WhyMicrosoft Ads Is A Growth Marketing Channel that Proactive Marketers Should Not Ignore
When it comes to PPC ads, most marketers don’t go beyond investing in Google Ads (the erstwhile AdWords). In many ways, this decision is completely justified. After all, Google dominates PPC ads with a worldwide market share of 92.47% (as of September 2022). But focusing on Google Ads like this, while understandable, however, misses out on potentially worthwhile advertising options when it comes to search marketing.
Remember Bing Ads? Well, they go by Microsoft Ads now and they definitely shouldn’t be an afterthought. While Google remains king of search with the vast majority of the market share (it’s become a verb, after all), Microsoft Ads have a substantial place in the market as a strong second option.
Savvy digital marketers can (and should) learn how to leverage the power of Microsoft Ads and understand exactly how to advertise on Bing. Bing business ads might help you reach a new audience and tap into a broader pool of customers to help grow your revenues simply by expanding your tactical base.
In this guide, we’ll look at what sets Bing Ads apart, as well as what features, and overall growth marketing tactics businesses looking to scale their revenues should look to focus on.
Why use Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) to be part of your growth marketing mix?
Microsoft Advertising is a powerfully underrated pay-per-click (PPC) advertising tool for businesses looking to scale their revenue base.
Yes, Google owns 84% of the global search market, but Microsoft’s search engine comes in second with 9%. That gap may seem significant, but with more than 1 billion unique visitors each month,but the reality is that plenty of people use Microsoft Ads.
Microsoft Ads may be especially on point for those looking to target PC users. According to Microsoft Search Network data, the platforms boast 14.7 billion monthly PC searches and 653 million unique PC users.
However, there are many things that make Microsoft ads valuable beyond the sheer size of its platform and the network of people supporting it. What other benefits does Microsoft Advertising have to offer? This article will delve into some of those answers as we move along.
6 Reasons Why Your Growth Marketing Fundamentals Ought to Include Microsoft Ads (Bing)
Investing in Bing ads doesn’t mean you need to stop investing in Google Ads. Bing will probably never catch up to Google’s dominance in search engines.
Having said that, there are certain features on Bing that are either missing in Google Ads or just simply better. With that in mind, let us examine 6 such features, which in looking at them, will help you understand some of the unique benefits of advertising in this platform.
1. Microsoft Ads are Less Expensive and more Cost Efficient
The average CPC rates on Google are incredibly steep due to high competition. For business owners looking to increase their revenues that are doing PPC for the first time, this can perhaps be the biggest obstacle.
For those facing this particular situation, Bing has less competition and CPC rates are cheaper. As a result of these previous 2 factors, there is more likely to benefit from higher ad positions or rankings. According to WordStream, the average CPC is 33.5% cheaper on Bing when compared to Google.
What results is typically higher click-through rates (CTRs) and a greater number of conversions, and a much more efficient cost-per-acquisition rate. This makes Bing ads a far more viable option for small to mid-sized businesses looking for an economical growth marketing channel to help increase their revenues.
2. Microsoft Ads Have Better Device Targeting Options
Bing allows its users to adjust their bids for various device types, including mobile devices and tablets. You can increase or decrease your bid for traffic coming from desktops, tablets, and smartphones. What is more, is that you can choose to opt for more granular targeting, for instance, by opting out of desktop and tablet searches, and targeting only mobile searches.
With Google Ads, users can’t opt out of desktop searches. You can of course target searches from mobiles and tablets, but you’d have to do so in conjunction with desktop searches. This is not as efficient if for instance, you are an app provider or creator that is looking to target Apple and Android users (it is easier and probably more efficient to do this when they are on their phones).
3. Microsoft ads Allows You to Import Campaigns from Google Ads Easily
This is one of the biggest advantages for those with active, existing Google Ads campaigns who are willing to advertise on Bing. Bing allows you to directly import your ads from Google Ads onto its platform. This means you don’t have to waste time creating new campaigns on Bing.
Most items from Google Ads import seamlessly into Bing Ads but there are a few items you need to review. These include:
Bids and budgets: Bing Ads has different minimum bid and budget requirements than Google Ads. By default, Bing raises any bids and budgets that are too low its minimum requirements. During import setup, you can opt out of these increases, but Bing Ads won’t import campaigns that are below the default minimums. So make sure you at least go through this step before you proceed
Targeting options: Targeting options such as location targeting and time-of-day targeting are significantly different within the different platforms.
Negative keywords: Microsoft Ads does not allow for the use of broad match negative keywords. If you have set up broad match negative keywords in Google Ads, those will be treated as phrase match negative keywords when importing them over.
