Bing Ads has announced it is rolling out Upgraded URLs to all advertisers, which is said to be an easier and more efficient way of tracking URLs compared to the current destination URLs. Until now, Bing Ads has been using destination URLs, which are a combination of both your landing page URL and tracking parameters.
With destination URLs, parameters can be set to track information such as the search terms that led to a conversion, and the name of the campaign which returned an ad. The end result is long URL combining both your landing page URL and all your tracking parameters.
Upgraded URLs separate your landing page URL from the tracking parameters, which makes it easier to update tracking codes without any disruptions to your campaign. When creating upgraded URLs there will be separate fields for URLs and parameters, as demonstrated below:
Destination URLs vs. Upgraded URLs
The problem with destination URLs is that if you want to make a change to your tracking parameters you have to modify every individual destination URL. Now, with upgraded URLs, there is an account-level tracking template which allows you to make changes once and apply them throughout your whole campaign.
In addition, with upgraded URLs there is no wait time for your changes to be accepted. With destination URLs, any changes have to go through an editorial review process. That means your ads have to temporarily go offline until the changes have been accepted, which could end up costing you business.
Upgraded URLs have double the character limit of destination URLs, going from 1,024 characters to 2,048 characters. The new account-level tracking templates offers an additional 2,048 characters to work with. You will also be able to define separate mobile URLs to track data from users on smartphones and tablets.
You may already be familiar with upgraded URLs because Google AdWords has been using them since last year. If that’s the case, you can easily import your upgraded URLs from Google AdWords into Bing Ads. For more information on how to do that, refer to this help page.
Bing will continue to run text ads with destination URLs throughout the remainder of 2016. Before that time comes, Bing says it will release communication plans to help you better prepare for the migration to upgraded URLs.
