Back in January, we had a conversation with David Pann, GM of Microsoft’s Search Network, who told us that we could expect Bing’s version of product listing ads sometime this year. This came shortly after a big anti-Google campaign from the company slamming Google Shopping based on its product listing ads.

Pan told us Microsoft’s will not result in a “pay to play” system for Bing Shopping like Google’s. Otherwise, the ads are similar to Google’s. When we talked, the ads were still in alpha, and Pann just said he expected them to roll out during this calendar year. In April, Bing announced they’d be coming in the third quarter. Now, Pann tells Search Engine Land:

“We are on track to release Product Ads in Q3 of this year. We have invited a targeted set of U.S. advertisers to participate in a ‘closed beta’ through the holiday season so that we allow time to ensure our primary goal of creating a great customer experience while also listening to/implementing any advertiser feedback. We will announce general availability timing in the coming months.”

On Wednesday, Adobe announced that its Media Optimizer is the first to market with support for the ads.

With the product, advertisers can manage Bing Product Ads and Promotions Lines, manage Bing Product Targets, report/measure Product Ad and Product Target performance against ROI metrics, view search queries that led to conversions through Bing Product Ads, algorithmically optimize bids between individual Product Targets and All Product Target, and create/update campaigns from product feeds and templates.

“Bing Prod­uct Ads rep­re­sent another key opportunity for retailers in the search engine mar­ket­ing (SEM) land­scape,” says Adobe’s Jonathan Beeston. ” With Adobe Media Opti­mizer being first to mar­ket, as it also was with Google Prod­uct List­ing Ads (PLAs), Google Enhanced Cam­paigns and Twit­ter Ads API, we’re enabling adver­tis­ers to max­i­mize their ROI by tak­ing advan­tage of new ad for­mats and channels.”

You can read more about Bing’s product ads here.