How the US's terrorism watchlists work – and how you could end up on one

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "guardian egyptian web" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 20px;">Long-withheld document provides insight into secretive system in which people can be placed on terrorism databases with astounding ease, and without any way to get off</span><br /> <br /> <br /> <header class="content__head content__head--article tonal__head tonal__head--tone-feature" style="background-color: white; color: #121212; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><div class="content__meta-container js-content-meta u-cf " style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: center top; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 12.4375rem; margin-bottom: 0.375rem; min-height: 2.25rem; order: 1; padding-top: 0.9375rem; position: relative;"> <div class="meta__extras meta__extras--notice " style="border-top: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); 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display: block; height: 372px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 620px;" /></picture></div> <span class="inline-expand-image inline-icon centered-icon rounded-icon article__fullscreen modern-visible" style="background-color: rgba(51, 51, 51, 0.6); border-radius: 62.5rem; display: inline-block; fill: rgb(255, 255, 255); height: 2.75rem; margin: 0.625rem; opacity: 0; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; transition: opacity 0.15s ease-out 0s; vertical-align: middle; width: 2.75rem;"><svg class="centered-icon__svg rounded-icon__svg article__fullscreen__svg modern-visible__svg inline-expand-image__svg inline-icon__svg" height="22" viewbox="0 0 22 22" width="22"><path d="M3.4 20.2L9 14.5 7.5 13l-5.7 5.6L1 14H0v7.5l.5.5H8v-1l-4.6-.8M18.7 1.9L13 7.6 14.4 9l5.7-5.7.5 4.7h1.2V.6l-.5-.5H14v1.2l4.7.6"></path></svg></span></a><figcaption class="caption caption--main caption--img" itemprop="description" style="color: #767676; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; max-width: none; min-height: 0px; padding: 0.5rem 0px 0.375rem;"><span class="inline-triangle inline-icon hide-until-tablet" style="fill: rgb(199, 0, 0); font-size: 0.75rem;"> </span><span style="font-size: 0.75rem;">The US government made more than 450,000 nominations for inclusion on its watchlist in 2013. Photograph: Bogdan Cristel/Reuters</span></figcaption></figure></header><br /> <div class="content__article-body from-content-api js-article__body" data-test-id="article-review-body" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-family: "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: 1.5rem; margin-left: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding-bottom: 4.5rem; position: relative;"> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> <span class="drop-cap" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ab0613; display: inline-block; float: left; font-family: "guardian egyptian web" , "georgia" , serif; height: 5rem; margin-right: 0.3125rem; padding-top: 0.0625rem; text-transform: uppercase;"><span class="drop-cap__inner" style="display: inline-block; font-size: 6.8125rem; font-weight: 700; line-height: 4.6875rem; vertical-align: text-top;">P</span></span>lacement on a terrorism watchlist is a life-changing event. Your travel is monitored and in many cases restricted. If overseas, you could be stranded, costing your employment or reunion with your family. You could be detained and, certain lawsuits allege, tortured by foreign governments.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Yet the ease with which someone can be placed on US watchlists and terrorism databases contrasts markedly with the impact placement has. A long-withheld document <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/07/23/blacklisted/" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #ab0613; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">published on Wednesday by the Intercept</a> detailing the guidelines for placement shows that the standards for inclusion are far lower than probable cause, and the ability for someone caught in the datasets to challenge their placement do not exist. In 2013, the government made 468,749 nominations for inclusion to the Terrorist Screening Database, up from 227,932 nominations in 2009; few are rejected.<br /> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7929720390156938" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout-key="-hp-4+19-50+7o" data-ad-slot="1266361355" style="display: block;"></ins><script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> The rise – and the low standards the Intercept documented – is partially explained by the near-miss airliner bombing in Christmas 2009, by a man connected to a Yemeni branch of al-Qaida. Partially it is explained by the overwhelming secrecy surrounding the process: attorney general Eric Holder has called it a state secret (although the guidance document itself is unclassified), preventing meaningful outside challenges that would recalibrate a balance between reasonable expectations of security and liberty.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> That secrecy, as the Intercept's publication indicates, is starting to erode – slowly. Recent court cases have given the beginnings of insight into how the US government's apparatus of terrorism databases and watchlists works in practice. Here is a guide.</div> <h2 style="font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 1.6875rem 0px 0.0625rem;"> <strong>They're reading your tweets</strong></h2> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> The watchlisting guidance says that "first amendment protected activity alone shall not be the basis" for nominating someone to the lists. The key word: <em>alone. </em>What you say, write and publish can and will be used against you. Particularly if you tweet it, pin it or share it.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> The guidelines recognize that looking at "postings on social media sites" is constitutionally problematic. But those posts "should not automatically be discounted", the guidelines state. Instead, the agency seeking to watchlist someone should evaluate the "credibility of the source, as well as the nature and specificity of the information". If they're concerned about a tweet, in other words, they're likely to go through a user's timeline. That joke about that band blowing up could come back to haunt you at the airport.</div> <h2 style="font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 1.6875rem 0px 0.0625rem;"> <strong>Where you go might get you placed on the list – and then stranded</strong></h2> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Contained within the guidance is a potential reason why many US Muslims find themselves <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/22/yemeni-americans-us-embassy-sanaa-passports" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #ab0613; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">abruptly unable to return from trips abroad</a> without explanation. An example given of "potential behavioral indicators" of terrorism is "travel for no known lawful or legitimate purpose to a locus of TERRORISM ACTIVITY". Not defined: "lawful", "legitimate" or "locus". That could mean specific training camps, travel to which few would dispute the merits of watchlisting. Or it could mean entire countries where terrorists are known or suspected of operating – and where millions of Americans travel every year.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> The guidelines themselves, in that very section, warn that such behavioral indicators include "activity that may have innocent explanations wholly unrelated to terrorism". It warns analysts not to judge any circumstance "in isolation".</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> What happens on the no-fly list does not stay on the no-fly list. A federal judge, writing in June, noted that the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center shares information on banned passengers with 22 foreign governments as well as "ship captains", resulting in potential "interference with an individual's ability to travel by means other than commercial airlines".