We are happy to announce a new and currently free Bing Shopping program for our existing Bing cashback advertisers that will begin on July 31, 2010. Now you can drive traffic to your sites for free with Bing Shopping, potentially displaying your online products to over 93.6 million unique searchers who are making decisions on Bing (comScore qSearch June 2010).
Bing Shopping should be an important part of your advertising mix for your back-to-school and holiday advertising efforts since the Bing audience is:
- 31 percent more likely to make online purchases than the average web user
- 11 percent more likely to make online purchases than Google searchers
- 15 percent more likely to make online purchases than Yahoo! searchers (comScore Media Metrix May 2010).
The new Bing Shopping program enables existing cashback advertisers to provide a broad set of products for inclusion in Bing Shopping with little to no extra work required.
How to get started
Shopping on Bing continues to be a key part of our overall search strategy at Microsoft and it should remain an important part of your advertising mix for 2010. With the new Bing Shopping program, you gain traffic to your site for free and it’s easier than ever to participate.
Getting started is easy—all you have to do is to keep sending us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed after July 30, 2010 and it will automatically be added to the new Bing Shopping program for free, subject to the new Bing Shopping program Terms of Use. We recommend you expand your feed to include all your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products. Contact your Microsoft Advertising representative today to learn more.
What’s next for Bing Shopping?
In addition to current Bing Shopping features like consumer reviews and ratings, and Visual Search, we’re continually improving the Bing Shopping experience to help shoppers discover products and compare offers. Future planned enhancements include a more streamlined Bing Shopping experience, improved shopping scenarios for expanded, targeted reach via social, mobile, and local, and more integration with Bing.com.
Frequently asked questions:
Q. Does the new Bing Shopping program replace the Bing cashback Shopping program?
A. This Bing Shopping program is a new alternative to Bing cashback Shopping. We recommend you display your products on Bing Shopping and also run search ads on Bing.com as an important part of your online mix.
Q. What is the cost to send my product catalog through the Bing Shopping program?
A. At this time we are offering you the opportunity to send your product catalog to Bing Shopping for free. In the future, if we charge for use of the Bing Shopping program or change the requirements to use that are free of charge, we will provide notice pursuant to the Bing Shopping program Terms of Use and you may elect to stop participating in the Bing Shopping program rather than incurring fees.
Q. What should I do to transition my Bing cashback Shopping data feed to this new free Bing Shopping program starting on July 31, 2010?
A. All you need to do is keep sending us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed after July 30, 2010 and it will automatically go into the new Bing Shopping program for free, subject to the new Bing Shopping program Terms of Use. We recommend you expand your feed to include 100 percent of your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products.
Q. How can I optimize the performance of my existing Bing cashback Shopping data feed with this new program on Bing Shopping?
A. The Bing Shopping relevance engine takes many factors into account when ranking the shopping results. The general rule of thumb is to send us feeds that are rich. For example, we have recently introduced a free shipping tag feature, because free shipping has proven to be extremely important to your potential customers. If you offer free shipping, make sure that your data feed reflects this information, which will help our ranking algorithm better decide the placement of your ad relative to your competition.
Q. How do I get started?
A. It is easy to onboard your products into the Bing Shopping program. If you are an existing Bing cashback Shopping advertiser, all you need to do is keep sending us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed after July 30, 2010 and it will automatically go into the new Bing Shopping program for free, subject to the new Bing Shopping program Terms of Use. We recommend you expand your feed to include 100 percent of your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products. If you are currently working with an aggregator who is enabled with the Bing cashback program, you can submit your catalog through them if they choose to participate in the new Bing Shopping program.
Q. Will my existing Bing cashback Shopping data feeds automatically transition to the free Bing Shopping data feed on July 31, 2010?
A. Yes, if you continue to send your data feed to us on July 31, 2010 and thereafter. Bing cashback shopping datafeeds sent to us on July 31, 2010 and thereafter will be governed by the Bing Shopping program terms of use, which will be emailed to you prior to July 31, 2010.