4. Bing Allows You to Control Search Demographics
With Microsoft Search Ads, you have the ability to control which gender and age demographics see your ads. This sort of targeting is especially useful for marketers who have their buyer personas in a particular gender or age group.
Google, on the other hand, lets you do demographic targeting only on the Google Display Network, and not on the search network.
5. Microsoft’s Market Share is Growing, especially in the United States
According to Search Engine Journal, Bing powers nearly one out of every three searches in the U.S. with a market share of 22.8 percent. That’s a huge number of potential customers being ignored by not having any Microsoft Ads campaigns up and running.
Furthermore, comScore data shows Microsoft Ads’s market share is growing faster than Google’s, in large part due to the growth of Windows 10, since Bing is integrated throughout the entire desktop operating system.
So if you’re catering to the U.S. market, Microsoft Ads is definitely an advertising platform you can no longer ignore.
6. Microsoft Ads has Better Social Extensions
Social extensions are ad extensions placed under your ad copy that direct potential customers to your social accounts. These extensions allow businesses to engage with potential customers more directly and allow users to join conversations with brands on social media. These extensions not only allow users to access Instagram, Linkedin, and Twitter profiles but also show the number of followers and relevant hashtags that allow potential customers to jump in on conversations of interest.
Why Microsoft Ads Should Not Be Ignored as a Part of Your Growth Marketing Playbook As a Business Looking to Scale
Bing, Microsoft's search advertising platform, brought in about $11.59 billion in income in FY2022.
Each day, on average about 900 million searches are done on Bing.com.
Bing.com received about 1.2 billion distinct visitors from throughout the world in 2022.
In 2022, Bing users accounted for approximately 15% of the global population.
China accounts for 36.17% of all visitors to Bing.com, followed by the US (26.25%) and Japan (3.71%).
Bing's web search engine controlled around 9% of the global search market as of December 2022.
Bing had a market share of about 9.6% in the United Kingdom as of 2021.
Bing had a market share of about 6.72% in the United States as of 2022
Each day, on average about 900 million searches are done on Bing.com.According to research, the average Bing.com search engine user spends approximately 16 minutes and 27 seconds per visit.
What does this mean for growth-oriented marketers looking for an edge:
Bing has less competition and advertisers can enjoy unique features that aren’t available on Google Ads yet. While it’s highly unlikely they’ll ever reach Google Ads’ dominance in the PPC market anytime soon, opportunities marketers who see Bing ads as a formidable advertising platform that can benefit the businesses they work for will reap tremendous benefits for them.
Bing Ads vs Google Ads: What’s important to understand
Most small- to mid-sized companies know the importance of advertising on Google Ads. However, many marketers are sleeping on Microsoft Ads (aka Bing Ads) and are not benefiting by limiting themselves to Adwords. The interesting thing is that setting up a marketing campaign on Microsoft Ads is just as easy (if not easier) as setting up a Google Ads campaign.
There are tons of attractive benefits for businesses to set up Bing Ads that are not afforded to them on Google. We’ll cover a few here.
Be advertised in more places
When you use Microsoft Ads, your ads won’t just appear on one site. You’ll actually be displayed across multiple sites, as they own Bing, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL. Microsoft and Yahoo also have several smaller partner sites that are owned and operated by syndicated search partners.
You also get to decide where your ads are being displayed. You can narrow your ad distribution depending on where you want your ads to run.
Keep in mind that Google also has search partners and broader reach. But if your customers are more likely to use Outlook than Gmail, Microsoft Ads might be for you.
Less competition
Google’s massive audience is great in some ways; your potential reach is much larger. But bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
The search engines associated with Microsoft Advertising have a smaller audience segment. These lower search volumes mean less competition for ideal placement as well as fewer advertisers bidding on ads, thereby lowering costs.
Prime spots are easier to snag, and you, as the advertiser, may get more for your dollar.
Greater Granularity in terms of targeting options available
Both Google and Bing allow you to get pretty specific when it comes to ad targeting at the campaign level. But Bing’s ad tools allow you to make targeted changes at the ad group level as well, which makes for much more flexible campaigns.
What’s more, Microsoft Ads allows you to assign ads to run at a specific time in your ad viewer’s time zone, no matter where they’re located. Google’s time zone menu won’t change when your ads run—if you wanted the same ad to target people in New York and Los Angeles at 6PM their time, you’d have to make two different campaigns.
Moreover, as alluded to earlier, if you want to get really specific about device targeting, Bing is the better choice. With Microsoft Ads, you can target audiences based on their specific devices and operating systems. Google Ads will only let you do that with Display and Video campaigns.