</div> <br /> <br /> <figure class="element element-image img--landscape " data-component="image" data-media-id="gu-fc-77d6bded-b527-4c25-8908-169e6f9dfa75" itemprop="associatedMedia image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 1rem 0px 0.75rem; position: relative;"><div class="u-responsive-ratio" style="overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 372px; position: relative; width: 620px;"> <picture><source media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" sizes="620px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/6/1404669780492/84deece3-cb01-417c-aade-eaeaa514d0e5-620x372.jpeg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=c7dcf4275ed4ef64bab650e2e976c941 1240w"></source><source media="(min-width: 660px)" sizes="620px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/6/1404669780492/84deece3-cb01-417c-aade-eaeaa514d0e5-620x372.jpeg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=23085a897c4498189877220b8bc04821 620w"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" sizes="605px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/6/1404669780492/84deece3-cb01-417c-aade-eaeaa514d0e5-620x372.jpeg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3dbe9f01819b3b8436c613808ccc761c 1210w"></source><source media="(min-width: 480px)" sizes="605px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/6/1404669780492/84deece3-cb01-417c-aade-eaeaa514d0e5-620x372.jpeg?width=605&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=773b8e117cc8adce5783c93aafa4dffe 605w"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 0px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" sizes="445px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/6/1404669780492/84deece3-cb01-417c-aade-eaeaa514d0e5-620x372.jpeg?width=445&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=b20a4f19001cd8cd224e182940be7058 890w"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)" sizes="445px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/6/1404669780492/84deece3-cb01-417c-aade-eaeaa514d0e5-620x372.jpeg?width=445&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=ac3abdac32b863c7b918ad9626e5660f 445w"></source><img alt="Transportation Security Administration screeners check passengers as they prepare to board flights. tsa" class="gu-image" itemprop="contentUrl" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/7/6/1404669780492/84deece3-cb01-417c-aade-eaeaa514d0e5-620x372.jpeg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b200ab65c412407920a874e44e02471c" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: 372px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 620px;" /></picture></div> <figcaption class="caption caption--img caption caption--img" itemprop="description" style="color: #767676; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; min-height: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0.5rem;"><span class="inline-triangle inline-icon " style="fill: rgb(199, 0, 0);"><svg class="inline-triangle__svg inline-icon__svg" height="10" viewbox="0 0 11 10" width="11"><path d="M5.5 0L11 10H0z" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg> </span>Transportation Security Administration screeners check passengers as they prepare to board flights. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images</figcaption></figure><br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Many people who have sued the US government over the watchlists have reported being unable to return from travel abroad. Ali Ahmed, a US citizen in San Diego, attempted in 2012 to fly to Kenya to meet his fiancee for their arranged marriage. But first he flew to Saudi Arabia to make the religiously encouraged pilgrimage to Mecca; he found himself <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/Jul/02/no-fly-list-grounds-another-san-diegan/?#article-copy" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #ab0613; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">stranded in Bahrain</a> after he was unable to enter Kenya. Ayman Latif, a disabled US marine originally from Miami who now lives in Egypt, was prevented from flying to the US for a disability evaluation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.<br /> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7929720390156938" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout-key="-hp-4+19-50+7o" data-ad-slot="1266361355" style="display: block;"></ins><script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script></div> <h2 style="font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 1.6875rem 0px 0.0625rem;"> <strong>There's room for the family (and perhaps your friends)</strong></h2> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> A precursor data set that feeds the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB or, "the watchlist") is the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center. TIDE contains records of known or suspected international terrorists. It also contains information on their families and perhaps their friends.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> "Alien spouses and children" of people NCTC labels terrorists get put into TIDE. They "may be inadmissible to the United States", presumed to be dangerous. TIDE also contains "non-terrorist" records of people who have a "close relationship with KNOWN or SUSPECTED terrorists", the guidance reads. Examples listed are fathers or brothers, although the guidance does not specify a blood or marital relationship as necessary for inclusion. Those people can be American citizens or noncitizens inside the United States. While those "close relation[s]" are not supposed to be passed on for watchlisting absent other "derogatory information", their data may be retained within TIDE for unspecified "analytic purposes".</div> <h2 style="font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 1.6875rem 0px 0.0625rem;"> <strong>Just because a jury finds you innocent doesn't mean watchlists agree</strong></h2> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> The guidelines explicitly state that someone "acquitted or against whom charges are dismissed for a crime related to terrorism" can still be watchlisted. A federal official nominating such a person for inclusion on the list just needs "reasonable suspicion" of a danger – something defined as more than "mere guesses or hunches", based on articulable information or "rational inferences" from it, but far less than probable cause. A judge or jury's decision is not controlling.</div> <h2 style="font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 1.6875rem 0px 0.0625rem;"> <strong>Watch how you walk</strong></h2> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> In keeping with a general enthusiasm exhibited by law enforcement and the military for identifying someone based on their seemingly unique physical attributes, biometric information is eligible as a criteria to watchlist someone. Several of those biometric identifiers are traditional law enforcement ones, like fingerprints; others are exceptionally targeted, like DNA. Then there are others that reflect emerging or immature analytic subjects: "digital images", iris scans, and "gait" – that is, the way you walk.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Gait and other biometric identifiers do not appear sufficient to watchlist someone. But they are sufficient to nominate someone to the watchlist or TIDE, provided they rise to the "minimum substantive derogatory standards" – articulable reasons for suspecting someone of involvement of terrorism, a far lower standard than probable cause – unless they come accompanied with evidence that the manner of walk in question includes "an individual with a defined relationship with the KNOWN or SUSPECTED terrorist". It does not appear that a particular swagger by itself can be watchlisted.</div> <h2 style="font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 1.6875rem 0px 0.0625rem;"> <strong>Lisa says …</strong></h2> <br /> <br /> <figure class="element element-image img--landscape fig--narrow-caption fig--has-shares " data-component="image" data-media-id="gu-fc-4fcb908f-dbbe-478b-860d-4aef3f9c42b0" id="img-2" itemprop="associatedMedia image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="margin: 1rem 0px 0.75rem; position: relative;"><a class="article__img-container js-gallerythumbs" data-is-ajax="" data-link-name="Launch Article Lightbox" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/24/us-terrorism-watchlist-work-no-fly-list#img-2" style="background: transparent; color: #c70000; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;"><div class="u-responsive-ratio" style="overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 372px; 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height: 0.0625rem !important; margin: -0.0625rem !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; width: 0.0625rem !important;">Pinterest</span></a></div> <figcaption class="caption caption--img caption caption--img" itemprop="description" style="color: #767676; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; max-width: 32.5rem; min-height: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0.5rem;"><span class="inline-triangle inline-icon " style="fill: rgb(199, 0, 0);"><svg class="inline-triangle__svg inline-icon__svg" height="10" viewbox="0 0 11 10" width="11"><path d="M5.5 0L11 10H0z" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg> </span>Barack Obama consults his homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, in the Oval Office.<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/8663681063/" style="background: transparent; color: #c70000; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Photograph: White House</a></figcaption></figure><br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Lisa Monaco is a former US attorney who holds one of the most powerful and least accountable positions in the US security apparatus: assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism. She has enormous influence over the watchlisting system.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> The guidelines empower Monaco, her successor or a designee to make a "temporary, threat-based upgrade" to "categories of individuals" already watchlisted. The intent appears to be the creation of a single government official able to rapidly keep people off airlines once threat information, often fragmentary and rarely specific, emerges to indicate an imminent terrorist attack. It is unclear what characterizes a "category". The White House says she has never exercised the power.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Monaco, like others holding her position, does not answer to Congress. No Senate confirms her. Anyone who tries to obtain her official communications will face a legal defense of executive privilege. It appears commensurate with the extraordinary if inconsistent secrecy surrounding watchlisting – attorney general Eric Holder said the procedures were a state secret even as the guidelines outlining them are not classified – that she and not a Senate-confirmable appointee makes the upgrading decision.