After the Bing ad was placed, the exposure was extremely low, and there was not even a single click for several days? This is a problem that many global expansion companies encounter when they try Bing (Microsoft Advertising) for the first time. The reason for lack of volume may come from the market itself, or from the account structure, or from bidding or quality issues. This article provides systematic troubleshooting ideas to help you quickly locate the root cause.
Step 1: Determine whether it is a market size problem or an account problem
Before optimizing your account, determine whether there is sufficient Bing search demand in your target market. Use Microsoft Advertising's Keyword Planner tool (similar to Google Keyword Planner) to see the monthly search volume for your target keywords in your target countries.
If the monthly search volume of core keywords is less than 500–1000, it means that Bing's demand pool in this market segment itself is limited. This is a market structure problem, not an account problem. At this time, you should consider: expanding the keyword database (including more upstream words and solution words), or tilting the budget to Google, and using Bing to supplement segmented traffic.
If the keyword planning tool shows that there is sufficient search volume, but the ads are not exposed, it is an account-level problem. Continue with the troubleshooting below.
Troubleshooting common account issues at MoLiang
1. The bid is too low to enter the auction
Look at your ad group's First Page Bid Estimate and Top Bid Estimate (in the Keyword Competitiveness tab) to compare your actual bids to the estimates. If the actual bid is much lower than the recommended bid, your ad may barely show due to being placed too low in the auction.
Temporary workaround: Increase bids by 30%–50% in the short term in exchange for exposure data, and then gradually reduce prices after accumulating quality points.
2. Quality score is too low
Ads with a quality score below 5 out of 10 are ranked lower for the same bid and have a higher actual CPC, creating a vicious cycle. The quality score mainly consists of three parts: expected click-through rate (affected by ad copy), ad relevance (match between keywords and ads), and landing page experience.
Optimization method: Create exclusive ad copy (including the core keywords of the group) for each ad group. The content of the landing page strictly corresponds to the ad theme to ensure that the page loading speed and mobile terminal adaptation are normal.
3. Keyword matching method is too strict
If all keywords are set to exact match, and there are expression differences between the search terms and keywords, the keywords will not be able to participate in the auction. For example, if you accurately match "Industrial Pump Purchase", you cannot match variant expressions such as "Industrial Pump Purchase".
suggestion: Retain exact matching for core words, while supplementing corresponding phrase matching versions for each exact matching word to expand coverage.
4. Over-narrowing of audience targeting
When using LinkedIn audience targeting, if you stack multiple constraints at the same time (for example: specific industry + specific job title + specific company size), the audience pool may shrink to the point where it cannot be effectively auctioned.
Troubleshooting methods: Temporarily turn off all audience targeting adjustments, keep only keyword targeting, and observe whether the exposure is restored. If it recovers, it means that the audience targeting is excessively limiting the traffic.
5. Advertising schedule restrictions
If the ad schedule is set incorrectly (e. g., only runs during non-working hours), or does not match the target market time zone (e. g., China time zone and North American time zone are confused), the ad may not show during the times when the target user is active.
Troubleshooting methods: Check the ad schedule settings to confirm that the time zone is consistent with the target market, and observe the distribution of exposures during different time periods.
6. Budget is exhausted too early
If the daily budget is set too low, the budget may be exhausted very early in the day, causing your ads to not show for most of the time. This manifests itself in reporting as exposure concentrated in certain hours and almost zero the rest of the time.
Solution: Increase the daily budget, or change the delivery method from "accelerated delivery" to "standard delivery" to evenly distribute exposure throughout the day.
System troubleshooting process for insufficient Bing ads
- Use Keyword Planning Tool to Confirm Market Search Volume
- Compare the actual bid with the recommended bid to determine whether a price increase is needed
- Check quality scores, identify low-scoring ad groups and optimize copy/landing pages
- Temporarily relax matching methods and expand keyword coverage
- Turn off all audience narrowing targeting and troubleshoot audience pool issues
- Confirm ad schedule time zone is set correctly
- Check if daily budget is exhausted early
If there is still no volume after following the above process, please contact SeaSeek for assistance.Free diagnostics for Bing accounts. We manage millions of Bing ad budgets every day and can quickly identify systemic issues at the account level.
