Starting in 2021, Bing Ads rolled out Microsoft’s Automotive Ads, allowing automotive advertisers to showcase their vehicles more effectively to consumers. These ads allow advertisers to drive more quality clicks to their website, increasing vehicle sales. By offering a more immersive and informative advertising experience, Automotive Ads are changing the game for automotive sales online. In this blog, we’ll explore what Microsoft’s Automotive Ads are, how they’re driving up quality clicks and conversions, and the impressive results advertisers are already witnessing.
What Are Automotive Ads?
Microsoft’s Automotive Ads are similar to product ads, but provide consumers with all information related to the vehicle. Information such as make, model, year, trim, image, URLs, and more. These ads are showcased directly on Bing’s SERP, Bing’s image results page, and native placements on Microsoft’s Audience Network. These ads result in more volume for advertisers, reaching more car shoppers who are closer to purchasing others. They also allow advertisers to provide consumers with a richer experience.
This is provided by showcasing your vehicles’ photos and prices, resulting in a higher CTR and more qualified leads. Lastly, these ads allow advertisers to save time with automation through the setup. While setting up the campaign, there are no keywords that need to be created and the ads are kept more accurate as they update as inventory and prices change.
Automotive Ads Feed
To begin setting up Microsoft’s Automotive Ads, the first step is creating a product feed that contains all necessary information about the vehicles. The information that must be included in the feed for Automotive Ads to run are Vehicle ID, Title, Make, Model, Year, Trim, Final URL, Image URLs, and State of Vehicle (New/Used/CPO). In addition to these attributes, it is also encouraged to include additional information to provide consumers with everything they may want to know. This additional information includes Body Style, Engine, Drivetrain, Transmission, Fuel Type, Interior Color, and Exterior Color.
After setting up the feed, and importing it into Microsoft Ads, it is recommended to set up feed scheduling so that Microsoft automatically has the most up-to-date information. When setting up the feed, it is important to use images that meet Microsoft’s requirements. The images used for Automotive Ads must be relevant to the vehicle, show a zoomed exterior view of the vehicle, not have any watermarks or promotional text, and you must upload distinct vehicle images for different trims to ensure variety.
Results
Advertisers that have taken advantage of this offering from Microsoft have seen impressive results so far. On average, third-party sites and OEMs have seen a 6-15% incremental click lift, while channel partners have seen an average incremental click lift of 8%. On top of this, third-party sites and OEMs have seen an average of 3-8% incremental conversion lift. Along with increased clicks and conversions, CPCs have dropped for advertisers running Automotive Ads on average. OEMs have seen an average of 7-16% lower CPCs than their corresponding non-brand targeted text ads. Third-party sites have also seen a 28-40% drop in CPCs for their Automotive Ads.
End Note
The introduction of Microsoft’s Automotive Ads is a game-changer for those in the automotive industry, offering a sleek and automated way to connect with potential buyers at the moment they’re most engaged. With the robust capabilities of these ads to generate higher click-through rates and more qualified leads, the road to increased vehicle sales has never been clearer.
If you’re ready to accelerate your automotive advertising strategy and see the kind of results that shift your business into high gear, Corkboard Concepts is here to co-pilot your journey. Our strategic marketing expertise and data-driven approach are the engines you need to drive your campaigns forward. Contact us today and let’s put your automotive ads on the fast track to success.