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> An administration official declined to confirm authenticity of the document, but said Monaco has never exercised any such temporary authority. The administration did not say why she and not a cabinet official or subordinate has those powers in the first place.<br /> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7929720390156938" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout-key="-hp-4+19-50+7o" data-ad-slot="1266361355" style="display: block;"></ins><script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script></div> <h2 style="font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 1.6875rem 0px 0.0625rem;"> <strong>You can be turned into an informant (or punished if you refuse)</strong></h2> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Keeping track of suspected terrorists may not be the only purpose the watchlisting system serves. Recent lawsuits allege that the FBI uses it to as leverage to turn people into snitches.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> A 30-year-old Afghan American, Naveed Shinwari, found that after FBI agents questioned him about his 2012 travel to Afghanistan – he was getting married – he couldn't obtain a boarding pass he needed for an out-of-state job interview. Soon he found himself talking to other FBI agents, who wanted to know if he knew anyone "threatening" his community in Omaha, Nebraska.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> "That’s where it was mentioned to me: you help us, we help you. We know you don’t have a job; we’ll give you money," Shinwari, who is suing over the apparent quid pro quo, <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/23/no-fly-list-fbi-coerce-muslims" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #ab0613; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">told the Guardian in April.</a></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Similarly, in Oregon, a man named <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/04/portland_muslim_claims_fbi_inv.html" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #ab0613; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">Yonas Fikre</a> is suing the government for allegedly attempting to parlay his no-fly list placement into getting him to infiltrate a prominent Portland mosque. After Fikre declined, he claims, he traveled to the United Arab Emirates, where he was detained, beaten on the soles of his feet and placed in "stress positions" – all, he says, while his torturers asked him questions about the Portland mosque that were suspiciously similar to those the FBI asked.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Effectively, said Gadeir Abbas, attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the watchlists "provide law enforcement with an extra-judicial tool to impose consequences on predominantly Muslims who choose to exercise their rights instead of becoming informants."</div> <h2 style="font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 1.6875rem 0px 0.0625rem;"> <strong>So much for that job</strong></h2> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Being unable to travel is in some ways more invasive than other forms of surveillance. Unless your friends spend their time digging through court records, they will be unlikely to find out that, say, your assets were frozen, even you suddenly can't pay for dinners. Not all jobs ask about or care about an arrest.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Traveling is different. Being unable to travel on short notice is what Abbas calls a "publicly accessible fact" – that is, something your friends, family and co-workers will learn about in time. His client Gulet Mohammed is an information-technology professional in northern Virginia. "Not allowing him to be able to cover great distances in a short amount of time, that has a dramatic impact on what his prospects are," Abbas said.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Earl Knaeble IV, an army veteran from California, alleges in a lawsuit that he lost a job offered to him after he was unable to return to the US for a pre-employment medical exam after he got married in Colombia. He attempted, unsuccessfully, to drive home.</div> <h2 style="font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 1.6875rem 0px 0.0625rem;"> <strong>You can't get off – yet</strong></h2> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> There is no procedure to challenge and reverse your status on the no-fly list, the terrorism watchlist or TIDE. Inclusion on any is not typically disclosed – making legal remedies difficult – nor does the government provide any process for removal. Travelers suspicious about why their attempts to fly were unsuccessful can launch a <a class="u-underline" data-link-name="in body link" href="http://www.dhs.gov/dhs-trip" style="background: transparent; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); color: #ab0613; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none !important; touch-action: manipulation; transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">redress request</a> through the Department of Homeland Security, but that process does not challenge inclusion on a watchlist or database, nor will even successful requests guarantee against future travel restrictions. Procedures that will, identified within the guidance, are exclusively internal government processes.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> "The only way to get off the federal watchlist is through the beneficence of a federal agent, routinely coupled with some form of cooperation with the FBI," Abbas said.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> But that lack of redress has now imperiled the no-fly list. Last month, in a federal judge in Oregon ruled that the inability of individuals to extricate themselves from the list is a due-process violation, rejecting the government's contention that there is no constitutional right to travel.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> "Such an argument ignores the numerous reasons that an individual may have for wanting or needing to travel overseas quickly, such as the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, a business opportunity or a religious obligation," judge Anna Brown found.</div> <div style="margin-bottom: 1rem; padding: 0px;"> Yet the legal battle over the no-fly list is practically certain to continue. Nor does Brown's ruling touch on the broader watchlists and datasets from which the no-fly list draws.</div> <div class="after-article js-after-article" style="content: " "; margin-top: 1.5rem; position: relative;"> </div> <div class="submeta " style="background-image: repeating-linear-gradient(rgb(220, 220, 220), rgb(220, 220, 220) 0.0625rem, transparent 0.0625rem, transparent 0.25rem); background-position: center top; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 0.0625rem 0.8125rem; margin-top: 0.75rem; padding-top: 1.125rem;"> <span class="submeta__label" style="color: #999999; display: block; font-family: "guardian text sans web" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , sans-serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; margin-top: -0.1875rem;">Topics</span><br /> <div class="submeta__section-labels"> <ul class="submeta__links" style="font-size: 0px; list-style-position: inside; margin: 0px 0px 0px -0.3125rem; padding: 0px;"> <li class="submeta__link-item" style="display: inline-block;"><a class="submeta__link" data-link-name="article section" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/air-transport" style="background: transparent; color: #c70000; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.25rem; padding-left: 0.3em; padding-right: 0.35em; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Air transport</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="submeta__keywords" style="border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); margin-bottom: 0.375rem; padding-bottom: 0.75rem;"> <ul class="submeta__links" style="font-size: 0px; list-style-position: inside; margin: 0px 0px 0px -0.3125rem; padding: 0px;"> <li class="submeta__link-item" style="display: inline-block;"><a class="submeta__link" data-link-name="keyword: us-news/obama-administration" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/obama-administration" style="background: transparent; color: #c70000; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; line-height: 1.375rem; padding-left: 0.3em; padding-right: 0.35em; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">Obama administration</a></li>   <li class="submeta__link-item" style="display: inline-block;"><a class="submeta__link" data-link-name="tone: features" href="https://www.theguardian.com/tone/features" style="background: transparent; color: #c70000; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: "Guardian Text Sans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; line-height: 1.375rem; padding-left: 0.3em; padding-right: 0.35em; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;">features</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div>

ARTICLES How the US's terrorism watchlists work – and how you could end up on one

Long-withheld document provides insight into secretive system in which people can be placed on terrorism databases with astounding ease, an...

