How to Use Bing UET Tags and Conversion Goals
Boost Your Ad Performance with UET and Goal Setup in Bing Ads
Although Google Ads, the giant of the advertising world, is undoubtedly the best known and most used advertising platform, its competitors are also trying to increase their market share. One of the prominent ones in this field is Bing Ads. Bing Ads, which has managed to increase its market share over the years, also stands out with the UET and Goal processes it offers to advertisers. If you want to step into the vibrant world of advertising with Bing Ads, you can find a lot of useful information in this article.
The common goal of the leading platforms is to enable advertisers to reach their target audiences more accurately, increase conversion rates and utilize their advertising budgets effectively. However, in terms of performance, the success of advertising campaigns can vary depending on the platform and industry. This shows that the most appropriate advertising channels are also a criterion for the most appropriate ads for the target audience.
Bing Ads is an advertising service on Bing, Microsoft's search engine. Bing Ads offers businesses operating in various sectors the opportunity to market and advertise through search, display and other advertising models1 2.
Bing Ads has some important features that differentiate it from other advertising platforms. These features are as follows:
- Lower competition: Bing Ads faces lower competition than other major advertising platforms, such as Google Ads. This means lower advertising costs and higher conversion rates despite fewer clicks on ads.
- Demographic targeting: Bing Ads offers a more advanced option for demographic targeting than other platforms. Advertisers can target based on characteristics such as age, gender, income and education level.
- Lower cost keywords: The cost of keywords in Bing Ads is lower than other major platforms, such as Google Ads. This allows for more effective use of the advertising budget.
- Bing Search Network: Bing Ads is hosted on Bing, the search engine owned by Microsoft, and having advertisers on the Bing Search Network means that they face less competition than advertisers on the Google Search Network.
- Integration: Bing Ads integrates with Microsoft's other products. In particular, tools such as Microsoft Advertising Intelligence, Excel, and Power BI help to better manage and improve the performance of Bing Ads campaigns.
These features differentiate Bing Ads from other advertising platforms and can be effective in making advertisers prefer Bing Ads. Bing Ads campaign performance measurement is realized through UET and Goal definitions.
What is UET?
UET (Universal Event Tracking) is a Bing Ads feature and is a unique identifier (Tag ID) used to measure and optimize the performance of advertising campaigns3. UET allows you to track and monitor your website visitor's behavior. UET is also required for goals. When creating a goal, the UET with which it will be associated can also be selected.
Conversion data, i.e., goals, are grouped under a unique UET Tag ID definition. Multiple UET definitions can be created in a Bing Ads account for different domains or different goals.
This makes it possible to measure the number of users taking specific actions and which campaigns triggered those actions. For example, a specific group of e-commerce actions, such as a user purchasing a product on your website, form submissions, or page views, can be evaluated separately on a domain or action basis. In this way, the advertising budget can be used more effectively, conversion rates can increase, and the performance of campaigns can be improved.
The UET tag can be added via code or Google Tag Manager (GTM) tags.
If you want to be added through Google Tag Manager, access must be granted for the relevant container.
Once accessed, Bing scans the tags in the container and adds Bing Ads tags as appropriate.
However, it would be appropriate to validate the relevant tags, associated triggers, and parameters via both Google Tag Manager - Preview Mode and UET Tag Helper4.
What is a Goal?
In Bing Ads, a Goal is a conversion tag format used to measure how successful a campaign has been.
Goals consist of a series of actions that need to be completed in order to reach a specific goal, which can be started through advertising campaigns. For example, actions such as purchasing a product, a thank you page, or form submission can be used to define a Goal. Goals help you measure the performance of your campaigns and optimize them as needed5.
Bing Ads offers separate goal formats for offline, mobile app and website. The website goals I have chosen for this article have sales, form activities & lead generation, and other categories.
How to Setup UET and Goal?
Setting up UET and Goal in Bing Ads is quite easy. First, you need to log in to your Bing Ads account and then select Conversion Tracking from the Tools menu6 5. Here, UETs and Goals can be created and existing ones can be managed.
The UET setup requires you to add a JavaScript code. This code must be present on all pages of your website and must match the UET code you created in your Bing Ads account. The UET code will track your website visitor's behavior.
Goal setup can be done after making sure that the UET code is working correctly. During goal setup, actions and goals that need to be completed can be set. Goal definition is done using event and page information.
Bing goal definitions are similar to Universal Analytics goal definitions. In order for a data flow to be included in a goal, it must be associated with a page or event.
Goals associated with the page can be defined as a destination URL and an event. In Destination URL usage, URL definitions such as contains, starts, etc. can be used as a definition.
In event related goals, event category, action/action, tag and value fields are used for rules.
When using the event, the specified parameter conditions for goal counting must be met. Otherwise, the corresponding goal will not perform a count.
Goals create conversion values by means of notation and values. For a goal to qualify as a conversion, the Include in "Conversions" selection must be active.
