Reshaping Retail ROI with Bing Ads : Ashley Stewart’s Cross-Channel Expansion Story
Ashley Stewart is a bold, inclusive fashion brand catering to plus-size women. Known for its empowering style and loyal customer base, the brand was running online ad campaigns on Bing, too, but was missing the mark. So, when they approached Team BrandLoom, we were intrigued by the prospect of going beyond Google to run online ads. We dived in without hesitation.
The Challenges
Despite investing in Bing Ads, the brand wasn’t seeing scalable growth. Upon a thorough audit, this is what we discovered:
Overspend on Retargeting
71% of the ad-spend went to retargeting, generating a healthy ROAS, but at the cost of not gaining new customers.
Lack of Tactical Optimization
The company had not updated its bidding, targeting, and keyword strategies for relevance or scale.
Underperforming Prospecting Campaigns
Only 29% of the budget was spent on prospecting. These campaigns generated minimal returns.
Post-Migration Performance Dip
A shift in campaign management disrupted audience settings and performance tracking.
Understanding the Assignment
Our goal was to transform Bing from a background channel to a performance engine. We got cracking and created our to-do list for the project:
Maximize ROAS - Full Funnel.
Lean into what’s working while smartly experimenting (and weeding out what wasn’t).
Fix Post-Migration Gaps
Resolve broken setups and resume tracking efficiently.
Create a Scalable Framework
Rebuild the structure to be clean, flexible, and precise at targeting customers at each stage of the funnel.
Enhance Audience Targeting
Identify user intent precisely to segment their journeys for better targeting.
Our Step-by-Step Strategy
To unlock Bing’s true potential, we decided to lean into data insights. Our aim was to stabilize performance and then scale up so that the campaigns could generate good returns. This is what we did.
Reallocating Budget for Retargeting
Shifted 82% of spend to retargeting to protect high ROAS. Simultaneously, we limited prospecting campaigns for stabilizing performance.
Embracing Automated Bidding
We shifted from static to automated bidding. This allowed Microsoft’s AI to make real-time bidding decisions based on user context and ad performance.
Revamping Campaign Structure
Our team optimized campaigns by cleanly segmenting each stage of the funnel. On top of that, we added location layers for more precise targeting.
Refining Audience Lists
Added site behavior-based lists, cart abandoners, and high-interest segments for better retargeting.
The Results
With a smarter structure and sharper focus, Bing Ads delivered high returns.
11.98 ROAS on Retargeting Campaigns
Retargeting campaigns continued to show good returns.
3.15 ROAS on Prospecting Campaigns
Prospecting campaigns saw modest gains. With the campaigns stabilizing, we are confident of their future returns.
Overall ROAS: 10.36 post-migration
Despite the disruption post-migration, our ad campaigns yielded a double-digit ROAS.
Conclusion
Brands often overlook platforms like Bing when running ads. However, our experiment with Ashley Stewart shows Bing can become a powerful profit driver, too. With the right strategy, our team automated and optimized the campaigns, and the results speak for themselves.