Microsoft’s default search engine
Any Microsoft machine sold comes set up with Bing as the default search engine. Microsoft 365, a subscription for using the Microsoft software suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, etc) comes with Cortana, a virtual assistant that also uses Bing as a search engine.
That means anyone who grabs Microsoft 365 or a Microsoft machine automatically uses Bing as their default search engine. This makes for some pretty easy traffic and potential eyes on your ad campaign even if they tend to rely on Google as their search engine of first choice or thought.
A potentially lower CPC rate
A while back, a digital marketing company did a compare and contrast study between Bing Ads and Google Ads. They reported spending 35% less on Bing than Google.
The thing is, you still have to be wary of numbers like this. It sounds promising, and the study has taken into account the quality of clicks they’re getting. But those savings may not translate exactly for your brand.
If CPC is your number-one concern, it’s a good idea to run your own Bing ads vs Google ads study to see which is best for your brand. If you find one to be more cost-effective than the other, you can always shift the rest of your budget for better ROI.
LinkedIn profile targeting capabilities
With the acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016, Bing Ads Manager lets you target highly relevant audiences by using profile information from LinkedIn.
That’s right. Microsoft Ads allows you to target an audience and apply bid modifiers based on the information pulled from LinkedIn.
This is especially important for strategizing B2B marketing campaigns. You can target Bing ad campaigns based on:
Companies, such as Google (lol), Hootsuite, or the Government of Canada
Industry, such as Healthcare, Manufacturing, Corporate Services, or Consumer Goods
Job function, such as education, sales, or arts and design
Bing-Specific Tactics to Help Solidify Your Business’ Growth Marketing Fundamentals
Now that we have established certain features that make Microsoft unique and different from Adwords, we can examine some specific tactics that will allow you to establish a more efficient growth marketing funnel.
With that in mind, here are some tactics specific to running Microsoft ads campaigns in order to help scale your growth-focused business.
Optimize the UET Tag
Microsoft Ads allows you to set up customized event and conversion actions using Universal Event Tracking (UET). It helps you record visitor activity on your site, powering conversion tracking, automated bid strategies, and audience segmentation.
The result? You can:
Create custom audiences for remarketing
Improve ad performance
Lower CPC and CPA
For example, you might notice two distinct audiences on your website: one that abandons your site quickly after one click, and another that lingers, browses, and may have already purchased a product in the past.
UET tags help you cater campaigns to specific audiences such as these, and improve both overall and specific campaign performance.
Keep An Eye Out for Quality Scores
The page or domain authority is a key component of a successful Bing campaign. That’s because it gauges a website’s authoritativeness and popularity.
You can use Bing’s Quality Score metric to determine how much influence your website has on the search engine, which can help you determine your ads’ competitiveness.
The Quality Score ranges from 1 to 10, with the best score being 10. You can improve your Quality Score by:
Conducting more keyword research: Microsoft Advertising has a keyword planner, too just like Google – completely free.
Optimizing your landing pages: Similar to Adwords, be sure to check to ensure your landing page has completely original content and a quick load time. It should also be extremely relevant to ad keywords and buyer intent.
Checking your ad group targeting: You can target ads based on location, day of the week, time of day, device, gender, and age with Microsoft. Plus, you can adjust bids accordingly to up your display chances for your targets.
Take Advantages of In-Market Audiences:
Similar to Google Ads, Microsoft Ads offers marketers an intent-based targeting feature that brings the campaign to conversion-ready audiences. Bing uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create lists of users who have shown interest in purchasing items and services similar to yours.
In-market audiences allow you to reach potential buyers without having to run complex targeting campaigns.
This is not the same thing as remarketing based on segmentation. With remarketing, you’re responsible for creating a new target list, whereas Microsoft generates in-market audiences with AI. You just have to choose from a list.
But that list won’t be the same as Google’s. Microsoft has categories and subcategories to narrow things down even further. For example, “Home & Garden” can expand to “Outdoor Items,” “Pools and Spa,” “BBQ and Grills,” or more.
An overlooked subcategory in Bing is a missed opportunity! Don’t assume they’ll be exactly the same as Google — adjust the settings for each one manually to ensure you capture the most suitable targets.
Note: Microsoft is constantly adding new in-market audience categories. If your industry isn’t there yet, just keep lookingout for updates.
Fine tune your Automated Rules
This is another standout feature of Microsoft Ads.
What’s nice about Bing Ads is the ability to create Automated Rules to help you run your campaigns on autopilot.
What is more, is that for each rule, a small change can alter an awful lot of parameters.
