What are the best strategies for adjusting bids based on competitor activity on Bing Ads?

Adjusting bids based on competitor activity on Bing Ads is a crucial strategy for staying competitive in the marketplace. Monitoring competitor behavior and adjusting bids accordingly allows advertisers to maintain or improve ad position, optimize costs, and maximize return on investment (ROI). Third-party bid management platforms can help automate and fine-tune this process. Here are the best strategies for adjusting bids based on competitor activity:

1. Monitor Competitor Impression Share and Auction Insights
Auction Insights: Use Bing Ads' Auction Insights to track how your ads are performing relative to your competitors. This report shows key metrics such as impression share, average position, overlap rate, and position above rate. By monitoring these, you can determine if competitors are taking a larger share of the auction and adjust your bids accordingly.

Impression Share: If your impression share is low compared to competitors, it may indicate that you're losing ground in the auction. In this case, increasing bids or using bid adjustments for specific segments (e.g., devices, locations) could help regain visibility.

Position Above Rate: If competitors often appear above you in search results, you might need to raise your bids to improve your ad position and capture more traffic.

Strategy: If competitors are consistently outperforming you in impression share or ad rank, increasing bids strategically for high-priority keywords can help improve visibility and competitiveness.

2. Adjust Bids Based on Competitor's Bid Activity
Monitor Competitor's CPC Trends: Some third-party platforms allow you to track trends in CPC for specific keywords, giving insights into when competitors are increasing or decreasing their bids. If your competitors increase their bids and your ads drop in position, you may need to increase your bids to maintain visibility.

Strategy: Implement dynamic bidding strategies where your platform adjusts bids in real-time based on competitor activity. For instance, if a competitor increases their bid for a particular keyword, your bid management system could automatically adjust your bid to ensure you remain competitive.

3. Use Competitive Benchmarking Tools
Competitive Intelligence Tools: Many bid management platforms integrate competitive intelligence tools that can give you insights into competitor ad copy, bidding strategies, and keyword targeting. By analyzing this data, you can identify areas where your competitors are outperforming you or where there are gaps in their strategy.

Strategy: Based on competitive benchmarks, you may choose to adjust bids for specific keywords where your competitors are dominating or bid more aggressively on keywords that have less competition but high search volume.

4. Leverage Bid Adjustments by Device, Location, and Time of Day
Device-Specific Adjustments: If your competitors are dominating on mobile or desktop searches, adjust your bids specifically for those devices. For example, if you notice that your competitors are getting higher positions on mobile, you can increase bids for mobile devices to improve your visibility where it matters most.

Strategy: Use bid adjustments for specific geographies, devices, or times of day where competitors are seeing strong performance. For example, if competitors are bidding heavily during peak hours in specific regions, consider increasing your bids during those times and in those locations to maintain a competitive edge.

5. Aggressive Bidding on High-Value Keywords (Keyword Segmentation)
Focus on High-Intent Keywords: Keywords related to your competitors' brands or specific products might be more expensive, but also provide higher ROI. Bidding aggressively on these high-value keywords ensures you're not losing valuable traffic to competitors.

Strategy: Implement a smart bidding strategy that targets high-value branded and competitor-related keywords. For example, set a higher bid for keywords that are branded or closely tied to your competitors' products to maintain competitive visibility in searches for those terms.

Example: If your competitor is bidding on the term "Nike running shoes" and you sell similar products, you might choose to bid more aggressively on this term to appear above them.

6. Implement Automated Bidding with Competitor-Responsive Features
Automated Bidding Strategies: Many third-party bid management platforms allow you to set automated bidding rules that adjust bids based on competitor activity and performance trends. For example, you can use an automated strategy where the system automatically increases bids when a competitor's ad position moves ahead of yours in the auction.

Strategy: Use Target Impression Share (TIS) or Target CPA strategies to help automatically increase bids when you see your competitors gaining market share or reducing bids when your campaign performance is strong.

7. Use Competitive Insights for Ad Copy and Landing Page Optimization
Ad Copy and Landing Page Evaluation: Competitors with compelling ad copy and optimized landing pages can attract more clicks, even if they have similar or slightly higher bids. Regularly analyze competitor ads to understand their value proposition and unique selling points (USPs).

Strategy: Adjust your ad copy and landing pages based on competitive insights to increase your CTR and conversion rates. This can help reduce the cost-per-click while maintaining competitiveness.

8. Consider Bid Adjustments for Specific Competitor Triggers
Trigger-Based Bid Adjustments: Platforms can help you set up custom rules to adjust bids when certain competitor-related events happen. For instance, if a competitor launches a big promotion or changes their ad copy, you can adjust your bids in real-time to respond to their activity.

Strategy: Create trigger-based adjustments to raise or lower bids when your competitor is running a sale, has a limited-time offer, or increases their bid aggressively.

9. Utilize Competitive Exclusion in Specific Campaigns
Exclusion Strategy: If a competitor is bidding on the same keyword and has a much higher budget or better quality scores, you might choose to exclude them from bidding on that keyword.

Strategy: Use a negative targeting strategy to exclude specific competitor terms from your campaigns. This can help eliminate unprofitable competition and ensure your budget is spent efficiently.

10. Test and Optimize Based on Competitor Insights
Continuous A/B Testing: By regularly conducting A/B tests on your keywords, bids, and ads, you can learn more about how competitors' bidding strategies affect your campaign performance. Use the data from these tests to continuously refine your bid strategy.

Strategy: Set up test campaigns for both branded and non-branded keywords to monitor how your competitors are performing on those terms and adjust your bids accordingly. Optimize based on the results and keep testing regularly.

Conclusion
Bid adjustments based on competitor activity in Bing Ads are essential for maintaining a competitive edge in the marketplace. The best strategies involve using a combination of competitive insights, real-time data, and automated bidding to optimize ad position, control costs, and maximize ROI. Key strategies include:

Monitoring competitor impression share and auction insights.

Adjusting bids based on competitor CPC trends and keyword performance.

Using device, location, and time of day bid adjustments to capitalize on areas where competitors are strong.

Leveraging automated bidding strategies that respond to competitor activity.

Aggressive bidding on high-value, competitor-related keywords.

Optimizing ad copy and landing pages to differentiate from competitors.

By combining these strategies with insights from third-party platforms, you can ensure that your bids are well-adjusted to stay competitive, maintain visibility, and optimize your Bing Ads campaigns for the best possible performance.