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Use This Simple Trick To Protect Your Computer For Free

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 class="headline head1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 50px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -1.2px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto 24px; max-width: 992px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"> Latest: Computer Owners</h1> <h1 class="headline head1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 50px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; letter-spacing: -1.2px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto 24px; max-width: 992px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">  Swarm To Do This Today…</h1> <div> <div class="featured featured-video video-ct" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 994px;"> <div class="contain" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="video-container" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <img src="http://www.the-review-experts.com/files/7b044b-1535544195.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; height: auto !important; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div> <div class="info" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 16px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="caption" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(206, 223, 239); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <h4 class="title" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Is your PC running slow or unprotected?</h4> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="mainarticlecontent" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thousands of PC users across Egypt are swarming to claim a software that has gone viral this year.</span> This new software is protecting people’s computers from hackers, unwanted software and helping speed up performance.<br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By Web Life Advice – Tech enthusiast investigate a free scan that has just gone viral in Egypt.</span><br /> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7929720390156938" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout-key="-hp-4+19-50+7o" data-ad-slot="1266361355" style="display: block;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script></span><br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> If you live in Egypt and have a Windows computer that needs protecting, not running how you would like it or want to increase your security then this may be the most important article you ever read.<br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> Thousands of people across Egypt are rushing to get their hands on the latest software that is instantly protecting PC users after recent press that malware is on the rise.<br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">They are calling it; “A Game Changer for internet users.”</span></span><br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> An elite team of renowned developers have built a security tool that they believe will be the last piece of software consumers will ever need.<br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> The software uses an advanced algorithm to instantly increase the security whilst helping speed up your system. First, it identifies any hidden threats or online tracking cookies. Then it locates redundant files and cached memory, the files that can make your PC run slow.<br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> The software can be used as an alternative for your Antivirus, or an additional layer of security that they believe is more advanced than any Antivirus product out there. Anyone can use it, and it only takes a few minutes to set up.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://track.avtrk2manage.com/click" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" center="" class="downloadlink" src="http://www.the-review-experts.com/files/scan_in_progress.PNG" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; height: 408px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 714px;" /></a></span></span><br /> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> Product Manager, David, from ScanGuard, explains; “Our main objective for creating the application was simple. Over the past few months malware has been on the rise, and other Antivirus may be struggling to keep up. We wanted to build a software that gave consumers an additional layer of protection, at the same time help speed up their devices. We believe with the right care Windows computers can last much longer.”<br /> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7929720390156938" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout-key="-hp-4+19-50+7o" data-ad-slot="1266361355" style="display: block;"></ins><script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> He continues, “People already love the system. Our plan is to give as many free scan licenses away so that it goes viral. We feel good knowing that we're helping make things faster and more secure for our customers.”<br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How Do I Claim This Free Scan?</span></span><br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> If you own a Windows Computer then you are eligible for a free security scan. Scanguard™ are still currently offering the free scan, we advise users to claim it whilst it is still available.</div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="well" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: 10px solid rgb(23, 68, 96); border-radius: 0px !important; border-right: none; border-top: none; box-shadow: none !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="downloadlink" href="http://track.avtrk2manage.com/click" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(167, 198, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003366; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Download Your Free Scanguard™ Scan Here</span></a></span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Scanguard™ free plan will offer you a version of the software which will monitor your PC in full for harmful threats, unwanted software or potentially dangerous tracking cookies. If the software locates threats you can manually remove them from your system or upgrade to Scanguard's premium plan to have the software remove them automatically.<br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> To maintain peak performance and keep your computer secure, schedule the scan to run every 7 days. It roughly takes 10 minutes to fully analyze your system.<br /> <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /> Once you have downloaded the software you can also claim free licenses for all of your devices, including your Office & Home PC, Smartphone & even Tablet. It's no surprise that thousands of computer owners are taking advantage of this approved security system to keep themselves and their devices safe.<br /> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7929720390156938" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout-key="-hp-4+19-50+7o" data-ad-slot="1266361355" style="display: block;"></ins><script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script></div> </div> </div> <h2 class="sub-title center" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #174460; font-family: Montserrat; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"> Select Your Computer:</h2> <div class="age-select" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; justify-content: center; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto 10px; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 994px;"> <a class="age" href="https://track.avtrk2manage.com/click" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 90px; line-height: 90px; margin: 5px 0px 0px; min-width: 90px; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 90px;">Dell</a><a class="age" href="https://track.avtrk2manage.com/click" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 90px; line-height: 90px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 5px; min-width: 90px; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 90px;">HP</a><a class="age" href="https://track.avtrk2manage.com/click" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 90px; line-height: 90px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 5px; min-width: 90px; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 90px;">Lenovo</a><a class="age" href="https://track.avtrk2manage.com/click" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 90px; line-height: 90px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 5px; min-width: 90px; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 90px;">Toshiba</a><a class="age" href="https://track.avtrk2manage.com/click" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 90px; line-height: 90px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 5px; min-width: 90px; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 90px;">Apple</a><a class="age" href="https://track.avtrk2manage.com/click" style="background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 90px; line-height: 90px; margin: 5px 0px 0px 5px; min-width: 90px; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background 0s ease 0s, all 0.25s ease 0s, all 0s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 90px;">Other</a><br /> <div> <br /></div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> </div> </div> </div>

TECHNOLOGY Use This Simple Trick To Protect Your Computer For Free

Latest: Computer Owners  Swarm To Do This Today… Is your PC running slow or unprotected? Thousands of PC users across Eg...

