Microsoft Advertising will now provide clearer insights on where ads are appearing in Bing search results.
To help advertisers better understand which position their ads are being shown in, Microsoft is introducing the following metrics:
- Top impression share
- Top impression share lost to rank
- Top impression share lost to budget
- Absolute top impression share
- Absolute top impression share lost to rank
- Absolute top impression share lost to budget
A ‘top’ impression refers to any position in the top section of search results. An ‘absolute’ top impression means the ad was the first thing shown in search results.
In an announcement, the company says:
“Understanding where your ads appear on search result pages is important. It can help you diagnose fluctuations in ad performance or signal if it’s time to make changes to your bids. Now, Microsoft Advertising offers metrics that will provide clearer insight on where your ads appear on search result pages and help you to better optimize your performance.”
Microsoft is calling these “prominence metrics,” which were formerly known as “share of voice.” They can be viewed in the campaign, ad group, and keyword tabs.
Microsoft notes that, with one exception, metrics offered by Microsoft Advertising are nearly identical to Google Ads.
The exception is the ‘average position’ metric, which Microsoft will continue to include in reporting because of how valuable users say it is.
