Microsoft Starts To Define How Advertising Works In Search And Bing Chat Queries
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, February 27, 2023
Microsoft's Bing chatbot continues to personalize the experience to use the technology, similar to traditional search.
Queries in the chat experience will returned detailed answers such as measurements -- for example, whether or not a box 12 feet x 8 feet will fit in the back of a Chevy pickup truck without providing the measurements of the truck bed.
The company recently demonstrated how the technology takes important words from the query and advances and expands on the information returned, as well as how it will initially offer brands advertising opportunities.
When a query is done in the Bing search engine, sometimes the ads will appear under the query, but other times the ads will appear as citations in the chat query. On the page in search will also include multimedia or product ads.
The query — Lodging in Yellowstone National Park — returned a list of hotels in the chat, but also citations. When the cursor hovers over a citation, the hotel’s advertisement appears.
The advertising data and triggers are pulled into the chat from existing campaigns advertisers run such as text, multimedia, and product ads. It’s not clear if Microsoft will build an additional structure to support ads appearing in the chatbot.
Ad impressions also are counted in the normal way. When someone hovers over a citation and receives an ad, it counts as a text ad impression. If a multimedia ad is served below the answer, it will count as an impression when within the view of the user.
Microsoft also last week said it is testing the tone of the query, enabling users to switch between receiving answers that are more creative or focused on the topic. When the new option is made available, users can choose between precise, balanced, or creative replies.
Microsoft will “begin testing an additional option that lets you choose the tone of the Chat from more Precise – which will focus on shorter, more search focused answers – to Balanced, to more Creative – which gives you longer and more chatty answers."
