Bing Ads has made it official that it will stop supporting standard text ads (STAs) as of July 31 — that includes the creation of new STAs and the editing of existing ones.
Bing is going all in with the transition to expanded text ads, and has released some tools to help advertisers convert their STAs into expanded text ads. See the changes Bing has made to Bing Ads Web UI and Bing Ads Editor.
However, Bing isn’t going all in when it comes to serving expanded text ads. Despite advertisers not being able to edit or create STAs, those that have been created before July 31 will continue to be displayed along with expanded text ads.
There is currently no date for when STAs will no longer be displayed, but Bing says you can expect to be notified well in advance.
So it sounds like Bing Ads customers have two options. They can either take the time between now and July 31 to become better acquainted with expanded text ads. Or they can take this time to create a stockpile of standard text ads which will still continue to be served after July 31.
Either way, at the end of July Bing is finally sunsetting support for the standard text ad format.