Bidding
Objective: Learn about keyword bidding options in Microsoft adCenter.
Introduction
The heart of online advertising is matching relevant ads with potential customers.
Your keyword bid is the maximum price you are willing to pay each time a potential
customer clicks your ad.
When your keyword bid is higher than a competitor's bid, your advertisement has
a better chance of appearing in a higher position on the search results page.
It's important to understand that your monthly budget and your keyword bids work
together. Your bid affects the position
on the page where your ad appears; while your budget affects
the number of times your ad is displayed in a given month.
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Keyword Bidding Options
Microsoft adCenter offers several flexible keyword bidding options.:
- Broad Match Type: Broad match triggers the display of your ad when
terms in your keyword appear in any order in the search query. For example,
if your keyword is "winter vacations" it will match with the query terms
"vacation winter" or " ski winter vacations". It may also match
a query for "winter trips" because adCenter identifies "trips"
as a synonym for "vacations". However, the keyword will not match with
the query terms "winter" or "vacation."
- Phrase Match Type: Phrase match triggers the display of your ad
if the word or words in your keyword appear in a customer's search query-even if
other words are present in what they type. For example, your keyword "winter
vacations" would match searches for "ski winter vacations" and "tropical
winter vacations," but not "tropical vacations" or "summer vacations."
- Exact Match Type: Exact match triggers the display of your ad only
when the exact word or words in your keyword, in exactly the same order,
appear in a customer's query. For example, your keyword "winter vacations"
would only match searches for "winter vacations," with no spelling
variations. It would not match with "vacation winter", "winter"
or "vacation".
You can also set a maximum bid that is the same for all keywords, set different
bids for individual keywords, or place optional extra bids, known as incremental
bids, to increase the likelihood that your ads are displayed in a better position
for customers who meet your targeting criteria.
Microsoft adCenter also provides a bid estimation tool that can show you what price
you can expect to pay for your chosen keywords in order to reach position one.
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Defining Keyword Bids
Using adCenter to define and update your keyword bid prices is simple. When you
first create an ad group and define your initial set of keywords, adCenter displays
a starting bid price. You can change that price for all keywords, or set a different
price for each keyword.
To change the bid pricing for an existing ad group:
- Select the campaign and ad group, and then click Keyword Performance.
- Modify your keyword match types and bid prices. You can also set separate incremental
bid prices for specific audiences.
- Click Continue. Remember, you can change your keyword bids and
monthly budget at any time.
For more information about bidding on keywords, see adCenter Help.
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