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How To Advertise Your Small Business Using Bing Ads

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Advertising your small business on search engines is a great way to get your website in front of potential customers at the moment they are looking for your type of product or service. Many people immediately think of Google for this type of advertising, but you shouldn’t overlook other search engines, such as <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a>.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> With over 30% of the search engine market share and 5 billion monthly searches, there is huge potential to reach your target market with Bing ads. <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/september-2018/Anonymous-URL-Submission-Tool-Being-Retired" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Click here for a free $50 advertising credit for Bing. ">Click here for a free $100 advertising credit for Bing when you spend $25.& nbsp;</a></div> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5000840460921388" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="8123589804" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins></div> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; text-align: center;"> <a class="button" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" style="-webkit-appearance: none; background-color: #ed833f; border-radius: 4px; border: none; box-shadow: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-size: 15px; line-height: 41px; min-width: 130px; padding: 0px 20px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; width: auto;" target="_blank">Visit Bing</a></div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> In this article we will cover:</div> <h2 dir="ltr" id="what-bing-is" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">What Is Bing Ads?</span></h2> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing Ads">Bing Ads</a> is the advertising platform you use to show ads on the Bing network, which includes the <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing.com">Bing.com</a>, Yahoo.com, and Aol.com search engines. You can also use Bing’s advertising platform to advertise on third party websites and apps that Bing owns, but we will be focusing on the search engine network in this article.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Bing ads on the search engine results page look almost identical to the regular search results, and appear at the top, bottom, or side of the page.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <img alt="bing ads" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67006 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads.png 830w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-267x300.png 267w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-768x863.png 768w" data-was-processed="true" height="933" sizes="(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads.png 830w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-267x300.png 267w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-768x863.png 768w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="830" /></div> <h2 dir="ltr" id="how-ads-work" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">How Advertising on Bing Works</span></h2> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5000840460921388" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="8123589804" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins>When a user searches for a term, <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a> shows ads on the search engine results page based on the search term that was used. For example, if you search for “nail salon chicago,” you will see ads for nail salons in Chicago on the results page.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Whenever someone conducts a search, Bing holds an “auction” to determine which ads to show on the search engine results page. Bing takes the following into account when deciding whether or not to display an ad:</div> <ul dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; margin-top: 0px;"> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Amount bid – </span>Bing wants to make money off of your advertisement. Therefore, if you outbid your competition, you are more likely to have your ad show. However, Bing only gets paid when someone clicks on the ad, which is where factor #2 comes in.</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Relevancy of website to search term – </span>Bing wants the ad to actually be useful to the person searching, so that it is more likely that they will click on it. Therefore, your ad for pizza delivery will likely never show when someone searches for “pink roses,” no matter how much you bid.</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Landing page experience – </span>Your ad should send the person who clicks on it to a page they expect based on what you are advertising. So if you own a toy shop and your ad is promoting your model airplanes, have your ad link to the model airplane page of your website, not the page with toy boats.</li> </ul> <h2 dir="ltr" id="advantages" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Advantages of Advertising on Bing</span></h2> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Online advertising on a search engine such as <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a> has many advantages over offline and even social media advertising. These include:</div> <ul dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; margin-top: 0px;"> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">People use Bing to make purchasing decisions – </span>People searching the term “plumber NYC” are more than likely looking to hire a plumber in New York at the moment they are searching. By advertising on Bing, you can pay to have your website appear at the top of the search results, so people searching this term find you instead of your competitor.</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">You only pay if your ad works – </span>Bing uses a pay-per-click advertising model, which means that you only pay if someone is interested enough in your ad to click on it. You can also set a maximum daily or monthly budget, so you will never exceed your advertising budget.</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Advanced tracking capabilities – </span>Using Bing’s dashboard, you are able to see how many people saw your ad, how many clicked on your ad, and how much you paid for each click– all in one place. This is a big advantage over traditional offline media where it is much harder to track how many people engaged with your ad.</li> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5000840460921388" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="8123589804" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins></ul> <h2 dir="ltr" id="why-you-should" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Why Advertise on Bing over Google?</span></h2> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> While Google is the largest search engine in the world, <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a> does capture over 30% of the market. Bing’s network consists of Bing, Yahoo and AOL, and <a href="https://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-us/insights/planning-tools/bing-network-audience" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">according to Bing</a>, the search engine is used by 59 million users who are not reached by Google.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <img alt="Search Engine Market Share, bing ads" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67007 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Search-Engine-Market-Share.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Search-Engine-Market-Share.png 550w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Search-Engine-Market-Share-300x218.png 300w" data-was-processed="true" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Search-Engine-Market-Share.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Search-Engine-Market-Share.png 550w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Search-Engine-Market-Share-300x218.png 300w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="550" /></div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Bing advertisers can actually benefit from the fact that fewer people are advertising on Bing. This means less competition, which leads to better ad positions and lower costs per click (CPC). According to <a href="http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/02/25/bings-ads-vs-google-adwords" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Wordstream</a>, their clients saw an average 33.5% cheaper cost per click on Bing over Google.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> I looked into this by searching terms on both Google and Bing to see the average CPC. The results were clear that Bing is consistently more than 3x cheaper than Google.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <img alt="Google vs Bing, bing ads" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-67008 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing-1024x745.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing-1024x745.png 1024w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing-300x218.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing-768x559.png 768w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing.png 1600w" data-was-processed="true" height="538" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing-1024x745.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing-1024x745.png 1024w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing-300x218.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing-768x559.png 768w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Google-vs-Bing.png 1600w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="740" /></div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> If you are already running ads on Google and deciding whether you should run ads on Bing as well, Bing offers a simple to use auto import of all of your current Google ads.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Therefore, if you want to test out both platforms for yourself to see which one produces the best results for your business, you can do so easily.</div> <h2 dir="ltr" id="how-much" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">How Much Does Advertising on Bing Cost?</span></h2> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a> uses a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising model to determine how much advertisers pay for their ads. This means that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> The cost per click of an ad depends on how much you bid on certain keywords. The amount you will need to bid ranges greatly depending on how much competition there is for a particular keyword.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> If you want to advertise a very niche business in a small town, you could pay less than .20 cents per click. If you want to advertise a competitive business in a big city, cost per click can be more than $20.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> You can use Bing’s keyword planner to see how much the suggested bids are for your ad to show up when someone searches for specific key terms. More on selecting keywords to come.