The feature, Microsoft says, has been one of the top requested features from its customers. The company’s Ravi Modalavalasa writes on the Bing Ads blog:

Bing Ads has been supporting {param1} as an interim solution to store keyword specific destination URLs in addition to supporting {param1} as param replacement (similar to param2 and param3) in other parts of ad creative. The use of {param1} for keyword URLs requires {param1} to be referred to in the Ad Destination URL field, which is considered an additional task for users (and was often prone to human errors). The use of the Keyword Destination URL feature, however, does NOT require any reference in ad destination URL, as keyword destination URL by default overrides ad destination URL by default.

The feature is available in Bing Ads and Bing Ads Editor.

A report released by Kenshoo last week found that Yahoo Bing Network CTRs and CPCs are consistently higher than Google.

They’ll let advertisers create and update additional messaging and info without modifying text ads or keywords, and will be available on both Yahoo and Bing search pages.

“Over the last few months, we have worked closely with our advertisers across many different industries to build and fine tune our Sitelink Extensions experience,” says Microsoft’s Rishi Bal in a blog post. “A special “Thank you!” goes out to our beta customers for helping shape this offering.”

“It is worth noting that during our pilot phase of Sitelink Extensions, most of our advertisers experienced an increased click-through rate of 15-25% compared to a standard search ad without Sitelink Extensions — many did much better than that,” Bal adds. “These additional text + URL pairs have the capability to help you drive improved ROI, so I encourage you to try them out today.”

The ads can be created through the Bing Ads user interface, the latest version of the BIng Ads Desktop Editor and through the Bing Ads API.

“On the Bing Ads Opportunities page, we now provide you with exact match keyword suggestions that we think are relevant to your campaigns and will help your ads serve more often,” says Microsoft’s Manu Aery. “The suggestions are based on the keywords and ads you’re already using in each ad group.”

Bing provides an estimate of how many monthly searches you could reach by using the recommended keyword, a suggested first page bid, a recommended ad group and campaign, an “easy” accept option to apply the suggested keyword, and an option to add unique destination URLs and parameters.

To access the feature, go to the Opportunities tab, and then the Keyword Suggestions tab.

Microsoft notes that API users will call the GetKeywordOpportunities API to get the list of keyword suggestions that are relevant to the specified ad group.

The feature will let advertisers request exceptions to resolve editorial disputes, monitor progress of ad and keyword reviews, and easily filter editorial disapprovals and submit a request for exception within the advertiser’s Bing Ads account, Microsoft says.

“If you’re using the Bing Ads API, you’ll have full access to this feature, including proactive and re-active appeals submissions in bulk,” says Microsoft’s Tina Kelleher. “To learn more about managing Editorial through the API, visit this page on MSDN (scroll down to the “Appeal Editorial Rejections” header). In the coming releases, you’ll see more support for Editorial Exceptions in Bing Ads Editor, stay tuned to the blog for updates as they become available.”

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the rebranding of adCenter to Bing Ads, and the rebranding of the Search Alliance to the Yahoo Bing Network.

According to a new report from comScore, Microsoft sites and Yahoo sites are both up in U.S. unique visitors, while Google is down. Likewise, Bing’s search market share is up, while Google’s is down.

“Bing Ads is not only a new name, but an improved experience with new features to help you better manage your campaigns and complete tasks faster,” says Microsoft’s Tina Kelleher. “Recent improvements include: a new web interface, improved ad rotation controls, and agency enablement tools that make it easier for agencies to manage multiple accounts.”

David Pann outlines the changes as:

Historic Quality Score helps advertisers closely monitor their campaign performance trend and proactively respond to the competition.

The Bing Ads Intelligence tool provides access to customizable marketplace level information that allows advertisers to make proactive decisions regarding their campaign management.

Pann also notes that there is a new Import Campaign feature (for importing from AdWords), and a new Editorial Exceptions feature for resolving editorial disapprovals during and after the ad submission process.

Additional updates are on the way, Kelleher says.

Microsoft and Yahoo say that the network (in the U.S.), consisting of Yahoo and Microsoft’s core search sites, accounts for 30% of the search share, and reaches 151 million searchers who are likely to spend 124% more than the average searcher, and 5% more than Google searchers. The companies say advertisers can reach 46 million unique searchers in the U.S. who aren’t using Google.

“A similar result holds true worldwide, with 489 million unique searchers, 92 million of whom do not use Google; and worldwide the Yahoo! Bing Network represents an audience who is likely to spend 124% more than the average searcher and 78% more than Google searchers worldwide,” the companies say.

“In addition to Yahoo! and Microsoft Core Search sites, the Yahoo! Bing Network represents partner sites like Facebook, Amazon, Monster, WebMD, CNBC, and Viacom, plus networks like The Wall Street Journal Digital Network,” the companies add.

Advertisers would do well to note that Bing has been revealed as the default search on Amazon’s new line of Kindle Fire devices.

The new tool, which adCenter users will be able to find in the Advanced Settings of your account, will give advertisers a chance to test out ads to see which ones click (hah) with searchers and which ones fizzle out. Once you’ve established what ads are doing well, you’ll be able to optimize the ad rotation so as to only serve the ads that people are clicking the most.

