Breaking the Myth: "Traditional Ads" vs. "AI-Powered Bing Ads" – Which Delivers 25% Higher Brand Recall?

In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, brands face increasing challenges in cutting through the noise to capture audience attention. For Regenesys Education, a premier African institution offering internationally recognized programs, the goal was clear: enhance brand awareness and engagement in a competitive online education market. The solution? A strategic partnership with Microsoft Advertising’s Bing Ads, leveraging cutting-edge AI-driven search and display campaigns.

With the recent introduction of Copilot Search in Bing, Microsoft has redefined how users discover information—blending traditional search with generative AI to deliver more intuitive, conversational, and personalized results. This innovation proved instrumental in Regenesys’ campaign, helping the institution achieve measurable success in brand recall, consideration, and engagement.

This article explores how Regenesys Education harnessed Bing Ads’ advanced targeting and AI capabilities to drive brand growth, offering key insights for marketers looking to optimize their digital strategies in an AI-powered search era.

I. Introduction to Regenesys Education and Bing Ads Partnership

Regenesys Education, established in 1997, has grown into a premier African institution offering undergraduate and postgraduate programs focused on leadership and management development. As the online education market became increasingly competitive, Regenesys faced the challenge of enhancing its digital presence and brand awareness to stand out among numerous platforms. Traditional marketing approaches were no longer effective in reaching high-intent audiences, prompting the need for a more targeted solution. Bing Ads provided the ideal platform, combining advanced AI-driven targeting, Copilot Search (which leverages generative AI for improved user interactions), and cross-platform accessibility. This enabled Regenesys to deliver precise, relevant ads to prospective students during key decision-making moments while optimizing ad spend efficiency.

II. The Strategic Use of Bing Ads for Brand Awareness

1. Leveraging Microsoft Advertising’s Reach and Targeting Capabilities

Bing Ads provided Regenesys with access to a vast audience, including professionals actively seeking educational opportunities. Microsoft’s network, which includes LinkedIn and Windows devices, allowed for precise demographic and behavioral targeting.

2. Implementation of Search and Display Ads for High-Intent Audiences

Regenesys deployed a dual approach:

• Search Ads targeted users actively searching for management programs, ensuring visibility at the moment of intent.
• Display Ads reinforced brand messaging across Microsoft’s publisher network, increasing top-of-mind awareness.

3. Optimization Techniques: Device Targeting, Location-Based Ads, and Negative Keywords

To maximize efficiency, Regenesys utilized:

• Device targeting to prioritize mobile and desktop users based on engagement patterns.
• Location-based ads to focus on key African markets.
• Negative keywords to filter irrelevant searches and reduce wasted ad spend.

III. Campaign Execution and Key Innovations

1. Role of Copilot Search in Enhancing User Engagement and Discovery

Bing’s Copilot Search transformed the search experience by providing AI-curated summaries and follow-up suggestions. For Regenesys, this meant ads appeared alongside highly relevant, context-aware search results, improving engagement.

2. Integration of Generative AI for Personalized Ad Experiences

Topkee’s comprehensive Bing Advertising solutions elevate campaign performance through a data-driven, multi-channel approach. The agency begins with in-depth preparation for advertising, analyzing industry trends, competitor strategies, and client-specific marketing goals to craft personalized promotion plans. A critical component is landing page optimization, where Topkee leverages Weber’s website scoring tool to audit and enhance landing pages, ensuring alignment with ad messaging and improving visit-to-conversion rates. The agency further streamlines conversion tracking by integrating global TAG systems, enabling granular event action tracking and postback to refine ad automation. For advertising credential acquisition, Topkee’s specialized team conducts rigorous account audits and assists with industry-specific qualification applications, mitigating placement risks. Audience targeting is optimized through attribution-based remarketing, segmenting users by behavior (e.g., website visits, conversions) to deliver personalized ads.

Topkee’s advertising account management employs TTO tools for efficient account setup, KPI tracking, and automated rule-based optimizations across budget allocation, bidding strategies, and ad scheduling. Creative production is bolstered by AI-generated text and imagery, tailored to product specifics and market trends, while multimedia ads (images, videos) amplify brand visibility. Performance is continuously monitored via detailed reports, including ROI analysis and KPI metrics like click-through rates and conversion costs. For text ads, Topkee combines keyword research with compelling copywriting to maximize CTRs, whereas customer group advertising utilizes TTO’s attribution models to retarget high-potential audiences. This end-to-end framework ensures cross-platform consistency, relevance, and measurable ROI, aligning with Bing’s responsive design principles for seamless mobile-desktop transitions.

IV. Measurable Outcomes and Success Metrics

The campaign successfully enhanced Regenesys' market presence, achieving a 20% increase in brand awareness and a 15% uplift in brand consideration among targeted audiences. Notably, exposure to Bing Ads resulted in a 25% improvement in brand recall, highlighting the effectiveness of AI-driven ad placements. In comparative performance analysis, Bing Ads demonstrated superior results over other search platforms, delivering higher engagement rates and a more cost-efficient CPC (cost-per-click) than traditional search advertising methods.

V. Insights from Industry Trends and AI-Driven Search

The evolution of search into a conversational and multimodal experience necessitates marketers to optimize for voice, chat, and visual queries. Alongside this shift, adaptive ad strategies powered by generative AI—such as Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) and AI-driven creatives—are proving critical, as demonstrated by ixigo’s success with Bing Ads, which delivered a remarkable 32x return on ad spend (ROAS). This case study mirrors broader industry trends, showing how AI-driven search ads, like those used by Regenesys, can effectively capture high-intent queries and drive exceptional performance in sectors such as travel.

Conclusion and Future Recommendations

Regenesys successfully enhanced brand awareness, recall, and engagement by leveraging Bing Ads and Copilot Search, demonstrating measurable growth. As AI continues to transform search advertising, brands must adopt adaptive, AI-powered strategies to remain competitive in performance marketing and brand campaigns. To stay ahead, marketers should embrace generative AI and conversational search—consulting a advertising expert can help develop tailored strategies for optimal results.

Appendix: 

• Introducing Copilot Search in Bing
• Regenesys Education Case Study
• ixigo’s Success with Dynamic Search Ads
• The Future of AI-Powered Search Advertising