bids on specific keywords across sites
- Enabled through integrations with SEM platforms
- Maximizes relevance for search terms
Site Targeting
- Places ads on specific sites based on audience match
- Managed through advertiser’s inclusion lists
- Controls ad placement at the domain level
Advertisers can use these targeting features individually or in combination to reach their best customers and prospects.
What options are available for mobile advertising in the Bing Audience Network?
Mobile usage continues to grow globally, and the Bing Audience Network provides a number of ad solutions for monetizing mobile traffic:
- Dedicated mobile ad sizes like 320×50 and 300×250 units
- MRAID support for interactive mobile ad experiences
- In-app advertising to reach users within mobile apps
- App-install ads to promote new app downloads
- Location targeting for local mobile users
- Mobile page targeting to reach users on specific mobile sites
With mobile optimization features in the Bing Ads platform, advertisers can:
- Create mobile-preferred ad campaigns
- Enable location extensions for local ads
- Measure mobile conversions and ROI
- Get automated reports on mobile vs. desktop performance
As a result, publishers can capitalize on mobile browsing behaviors through relevant ad placements optimized for the smaller screen.
What are some best practices for implementing Bing Audience Network on your site?
Here are some top tips publishers should keep in mind when implementing and optimizing ads from the Bing Audience Network:
- Place ads above the fold and in-content for higher visibility
- Keep ad units away from distracting page elements
- Use site structure and topics to enable contextual ads
- Monitor viewability and click-through rates by ad unit
- Rotate creatives and placements to determine best performers
- Ensure ads display properly across desktop and mobile
- Try both cost per click (CPC) and cost per thousand impressions (CPM) ads
- Leverage available ad types – text, display, video, native
- Uselazy loading to speed up page load times
By optimizing ad positioning, relevance, and performance, publishers can increase their earnings from the Bing Audience Network.
Conclusion
The Bing Audience Network provides publishers and advertisers with a flexible native advertising platform to monetize websites. With strengths in contextual targeting, access to Microsoft data signals, and a range of customizable ad formats, sites both large and small can benefit from joining the network. Following best practices for implementation and monitoring can help publishers maximize ad revenues on both desktop and mobile. As native advertising continues to gain favor over disruptive ads, leveraging the scale of the Bing Audience Network offers a significant monetization opportunity.