According to the blog post that announced the new function, “Your ads will continue to serve based upon the settings you choose without any time restrictions because we acknowledge that different keyword/ad copy combinations need different amounts of time to establish a performance history.”

Optimizing the use of your ads might not be a bad move for adCenter users since, as of March, you’ve got about 10,000 less cities to target with your campaign. With a narrower window, hopefully the Ad Rotation tool will help you make the most of your precious ads.

The new feature will be rolling out over the course of the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.

[Via adCenter Blog.]

Today, Microsoft announced that the transition is now complete in these countries.

“Yahoo! Search is really an important part of our business and we have invested a lot of time to make the transition as efficient and as seamless as possible for our advertisers and publishers” sid Jon Myers, Director, Account Management UK and Ireland “Now we can focus on delivering compelling content for our users and customers to build relevant online experiences.

“We’re delighted to successfully reach this important milestone in the UK, France and Ireland,” said Microsoft’s Mark Richardson. “As a result of this transition we believe Bing users will see more useful advertising while presenting advertisers with an increasingly compelling alternative in search advertising. We look forward to this rolling out across the next set of European markets.”

Microsoft has indicated that Germany, Austria and Switzerland would be the focal points for the Search Alliance, following the UK, Ireland and France. The transition on the paid search side has already been completed in North America and India. For organic search, it’s already been completed globally.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that it has rebranded its ads for SMBs as “Bing, powered by Bing and Yahoo! Search.”

“By aligning with the Bing brand, SMBs will better understand that they are buying traffic on Bing and Yahoo! search,” a spokesperson for Microsoft tells WebProNews. “Many of our advertisers find us through the Bing homepage, where they click on ‘Advertise here.’ This shift helps those customers follow a more intuitive path to what they are looking for.”

The change is effective today.

“With one ad buy through Microsoft Advertising adCenter, search advertisers are able to reach 158 million unique searchers using Bing and Yahoo! Search (including Microsoft and Yahoo! Core Search sites), providing a sizable volume of 5.6 billion monthly searches and a 29% search share, which is nearly one-third of all queries in the US,” says Microsoft’s GM of SMB Advertising, Matt Lydon, citing comScore data.

“Our audience is significant in size and in online purchase activity,” he adds. “The unique searchers on Bing and Yahoo! Search (including Microsoft and Yahoo! Core Search sites) are likely to spend 26% more than the average searcher, and likely to spend 9% more than Google searchers in the U.S.”

He also notes that advertisers can reach 49 million unique searchers using Bing and Yahoo, that don’t use Google in the US.

The “search alliance” between Microsoft and Yahoo continues to roll on. Last month, it finalized in the UK, Ireland and France.

The ad transition officially begins on April 18.

“Next week, we begin to shift ad serving for Yahoo! Search over to Microsoft Advertising adCenter,” says Microsoft’s Cedric Chambraz. “This means that adCenter ads will gradually be displayed on Yahoo! Search result pages in the UK, France and Ireland. This process will begin as early as the 18th of April and is expected to conclude during the last week of the month when 100% of the Yahoo! traffic will be made available in adCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts will go in read-only mode.”

“As Yahoo! ad serving moves to adCenter, and your clicks and impressions in that account begin to increase, you’ll see a corresponding decrease in clicks and impressions in your Yahoo! Search Marketing account,” he adds. “It is thus important to continue managing your campaigns across both platforms throughout this transition phase, in order to avoid missing out on any potential clicks. To help you prepare, I wanted to share the following guidance to assist you through this transition.”

There’s a “transition portal” in the adCenter tab when you sign into your Yahoo account, which you can use to complete the transition, which the companies are urging you to do sooner rather than later, if you’re in one of these countries.

The companies also suggest increasing your adCenter budget (go figure) to prepare for increased traffic, once Yahoo search traffic starts to flood adCenter.

According to Microsoft, Germany, Austria and Switzerland will be getting the search alliance treatment in the coming months.

The changes are only coming to the U.S. and Canada for now, however. Microsoft is removing about 10,000 cities from adCenter targeting, starting in mid to late May.

“Because these cities have seen no measurable traffic, this change will have no negative impact on the performance of your campaigns,” says Microsoft’s Peter Yang. “If you are targeting a city that will be removed, we recommend that you update your settings to target a city supported by adCenter to gain more traffic.”

Microsoft provides a downloadable spreadsheet, where you can see all of the locations that are going away, and their corresponding locations that you should be targeting. Find the ones you need to be targeting, then simply go into adCenter and replace the non-supported ones with the corresponding supported ones.

Microsoft will pause any campaigns or ad groups that only target cities that are being removed. The default target will be set to worldwide. In other words, this probably isn’t something you want to ignore. If some supported cities are sprinkled in, those cities will still be targeted. If you’re using the API to call non-supported cities, an error message will appear.

If you think that losing some of these cities will hurt your campaign, Microsoft aims to convince you otherwise. The company says you are likely to see an increase in impressions (though you probably know your campaign better than anyone, and it might depend on your reasons for targeting select cities).