How do you attribute conversions to specific ads or keywords?

Attributing conversions to specific ads or keywords is essential to understanding the effectiveness of your Bing Ads campaigns and optimizing your bidding strategy. Proper attribution helps identify which elements of your campaign are driving valuable actions like purchases, form submissions, or sign-ups. Here's how to attribute conversions to specific ads or keywords effectively:

1. Use Bing Ads Conversion Tracking (UET Tags)
The foundation for attributing conversions to specific ads or keywords in Bing Ads is setting up Universal Event Tracking (UET) tags. The UET tag tracks user activity on your website and enables you to track conversions from specific actions (e.g., purchases, form submissions).

Steps for Conversion Tracking Setup:
Install the UET Tag: Place the UET tag on all pages of your website, especially the confirmation or thank-you pages where conversions occur.

Define Conversion Goals: In Bing Ads, set up conversion actions (e.g., purchases, form submissions) linked to UET tag data. Each goal will be tracked and attributed to the specific ads or keywords that led to it.

2. Attribution Models in Bing Ads
Bing Ads offers several attribution models to assign credit to various interactions in the conversion path. You can choose the attribution model that aligns best with your business goals.

Types of Attribution Models:
Last Click: The last ad clicked before a conversion is given full credit. This is the default attribution model.

When to Use: Suitable when you believe that the final click (the last ad a user clicks before converting) is the most important factor.

First Click: The first click that leads to a conversion is given full credit.

When to Use: Best for understanding which ads or keywords initially drive interest.

Linear: Credit is distributed evenly across all clicks in the conversion path.

When to Use: Ideal for businesses where all touchpoints in the conversion journey are equally important.

Time Decay: More credit is given to clicks closer to the time of conversion.

When to Use: Useful if you believe that the closer an ad is to the conversion time, the more impact it has.

Position-Based: 40% of the credit is given to the first and last touchpoints, with the remaining 20% spread across the middle interactions.

When to Use: Effective if you want to emphasize both the initial and final touchpoints but still value the interactions in between.

3. Conversion Tracking and Keyword-Level Attribution
Bing Ads allows you to see how keywords and ads perform in terms of conversions. You can analyze keyword-level performance based on the conversion data to better understand the impact of each keyword on your overall campaign.

How to Analyze Keyword-Level Attribution:
Navigate to the Keywords Tab: In Bing Ads, go to the Keywords tab and select the relevant campaign.

Add Conversion Columns: Add Conversion, Cost per Conversion (CPA), Conversion Rate, and Total Conversions as columns in your keyword-level report.

Review Conversion Data: This will give you a breakdown of how each keyword is contributing to conversions, helping you see which keywords are driving the most valuable actions.

4. Segment Data by Ad Group, Campaign, and Ad
You can also segment your conversion data by ad group, campaign, or individual ad to understand how specific parts of your campaigns are performing. This allows you to analyze conversion data at a granular level.

Steps to Segment Data:
Navigate to the Campaign/Ad Group Level: Go to the Campaigns or Ad Groups tab to view overall campaign performance.

Segment by Ad: In the Ads tab, you can see how specific ads are performing. Select the Conversions column to see which ads are leading to the most conversions.

Filter and Compare: Use filters to compare the conversion rates between different ads or ad groups. This helps identify which ones are most effective.

5. Multi-Channel Attribution with Bing Ads and Google Analytics
For a more comprehensive view of the customer journey across channels, you can integrate Bing Ads data with Google Analytics to get a multi-channel attribution model. This is especially useful when you're running ads across multiple platforms and want to track a holistic view of user interactions.

Setting Up Multi-Channel Attribution:
Link Google Analytics and Bing Ads: You can link your Bing Ads account with Google Analytics to track user behavior and conversions across both platforms.

Analyze Conversions in Google Analytics: Use the Multi-Channel Funnels report in Google Analytics to see how different channels (including Bing Ads) contributed to conversions. This report can help you understand the entire customer journey across touchpoints.

6. Analyzing the Attribution Data
Once you have set up attribution tracking, you can analyze the conversion data to optimize your campaigns effectively.

Key Metrics to Look At:
Conversion Rate (CVR): The percentage of clicks that result in conversions. If a particular keyword or ad has a high conversion rate, it may be worth increasing bids for that keyword/ad.

Cost per Conversion (CPA): The cost for each conversion. If the cost is high for certain ads or keywords, you might want to adjust your bids or optimize your landing pages.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): This measures the revenue generated by your ads relative to the cost of the ads. If certain ads or keywords have a high ROAS, focus on scaling those.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): A high CTR with a low conversion rate may indicate that your ad copy is attracting clicks but not converting visitors. In this case, it's worth revisiting the landing page and call-to-action (CTA).

7. Adjusting Campaigns Based on Attribution Insights
After reviewing the data and understanding which keywords, ads, and campaigns drive conversions, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your campaigns.

Actions to Take:
Optimize High-Performing Keywords: Increase bids for high-converting keywords or ads. If a particular keyword is generating a significant number of conversions at a low cost, consider allocating more budget to it.

Pause or Refine Low-Performing Keywords: If certain keywords or ads are resulting in high CPA or low conversions, pause them or refine their targeting and messaging.

Test New Ads and Keywords: Use the insights gained from top-performing ads and keywords to test new variations. Experiment with A/B testing to refine your messaging.

Adjust Bidding Strategies: Switch to more effective bidding strategies like Target CPA or Target ROAS for high-converting keywords and ads to automatically optimize bids based on conversion data.

Conclusion
Attributing conversions to specific ads or keywords is essential for improving the performance of your Bing Ads campaigns. By leveraging UET tags, analyzing conversion tracking data, and using appropriate attribution models, you can clearly understand which touchpoints in your campaign are driving results. With this data, you can adjust your strategy by optimizing bids, refining ads, and testing new keywords to maximize conversions and ROI.