Otherwise, the related goal will not be included in the conversion column of the campaign, even if it achieves the count. Goals that are not marked as conversions are not included in the campaign performance measurement.
A generated event can be associated with a page load or an in-page action (inline action).
The following JavaScript snippet can be added to the website manually or through Clarity.
When the goal setup process is done with Google Tag Manager, Bing Ads helps create the relevant tags. Also, if it is installed, the Microsoft Advertising Universal Event Tracking template can be used in a similar way to Bing Ads.
Once the UET and Goal setup are complete, the performance of campaigns can be monitored and optimized as needed. In this way, the advertising budget can be used more effectively and conversion rates can be increased.
UET and Unverified Goals
For UETs and goals to be processed, there must be a healthy data flow. A newly established UET tag and goal will not be verified unless there is no data flow. Verification of UETs and goals is critical to the success of ad campaigns on Bing Ads. A healthy data flow is necessary for UETs and goals to be processed.
In case UET and/or goals are not verified although there is data flow, it will be appropriate to check the relevant UET identifier and goal rules. In case the UET is verified and the destination is not verified, the relevant destination should be checked separately via Network signals and UET Tag Helper.
Data flow can be analyzed through UET tags. By clicking the UET ID value on the UET tag page, the data transmitted to that ID value can be viewed as events and exported in CSV format for detailed review.
If the goal definition sent for the relevant UET has parameters, you can look at the "Parameters Received" column to see what those parameters are. The data flow here can be taken as a basis when creating a goal.
The exported UET data flow for the Purchase event is exemplified below.
Event Detail Report: 03/14/2023 - 03/27/2023
Event Type: purchase
Last Received: 03/27/2023 11:12:00
Event Summary:
Date,Events Received
03/24/2023,0
03/25/2023,0
03/26/2023,10
03/27/2023,10
Event Details:
Event Date,Event Time,URL,Parameter received,Parameter value
03/27/2023,11:12:00,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,11:12:00,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,11:12:00,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,11:12:00,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200
03/27/2023,10:56:27,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,10:56:27,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,10:56:27,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,10:56:27,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200
03/27/2023,10:08:50,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,10:08:50,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,10:08:50,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,10:08:50,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200
03/27/2023,09:57:02,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,09:57:02,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,09:57:02,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,09:57:02,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200
03/27/2023,09:53:24,https://domain.com/,GoalValue,200
03/27/2023,09:53:24,https://domain.com/,PageType,purchase
03/27/2023,09:53:24,https://domain.com/,ProductId,[1]
03/27/2023,09:53:24,https://domain.com/,EcommTotalValue,200Event Details section contains the parameters of the target.
Now that we have covered the technical details of Bing Ads UET and goals, let's take a look at how to set them up step-by-step. Follow these instructions to get started with UET and goals on Bing Ads and improve the performance of your ad campaigns.
Setting up and Validating UET and Goals on Bing Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Create a UET Tag
To get started, log in to your Bing Ads account and select "Conversion Tracking" from the "Tools" menu. Then, click on "Create UET tag" and follow the instructions to generate a UET code. This code is a JavaScript snippet that needs to be added to all pages of your website.
It's important to make sure that the UET code is present on all pages of your website and matches the UET code you created in your Bing Ads account. The UET code tracks user behavior on your website and sends data to your Bing Ads account.
Step 2: Set Up Goals
Once you've set up your UET tag, the next step is to create goals. Goals define the specific actions you want users to take on your website. To create a goal, go to the "Conversion Tracking" section in your Bing Ads account and select "Create goal."
There are several different types of goals you can create, including:
Destination URL: This type of goal tracks when a user visits a specific page on your website, such as a "Thank You" page after completing a purchase. Duration: This type of goal tracks when a user spends a certain amount of time on your website, such as five minutes or more. Pages per visit: This type of goal tracks when a user visits a certain number of pages on your website, such as four pages or more. Event: This type of goal tracks when a user performs a specific action on your website, such as submitting a form or clicking a button. For each goal, you can specify the criteria for the goal to be considered completed. For example, you might specify that a Destination URL goal is considered completed when a user visits the "Thank You" page after making a purchase.
Step 3: Verify UET and Goals
To make sure that your UET tag and goals are working correctly, you can verify them in the Bing Ads interface. When you create a goal, Bing Ads will provide you with a tag to add to the page where the goal is completed. Once the tag is added, you can use the "Test conversion" button in the Bing Ads interface to make sure that the goal is being tracked correctly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Bing Ads offers many features that differentiate it from other major advertising platforms. Features such as demographic targeting options, lower cost keywords, lower competition, and integration advantages make Bing Ads more effective and advantageous than other platforms.
Setting UET and goals correctly is very important to improve the performance of ad campaigns. Accurate verification of these elements ensures that campaigns reach the targeted audiences and achieve higher conversion rates.