</div> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Keyword Pricing Comparison Chart: Big City vs. Small Town</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; text-align: center;"> </div> <table class="tablepress tablepress-id-980" dir="ltr" id="tablepress-980" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; width: 830px;"><thead style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <tr class="row-1 odd" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 17px;"><th class="column-1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(217, 237, 247) !important; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; float: none !important; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"></th><th class="column-2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(217, 237, 247) !important; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; float: none !important; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Big City</th><th class="column-3" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(217, 237, 247) !important; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; float: none !important; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Small Town</th></tr> </thead><tbody class="row-hover" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> <tr class="row-2 even" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 17px;"><td class="column-1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">Restaurants</td><td class="column-2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">$1.45 (cost per click)</td><td class="column-3" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">$0.09</td></tr> <tr class="row-3 odd" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 17px;"><td class="column-1" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(249, 249, 249); border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">Real Estate Agents</td><td class="column-2" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(249, 249, 249); border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">$4.23</td><td class="column-3" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(249, 249, 249); border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">$0.52</td></tr> <tr class="row-4 even" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 17px;"><td class="column-1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">Plumbers</td><td class="column-2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">$7.01</td><td class="column-3" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">$3.27</td></tr> <tr class="row-5 odd" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 17px;"><td class="column-1" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(249, 249, 249); border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">Dentists</td><td class="column-2" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(249, 249, 249); border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">$11.29</td><td class="column-3" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(249, 249, 249); border-bottom: none; border-image: initial; border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; float: none !important; line-height: 1.2; padding: 8px; vertical-align: top;">$3.26</td></tr> </tbody></table> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5000840460921388" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="8123589804" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins></div> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> When considering how much you are willing to pay per click, you will want to think about how much you stand to gain from acquiring a new customer.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> For example: Let’s say 1 out of 10 people who click on your ad becomes a customer, and a new customer means $500 for your business. You will probably be ok with spending $20 per click, since the total spend ($20 x 10 = $200) is still less than the $500 that you will gain.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; text-align: center;"> <a class="button" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" style="-webkit-appearance: none; background-color: #ed833f; border-radius: 4px; border: none; box-shadow: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-size: 15px; line-height: 41px; min-width: 130px; padding: 0px 20px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; width: auto;" target="_blank">Visit Bing</a></div> <h2 dir="ltr" id="how-to-setup" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">How To Set Up Your Bing Ads Account in 9 Steps</span></h2> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Step 1: Request your $100 coupon</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Click here">Click here</a> to visit the Bing Ads signup page, and enter your information to get a $100 advertising coupon. Then click the “sign up for Bing ads” button in the upper right hand corner of the page.</div> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Step 2: Create your account</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> You can enter any email address that is not already associated with Bing. Then enter your information to create your Microsoft account (if you don’t already have one).</div> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Step 3: Import from Google AdWords or skip this step</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> After you create your account, you will have the option to either import previous campaigns from Google AdWords, or create a new campaign.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Importing from Google AdWords is a tool for people who are already running Google search ads and want to run the same ads on Bing. If you are not running ads on Google, you can skip this step.</div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" dir="ltr" id="attachment_67009" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto 1rem; max-width: 100%; width: 750px;"> <img alt="bing ads" class="size-large wp-image-67009 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords-1024x369.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords-1024x369.png 1024w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords-300x108.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords-768x277.png 768w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords.png 1108w" data-was-processed="true" height="267" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords-1024x369.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords-1024x369.png 1024w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords-300x108.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords-768x277.png 768w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Import-from-AdWords.png 1108w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="740" /><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center;"> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Option to import campaigns from Google AdWords</em></div> </div> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Step 4: Do your keyword research</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Before you write your ad, you will want to research what keywords you want your ads to show for. As a general rule of thumb, you want your ads to show for keywords that have high volumes of traffic, have low competition, and are clicked frequently.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> You also want your ads to show for keywords with high purchasing intent. This means that people who are searching these terms are more likely to be in the mindset to buy.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> For example, someone searching for “best pizza near me” is likely looking for a spot to eat lunch that moment. You will want the ad for your pizza restaurant to show for this search. Someone searching “delicious pizza recipes” is probably just looking to make their own pizza at home. You probably do not want your ad to show for this type of search.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> To figure out which keywords you should bid on, you can go to Tools at the top of the page, and then click on Keyword Planner. You will then be able to enter a possible keyword that you’re interested in bidding on.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> If your business is located in the U.S., you will want your keyword research to target all of the United States. This will provide more data for monthly searches and suggested bids.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> After researching nationally, you can do more targeted research to just the city your business is located in. This will provide insights on search traffic just in your targeted area. This can be helpful, but there may not be enough data to provide much insight.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Keyword Research" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67010 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Research.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Research.png 724w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Research-264x300.png 264w" data-was-processed="true" height="823" sizes="(max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Research.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Research.png 724w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Research-264x300.png 264w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="724" /></div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> After you hit the “get suggestions” button, you will be shown suggested search terms that are related to the one you entered.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Keyword Suggestions" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-67011 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions-1024x523.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions-1024x523.png 1024w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions-300x153.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions-768x393.png 768w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions.png 1256w" data-was-processed="true" height="378" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions-1024x523.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions-1024x523.png 1024w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions-300x153.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions-768x393.png 768w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Suggestions.png 1256w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="740" /></div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Navigate to the “keyword suggestions” tab to see the average monthly searches and the competition for each term.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> We recommend searching different terms relevant to your business so that you can get a sense of which terms have higher search volumes and lower competition. It also may help you think of terms to include in your ad.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> For example, if you own a pizza restaurant, you can see that people often search for delivery, local, and best. Including these words in your ad will help your ads be shown on the results page when people include those terms in their search query.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> If you own a store with a wide variety of products, it is often better to choose more targeted keywords.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> For example, Walmart ads often show when you search terms that they sell at their store. However, instead of just advertising their website as a seller of most things, they specifically mention the product you have searched. This increases the chances that the user will click on the ad and find what they’re looking for.