Bing Image Extensions: What You Need to Know

While Bing tends to imitate Google AdWords features long after we’ve already been using them, things have gone a bit differently with Image Ad Extensions.

Google released image extensions in June 2013. But just a few months ago, while one of our clients was successfully utilizing the new feature, Google abruptly ended the beta and removed all running images – a huge bummer for our travel client. Right on cue, fortunately, we were all happy to learn that Bing was rolling out its own beta version of Image Extensions.

In this post, we’ll dive into how Bing Image Extensions work and why you should use them.

What Are Image Extensions?

Image Extensions allow advertisers to add up to three images in their paid search campaigns to help these ads stand out to potential customers.

Image Extensions on Bing.

Image extensions are ideal for customers in several industries, including travel, automotive, luxury goods, service, and lifestyle businesses.

How Do Image Extensions Work?

Image Extensions work like any other ad extension: they are triggered by keyword searches. You can only add them to up to 10 ad groups, so choose wisely. I recommend choosing your top 10 ad groups in terms of volume to ensure these extensions show.

Image Extensions on Yahoo!

The most important thing to know about Image Extensions is that they only appear in position one. So, if you want to get the most out of these extensions, it’s important to bid aggressively. Trust me, it will be worth it.

Image Extensions also only show on PC and tablet results, not on mobile, so expect volume to be low.

How Do You Set Them Up?

First, contact your Bing Ads Account Manager to get whitelisted into the Image Extensions beta.

Once you are in the beta, you will need up to three images, no bigger than 1280 x 720 and no smaller than 160 x 90, in JPG, PNG, or GIF formats. It is important to note that, like other extensions, Image Extensions must be relevant to the ad and landing pages. Finally, make sure your images contain no text.

Bing Image Extension set up.

Once you have chosen your images, navigate to your chosen ad group, select “Ad Extensions”, select “Image Extensions”, then “Create ad extension”. Fill out the Alt Text (this is shown when a user hovers over the image, but does not click), Description (shown when a user hovers over the image, a longer version of the alt text) and Destination URL (if someone clicks directly on the image, they are taken to this page. It may be different from your ad destination URL).

You can apply up to three images per ad group (up to 10 ad groups). Setup is fairly straightforward and easy to apply. You cannot edit Image Extensions in Bing Ads Editor.

Why Should You Use Image Extensions?

With more and more competitors entering the search marketplace, it is important to find ways to stand out. If you are in the travel, luxury goods, service, or lifestyle industries, I highly recommended giving Bing Image Extensions a try.

Need more convincing? Our travel client has seen click-through rates (CTR) on ad groups with Bing Image Extensions improve 10%… and the number keeps going up.

Image Extensions are easy to set up and have proven to boost performance. It’s really a no brainer. So whether you’d rather wait until Image Extensions iare widely released or get whitelisted for the beta now, I highly recommend implementing these engaging and dynamic extensions.