If you have been sneaking phone numbers into your Bing Ads ad copy, in hopes of getting free calls without paying for the click throughs, you will need to make some changes to those ads.  Bing Ads is bringing in new editorial policies that no longer allow advertisers to include their phone number in the title, description or URL of an ad.  Instead, those advertisers who wish to include a phone number will be required to use call extensions instead.

Many advertisers have used phone numbers in various parts of the ad copy, usually in the ad text, the URL or even in site links.  It was a sneaky way to advertise and get free traffic, hoping at least some people would simply phone the business rather than clicking through.  However, from a quality score point of view, the potential for a lower clickthrough rate could negatively impact the overall health of the ad.

Bing Ads editorial policies change coming into effect in February 2015 means that advertisers will no longer be able to create or update ads that have phone numbers appearing outside of call extensions.

For those who currently have ads with phone numbers running, those ads can remain running until June 2015, when the new editorial policies will be applied to all current ads, and not just newly created or updated ones.  However, any changes you make to the ad will trigger an editorial review – even if it is just to fix a typo or URL – will result in the ads not being approved.

If you want to still run your ads with phone numbers, be sure they are updated and checked prior to February 2015, so you will not have to make any edits or changes between February and June 2015.

Google AdWords stopped the practice of phone numbers in ad copy in April 2013, so this Bing Ads change will bring it in line with how Google treats the same situation.

These new policies are only being enabled currently in the US, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  However, Bing Ads states that they plan to bring these editorial changes to all locations, so if you are in a country not currently affected, it would still be wise to check any ads with phone numbers before the policies come into place elsewhere.