What tools or reports do you rely on to analyze keyword performance in Bing Ads?

To effectively analyze keyword performance in Bing Ads (now part of Microsoft Advertising), several tools and reports are available that provide insights into how keywords are performing and how they contribute to overall campaign goals. These reports help you make informed decisions about bid adjustments, budget allocation, and targeting strategies.

Here are the primary tools and reports you can rely on to analyze keyword performance in Bing Ads:

1. Microsoft Advertising Campaign Manager
The Campaign Manager is the core interface for managing and analyzing your campaigns in Bing Ads. Within this tool, you can access a variety of performance data at the keyword level:

Overview Dashboard: Provides a summary of your campaign performance, including metrics like impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, conversion rate, cost per conversion, and ROAS.

Keyword-Level Insights: Allows you to see how each keyword is performing across multiple metrics, such as search volume, quality score, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), and cost per click (CPC).

Historical Trends: Helps track keyword performance over time, so you can identify trends, seasonality, and areas for improvement.

Example: Use the dashboard to see how specific keywords are driving traffic, whether they are meeting conversion goals, and whether bid adjustments are needed.

2. Keyword Performance Report
The Keyword Performance Report provides a detailed view of how each keyword is performing in your campaigns. It shows critical data such as:

Clicks and Impressions

Cost and Average CPC

Conversions and Conversion Rate

Cost Per Conversion (CPA)

ROAS (if you're tracking revenue)

This report is especially useful for evaluating whether individual keywords are contributing to your campaign goals. You can adjust your bidding strategy, budget allocation, or even pause underperforming keywords based on these insights.

Example: If you notice that certain keywords are getting high impressions but low conversions, you might adjust your bids or examine the landing page experience to improve performance.

3. Search Query Report (SQR)
The Search Query Report (SQR) shows the exact search queries that triggered your ads. This is critical for:

Identifying New Keyword Opportunities: Find relevant search queries that you may want to target with additional keywords.

Excluding Irrelevant Search Terms: Identify negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant or low-converting searches.

Refining Match Types: Optimize keyword match types based on the search query data, allowing you to capture the most relevant traffic.

Example: If you see that the search query "buy running shoes" is driving conversions, you may want to add that term as a keyword, while excluding irrelevant queries such as "free running shoes."

4. Quality Score Report
Quality Score is a metric provided by Bing Ads to evaluate the relevance of your keywords, ads, and landing pages. This report provides insights into how your keywords are performing in terms of:

Expected CTR

Ad Relevance

Landing Page Experience

A low-quality score indicates that your keyword may not be highly relevant to your ad copy or landing page, which can lead to higher CPCs. You can use this report to identify keywords with low scores and improve your targeting or landing pages to boost performance.

Example: If a keyword has a low-quality score due to poor ad relevance, consider adjusting the ad copy to make it more closely match the keyword.

5. Ad Performance Report
The Ad Performance Report provides insights into the performance of individual ads and can be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of your ad copy in driving keyword performance. Metrics in this report include:

Impressions and Clicks

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Conversions and Conversion Rate

This report allows you to correlate ad performance with keyword performance and identify which ads are performing best for your target keywords. You can also use this data to refine your messaging and improve your keyword-ad alignment.

Example: If a specific ad copy is driving better results for certain keywords, consider using similar messaging across your entire campaign or testing new variations.

6. Performance by Device Report
This report allows you to see how keywords perform across different devices (desktop, mobile, tablet). It's useful for understanding if certain keywords perform better on specific devices and if bid adjustments for specific devices are necessary.

Device-specific Performance Metrics: Includes impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, and conversions segmented by device type.

Bid Adjustment Opportunities: If you find that certain keywords perform significantly better on mobile, for example, you may decide to increase your mobile bid modifier to capture more traffic on that device.

Example: If mobile devices are driving more conversions for a certain keyword, you can increase your bid for mobile traffic to increase visibility and capture additional leads or sales.

7. Demographic and Location Reports
The Demographic Report and Location Report provide insights into how your keywords are performing across various demographics (age, gender, income) and geographic regions. This is useful for targeting adjustments based on keyword performance:

Demographic Report: Evaluate how different demographic groups are engaging with your ads and keywords. Adjust your targeting and bidding to focus on the segments that deliver the best results.

Location Report: Examine the geographic regions that are driving performance. If certain locations are delivering better ROI, you can allocate more budget to those regions or adjust your bids.

Example: If you notice that your keywords perform better in urban areas compared to rural regions, you can adjust your location targeting or increase bids for urban areas.

8. Conversion Tracking and Attribution Reports
Conversion Tracking is essential to understanding how well your keywords are contributing to your campaign objectives, such as sales, leads, or other key actions. You can track the performance of each keyword and its attribution toward specific goals.

Conversion Metrics: Includes total conversions, conversion rate, cost per conversion, and value per conversion.

Attribution Models: Understand the full customer journey and how different keywords and touchpoints contribute to conversions (e.g., first-click, last-click, or linear attribution).

Example: If a keyword is delivering many conversions at a low cost, you can allocate more budget to it, whereas keywords with a high CPA might need adjustments or be paused.

9. Auction Insights Report
The Auction Insights Report compares your keyword performance against other advertisers who are bidding on similar keywords. Key metrics include:

Impression Share: The percentage of impressions your ad received compared to the total number available.

Average Position: The relative position of your ads compared to others.

Overlap Rate: How often your ads appear alongside competitors' ads for the same keyword.

Example: If your keyword is showing a low impression share, it may indicate that competitors are outbidding you. You can use the Auction Insights Report to decide whether to increase your bids or refine your targeting to compete more effectively.

10. Microsoft Advertising Intelligence (Excel Add-in)
Microsoft Advertising Intelligence is an Excel add-in that provides advanced keyword research and performance analysis features. It allows you to:

Download keyword performance data directly into Excel.

Analyze trends and compare performance metrics over time.

Perform custom calculations and create pivot tables to drill deeper into keyword performance.

This tool is particularly useful if you need to perform more granular analysis or automate reporting and keyword analysis processes.

Example: Use the add-in to create customized reports, comparing keyword performance across different time periods or regions.

Conclusion
To analyze keyword performance in Bing Ads, you can rely on a variety of tools and reports such as the Campaign Manager, Keyword Performance Report, Search Query Report, Quality Score Report, and Device/Location/Demographic Reports. These insights enable you to fine-tune your campaigns, optimize bids, and make strategic decisions that align with your broader business objectives. By using these reports, you can identify high-performing keywords, adjust targeting, and maximize ROI.