Bing deletes ads in the right column
Just like Google, Bing is now doing away with sidebar ads. Bing made sweeping changes to the design of its search results pages yesterday. The text ads in the right column have disappeared – instead, there are now up to four instead of the previous maximum of three ads below the organic hits. As a reason, Bing cited the expanded design options available in the lower ad area compared to the right-hand column. In addition, the company’s own research had shown that the elimination of ads in the right-hand column resulted in improvements in click numbers for ads in the main positions above and below the organic hits, as well as for product ads.
Our recommendation
Pay special attention to Bing Ads performance now. If you have set real-time bidding rules, you should take a special look at these rules now. This change does not affect Bing Shopping, but the removal of the ads in the sidebar may lead to changes in Bing Shopping performance.
Summary
- Bing text ads are no longer displayed on the right side, but this does not apply to product ads.
- The number of ads at the bottom of the page will increase from 3 to 4, with more specific ads in contrast to the current design.
- The ads at the bottom of the page also allow for extensive ad formats that would not be available with ads on the sidebar.
- This change only affects Bing search results pages for traffic on PC and tablet.
- There is no impact on traffic via mobile devices or on consortium partners including Yahoo and AOL.