</div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" dir="ltr" id="attachment_67012" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto 1rem; max-width: 100%; width: 430px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Walmart" class="size-full wp-image-67012 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Walmart.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Walmart.png 420w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Walmart-300x124.png 300w" data-was-processed="true" height="173" sizes="(max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Walmart.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Walmart.png 420w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Walmart-300x124.png 300w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="420" /><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center;"> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Use targeted keywords to more accurately advertise to the user</em></div> </div> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Step 5: Create your campaign</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Now that you have an idea of the keywords you want your ad to show for, it’s time to create your first campaign. Navigate to the dashboard and click on “create campaign.”</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Choose the goal of your campaign. This helps <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a> have a better idea of what you are trying to accomplish with your ads, so that they can make more helpful suggestions.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Goals" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67013 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 554px) 100vw, 554px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Goals.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Goals.png 554w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Goals-300x175.png 300w" data-was-processed="true" height="323" sizes="(max-width: 554px) 100vw, 554px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Goals.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Goals.png 554w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Goals-300x175.png 300w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="554" /></div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> You will then be able to choose your daily budget, the location you want your ads to show, and if you want people to see your ad that are in your target location, searching for your targeted location, or both.</div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" dir="ltr" id="attachment_67014" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto 1rem; max-width: 100%; width: 941px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Targeting" class="size-full wp-image-67014 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 931px) 100vw, 931px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting.png 931w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-300x227.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-768x581.png 768w" data-was-processed="true" height="704" sizes="(max-width: 931px) 100vw, 931px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting.png 931w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-300x227.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-768x581.png 768w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="931" /><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center;"> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Target your ads to search users who are located near your store</em></div> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> We suggest starting with a daily budget of $10 a day. This is enough so that you will get a good idea of how ads are performing, but not so much that you will end up spending thousands of dollars. You can adjust the budget after your ad has been running for a week or so if necessary.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> When determining the location you want to target, you’ll want to model it after your current customers. If you’re a local business that wants to drive more traffic to your brick and mortar store, you should probably target people within a certain radius of your store.</div> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Step 6: Enter your keywords and choose match type</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Now it’s time to enter the keywords that you researched in step 4, and choose the match type.</div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" dir="ltr" id="attachment_67015" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto 1rem; max-width: 100%; width: 428px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Keyword Match Type" class="size-full wp-image-67015 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 418px) 100vw, 418px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Match-Type.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Match-Type.png 418w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Match-Type-234x300.png 234w" data-was-processed="true" height="536" sizes="(max-width: 418px) 100vw, 418px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Match-Type.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Match-Type.png 418w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Keyword-Match-Type-234x300.png 234w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="418" /><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center;"> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Example of keywords to use for a nail salon in Dallas</em></div> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> When entering your keywords, you can decide how closely the user’s search query needs to match your keywords in order for your ad to appear. Here are the 4 options you can choose from:</div> <ul dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; margin-top: 0px;"> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Broad match – </span>This is the default option. Your ad will show for search queries that contain your keyword or synonyms of your keyword. If you keyword is “dog food”, your ad might show for “food for puppies” or “quality dog food.” <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Syntax:</span> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">keyword</em></li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Broad match modifier – </span>By adding a plus sign before a word, you are able to lock that word into place. This means that if your keyword is “+dog food”, your ad might show if someone searches “dog treats,” but not for “puppy food.” <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Syntax: </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">+keyword</em></li> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5000840460921388" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="8123589804" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Phrase match- </span>Putting quotation marks around your keyword means that the order and the words within the quotes have to stay the same. However, words can be added before or after the term in quotes. So if your term is “dog food”, then the search query “cheap dog food” will trigger your ad, but “food for dogs” and “dog super food” will not. <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Syntax: </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“keyword”</em></li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Exact match – </span>With an exact match, the search query needs to match your keyword exactly. So if your keyword is “dog food,” your ad only shows when someone searches “dog food,” nothing else. <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Syntax: </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">[keyword]</em></li> </ul> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> If you’re not sure which type of match to use, go with broad match at first. If you notice that your ad is showing for terms that are not related to your business, then you will need to adjust your keyword matching.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> For example, if you own a dog supply store, and notice that your ads are showing when people search for cat supplies, you can use the broad match modifier so that the word dog must be included in the search for your ad to show.</div> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Step 7: Write your ad</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Now it’s time to write your ad. You want your ad to include your keywords and be enticing so that many people click on it.</div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" dir="ltr" id="attachment_67016" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto 1rem; max-width: 100%; width: 750px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Create" class="size-large wp-image-67016 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create-1024x560.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create-1024x560.png 1024w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create-300x164.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create-768x420.png 768w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create.png 1091w" data-was-processed="true" height="405" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create-1024x560.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create-1024x560.png 1024w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create-300x164.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create-768x420.png 768w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Create.png 1091w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="740" /><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center;"> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Bing dashboard for writing your ad</em></div> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> You will be able to see how your ad looks when displayed at the top of the search results, on the side of search results, and on a mobile device. Make sure your ad looks good on all three, since it could potentially appear in all three spots.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Here are some tips on the characteristics of a good pay per click ad:</div> <ul dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; margin-top: 0px;"> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Include the search terms your clients are using in your ads</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Use local identifiers</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Describe what sets your product apart</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Avoid jargon and use your customer’s language</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Address your customers directly by using words like you and yours</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Be specific – Instead of saying “big discount,” say 50% off</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Include a call to action</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Take advantage of ad extensions (text that appears under the ad)</li> </ul> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" dir="ltr" id="attachment_67017" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto 1rem; max-width: 100%; width: 460px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Strong" class="wp-image-67017 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Strong.