Q. Can I send you my Google product feed for the new Bing Shopping program?
A. No, we are currently supporting only the same Bing cashback Shopping data feed format. Continue to send us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed starting July 31,2010, consistent with the Bing Shopping program Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products. If we begin to support any new data feed format in the future, we will let you know.
Q. Do I need to modify my Bing cashback feed to remove any products?
A. No, we will accept your current Bing cashback Shopping data feed format subject to the new Bing Shopping program Terms of Use. We recommend you expand your feed to include 100 percent of your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products.
Q. Where can I go to upload and maintain my product catalog on Bing Shopping?
A. At this time you can send your datafeeds to us for the Bing Shopping program as of July 31, 2010 in the same manner that you sent us your Bing cashback Shopping data feeds. For the future we are developing a portal where you can manage and maintain your product catalog on your own. In the meantime please continue to work with your Microsoft Advertising representative.
Q. Will consumers be able to search for my products by my store’s name? Will my store be listed in a directory?
A.Yes, at this time, we are not taking the store space away. There are planned development efforts to redesign and create a more search-oriented experience.
Q. Where will the Bing Shopping program product catalogs display?
A. The Bing Shopping program product catalogs will display within the Bing Shopping experience similar to how Bing shopping cashback product catalogs displayed. This is where consumers make online purchasing decisions with tools to compare products, opinions, and prices. We also have plans to broaden the display of Bing Shopping program product catalogs within Bing.
Q. Are you going to continue to innovate the Bing Shopping experience for consumers?
A. In addition to current Bing Shopping features like consumer reviews and ratings, and Visual Search, we’re continually improving the Bing Shopping experience to help shoppers discover products and compare offers. These efforts include plans for a more streamlined Bing Shopping experience and better shopping integration with Bing.com.
Q. Do I need to remove the cashback percentage column from my feed?
A. No, just keep sending us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed format as you do today. We will ignore this column in the free program so you do not need to alter your current cashback feed in any way. We recommend you expand your feed to include 100 percent of your products for broader coverage consistent with the Bing Shopping Terms of Use, which by policy referenced therein may require you to remove some of your products.
Q. Can we have screen shots as to what Bing Shopping will look like after July 30, 2010?
A. Screen shots are not available at this time. The Bing Shopping experience will look similar to how it does today without Bing cashback.
Q. Are we still going to show featured stores on Bing Shopping?
A. Yes, as of July 31, 2010, the name of the Featured cashback Stores section on the Bing Shopping homepage will change to Featured Stores, which will allow users an easy way to navigate to your particular store.
Q. When are we going to have terms of use for the new Bing Shopping program?
A. The terms of use that will govern the new Bing Shopping program will be available and emailed to cashback advertisers prior to July 31,2010.
August 16, 2010 
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With the intense competition of online marketing, every company needs to take advantage of every piece of free advertising that they can get a hold of. There are many different forms of free advertising on the web, most do not really product any results, but one stands out as a clear leader. Google, the world’s number one search engine, provides business owners with a free listing on Google Places. This is really targeted to business owners that have a store front or an office, but really anyone can create a Google Places listing. I would not recommend for any business to list their home address if that is what they are using as a business address. You might end up finding customers coming to your home and that could be potentially disastrous.
Google Places now offers a new service with tagging that can provide your business listing with a little extra power. The tagging ability provides business owners with the ability to highlight features that make your business unique. This can be good for local competition and hopefully will bring more visitors to your listing. Google charges $25/month for the service and I believe it is per tag. Currently, Google is offering 30 days Free for this service when you sign up for Google Places. Why not try it out to see if it is any better than the regular listing. The free trial will tell you if it helps or not with no money wasted. With this feature and the ability to provide your business with a free listing, you should take the time to create a Google Places listing. Every company loves free advertising and Google is a great place to get it from.
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