Age Targeting in Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) Explained
Did you know that performance metrics by age are readily available in the Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) user interface? Unlike Google, Microsoft Advertising does not require the advertiser to set up this targeting setting in advance in order to access this information. Advertisers can also drive traffic to or away from certain age groups using bid adjustments available. In today’s blog we’ll go over the basics of Microsoft Advertising’s age targeting feature and how it differs from that of Google Ads.
Age Group Segments in Microsoft Ads
Like Google, Microsoft segments their audience into various age brackets. Unlike Google, Microsoft also segments their audience into the 13-17 age bracket and can provide basic performance metrics on this age group. Note that Microsoft Advertising does not allow advertisers to target this age group.
Below are the age brackets that Microsoft provides insights on:
Ages 13-17
Ages 18-24
Ages 25-34
Ages 35-49
Ages 50-64
Ages 65 and above
Unknown
Note that the Unknown age group encompasses traffic that does not have age data available.
Availability of Age Group Data in Microsoft Ads
It is worth mentioning that age group data is available for most of your Microsoft Ads traffic in the Microsoft Ads user interface. This is beneficial for advertisers that want readily accessible age group data without having to apply the age groups in observation mode as users would in the Google Ads interface.
You can find the age group performance metrics through the following steps in the Microsoft Advertising UI:
You can find the age group performance metrics through the following steps in the Microsoft Advertising UI:
- Select your Microsoft Advertising account.
- Under the menu bar that appears, select Dimensions:
3. Under the dimension select, select Age and gender.
Following these steps, you will now be able to see the age and gender data for your Microsoft campaigns.
Targeting and Excluding Age Groups in Microsoft Ads
Microsoft Advertising provides advertisers performance metrics on age groups and makes them easily accessible in the Microsoft Advertising UI. It also allows advertisers to add bid modifiers to those age groups to help drive traffic to or away from select age brackets. As mentioned before, Microsoft does not allow bid modifiers on the 13-17 age group.
You can drive more traffic to a particular age group by adding positive bid adjustments to the age group you want to target. For example, if you wanted to drive more traffic to the 65+ age group, you can apply a positive bid modifier of your choice to this age group.
To exclude particular age groups from your campaign targeting, you would need to make negative bid adjustments on the age group, up to a -90% bid adjustment. Microsoft does not allow negative bid adjustments beyond -90%.
If you want to drive traffic to only a particular age group, you would not only add a positive bid adjustment to this age group but negative bid adjustments of up to -90% to all other age groups. For instance, to drive traffic only to the 65+ age group, you would apply a positive bid modifier of your choice to this age group and add negative bid modifiers to all other age groups.
You can access the age group targeting settings through the following steps in the Microosft Advertising UI:
All campaigns> Settings > Advanced settings > Targeting > Demographic
Below is what you should see when you access the age targeting settings:
You now have the basic information on age targeting in Microsoft Advertising to change the age targeting settings in your Microsoft campaigns. You can use these tips too pull the age group performance metrics and to make changes where you see fit to help improve your campaign performance!
Comments are closed here.