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Strong.png 396w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Strong-300x83.png 300w" data-was-processed="true" height="125" sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Strong.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Strong.png 396w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Strong-300x83.png 300w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="450" /><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center;"> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Example of good Bing ad</em></div> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> The advertisement above is a good example of an effective ad. Notice how the deal of $10 off is very noticeable and how they are highlighting their fast service. Also the ad extensions give the user even more reason to click, especially if they are specifically looking for birthday flowers or get well flowers.</div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" dir="ltr" id="attachment_67019" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto 1rem; max-width: 100%; width: 385px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Weak Example" class="wp-image-67019 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Weak-Example.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Weak-Example.png 303w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Weak-Example-300x60.png 300w" data-was-processed="true" height="75" sizes="(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Weak-Example.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Weak-Example.png 303w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Weak-Example-300x60.png 300w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="375" /><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center;"> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Example of weak Bing ad</em></div> </div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> This ad is noticeably weaker. It’s very vague, and there is nothing about it that would entice someone to click on this website instead of the sites above and below it.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> You are allowed a certain number of characters for your ad, and in most cases you want to take advantage of all of them. The more words in your ad, the more space it will take up on the search engine results page and the more keywords you can use within your ad.</div> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Step 8: Connect your credit card</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> After you have written your ad, you must connect your credit card to start running your advertisement.</div> <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 25px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Step 9: Evaluate and optimize ads</span></h3> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Once you have run your ad for a couple of months, you will want to take some steps to further improve the effectiveness of your <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a> ads. These steps are:</div> <ul dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; margin-top: 0px;"> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Add negative keywords</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Create additional ads for split testing</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Utilize advanced targeting options</li> </ul> <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Add Negative Keywords To Your Campaign</span></h4> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> The keyword section of the main ads page allows you to see all the search terms your ads are showing for. You will be able to see how many impressions each search term is getting. If you notice that your ad is showing for a search term that is not related to your business, then you will want to add that term as a negative keyword.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> For example, if you own a wine store, and your ad is showing for “wine glasses,” but you don’t sell glasses, then you will want to add the word “glasses” as a negative search term. This way your ad will no longer show for this term.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> You can do this by navigating to the keywords section, selecting “View: Keywords” and clicking “Negative keywords.”</div> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" dir="ltr" id="attachment_67020" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto 1rem; max-width: 100%; width: 1015px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Negative Keywords" class="size-full wp-image-67020 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 1005px) 100vw, 1005px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Negative-Keywords.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Negative-Keywords.png 1005w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Negative-Keywords-300x197.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Negative-Keywords-768x505.png 768w" data-was-processed="true" height="661" sizes="(max-width: 1005px) 100vw, 1005px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Negative-Keywords.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Negative-Keywords.png 1005w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Negative-Keywords-300x197.png 300w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Negative-Keywords-768x505.png 768w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="1005" /><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0px 10px; text-align: center;"> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Use negative keywords if your ad is showing for terms not related to your business</em></div> </div> <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Create Additional Ads</span></h4> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> You want your ads to generate as much relevant traffic as possible to your site, within your specified budget. Generally, you can expect a good click through rate on a top positioned search ad to be between 1 and 3%. That means for every 100 times a keyword gets searched, your ad is getting clicked somewhere between 1 and 3 times.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> One of the easiest things you can do to increase your click through rate is to create multiple ads with slight variations. When you have multiple ads, <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a> will automatically rotate them to see which ad results in the highest click through rate.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Armed with that data, you can pause the ads with low click through rates. Then you can take what you have learned from your ads with high click through rates to try and continually improve. Creating new ads is easy, just click the links below:</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Additional" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67021 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 517px) 100vw, 517px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Additional.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Additional.png 517w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Additional-300x233.png 300w" data-was-processed="true" height="401" sizes="(max-width: 517px) 100vw, 517px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Additional.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Additional.png 517w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Additional-300x233.png 300w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="517" /></div> <h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Utilize Advanced Targeting Options</span></h4> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Using <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://app.fitsmallbusiness.com/goto/bing/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a>, you can adjust your settings so that you spend more of your budget showing your ads to people who have a higher chance of buying from you. So if you notice that you see more clicks on the weekends from people using a mobile device, or from men ages 18-24, you can make it so that more of your budget goes towards serving ads to that audience.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> You can do this by going to your settings and adjusting the targeting options.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> <img alt="Bing Ads Targeting Options" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-67023 img-fluid lazyloaded" data-lazy-sizes="(max-width: 778px) 100vw, 778px" data-lazy-src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-Options.png" data-lazy-srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-Options.png 778w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-Options-294x300.png 294w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-Options-768x783.png 768w" data-was-processed="true" height="793" sizes="(max-width: 778px) 100vw, 778px" src="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-Options.png" srcset="https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-Options.png 778w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-Options-294x300.png 294w, https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Bing-Ads-Targeting-Options-768x783.png 768w" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-size: 16px; height: auto; margin: 5px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="778" /></div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> The key to effective <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://app.fitsmallbusiness.com/goto/bing/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a> ads is continuous testing and measuring results, so that you are getting the highest return on your advertising spend.</div> <h2 dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Bottom Line</span></h2> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px;"> Advertising on <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://app.fitsmallbusiness.com/goto/bing/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Bing">Bing</a> is a very effective way to get your business in front of a new audience. By following our step by step guide, you should have your Bing ads up in running in no time! <a class="thirstylink" data-thirsty_gct_link_id="44640" data-thirsty_gct_link_name="Bing" data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink="/goto/bing/" href="https://app.fitsmallbusiness.com/goto/bing/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #188ecb; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank" title="Click here for a free $50 advertising credit">Click here for a free $100 advertising credit when you spend $25</a>.</div> <div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #535353; font-family: rubik, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; text-align: center;"> <a class="button" href="https://bingads.microsoft.com/?signout=true&ccuisrc=4" style="-webkit-appearance: none; background-color: #ed833f; border-radius: 4px; border: none; box-shadow: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-size: 15px; line-height: 41px; min-width: 130px; padding: 0px 20px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; width: auto;" target="_blank">Visit Bing</a></div> </div>

ARTICLES How To Advertise Your Small Business Using Bing Ads

Advertising your small business on search engines is a great way to get your website in front of potential customers at the moment they a...

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