Doing all of this allows you to to for instance, adjust your campaign budget for a day when a certain daily threshold is reached, or to change a certain ad depending on the time of day or the number of clicks attained. Or alternately, you can adjust your bid so that it appears at the top of search ads. There are a number of possibilities that you can enable for your campaigns (13 to be specific) depending on what is right for you.
It might take a while to master this feature, but you’ll be rewarded with campaigns that practically run themselves and give you a huge advantage.
Understand your Top Movers
The Top Movers feature helps you tweak your ads and find out what’s causing variation in your campaigns.
It shows you a list of the “campaigns and/or ad groups that have experienced the largest performance change, notably by size, not percent––during two specified time frames.”
Leverage Bing’s love for local
According to WordStream, “It seems that Bing aggressively matches queries with local results, even when there’s no strong indication that the search query is locally driven.”
The world is mobile and local, and your business ought to be as well.
Desktop campaigns are still critical, but you need to create ads specifically with mobile devices in mind. This means everything from the sentence structure of your add to the call-to-action.
Bing has a separate platform for mobile ads that gives you greater control for mobile search (compared to Google which give you the option to target mobile users within each specific campaign).
As well, Bing is the default search engine for Siri. That means if you optimize for Siri, you can literally reach hundreds of millions of people via Bing.
But it gets even better.
You can actually optimize your ads for voice-based keywords that take errors and similar-sounding words into account.
So even if a user’s words get misinterpreted, you can still show up in Siri’s results.
Depth of Targeting Granularity:
Bing Ads has a degree of granular targeting that sets it apart from Adwords. Now since every platform is different, this can manifest itself in a number of ways. However, there are 3 particular examples that we are going to highlight below to best serve our purposes of illustrating this broader point.
Use the time zone feature
Bing has a really cool feature that allows you to specify time zones for your ads.
Using this tool, you can hyper-target your ads so they reach users at the best times.
You could be wasting precious ad dollars without modifying time zones.
Your ad might be reaching New York during the daytime, but that means it’s nighttime in Tokyo. You get the idea.
If you’re trying to target people in specific locations around the world, you can’t miss out on this feature.
Target specific devices
This comes in handy if you’re optimizing for certain type of devices, like mobile devices.
Bing gives you precise control over which devices your ads reach.
You can even target specific operating systems. I love that level of detail.
So if you know what devices your audience uses, you’re all set to go. Or even more so, if your product is Apple-specific, then iPhone users are a better targeted audience segment to try and reach.
Fine-tune search demographics
Demographics are important, right?
But be honest: How much do you really take them into account?
Maybe you want more control than what AdWords gives you. Well in that case, Bing gives you the ability to decide exactly who sees your content by making bid adjustments on factors such as gender, specific age ranges and more.
After researching your demographics, using this feature can help your ads become super specific.
You can go as narrow or as wide as you want, and you can adjust it with each campaign you run.
Specificity when it comes to targeting search partners:
AdWords users will be familiar with the fact that there is essentially zero visibility into Google search partner performance beyond aggregated metrics. In comparison:
a). Bing Ads offers reporting on individual search partner performance. You’ll find this in the Bing Ads UI under Reports > Standard Performance > Performance > Website URL (publisher)
b). There is the ability to exclude search partners from both the ad group and campaign levels. To do this, check the box next to the campaigns or ad groups you want to add exclusions, and click “Make Bulk Changes” in the sub-navigation. From there, select “Website exclusions” from the drop-down menu and add up to 500 sites you want to exclude (you’ll want to have the list in a format where you can just copy and paste it).
c). Bing Ads offers the ability to target just search partners at the ad group level. To adjust the targeting options, click on an ad group and select Settings. You’ll find Ad distribution listed under the Advanced Settings section.
Microsoft Ads: An Underrated Growth Marketing Channel for Businesses Looking to Increase Their Revenues
While Bing isn’t as widely used as Google, it still caters to a large audience. Despite being overshadowed by Google, Bing still holds its own as a widely used and respected search engine. Since many Bing users don’t use Google at all, if you only consider Adwords as part of your tactical mix, you’re ignoring millions of potential customers.
Instead, it is important to add Bing to your existing marketing strategies. Explore what it can do for you. If you do it right, you’ll get a nice return on your investment. If you’re familiar with Google AdWords, you’ll quickly adapt to Bing Ads and its extensive options, especially since it is easy to upload your high-performing AdWords campaigns to Google while simultaneously benefitting from Bing’s distinct features that have been mentioned in this article.
The natural inclination is typically to think that Bing Ads is not widely used. Guess what? So does your competition. They’re probably not using Bing Ads! If you engage Bing Ads (sooner than later), you’ll gain an untapped market that your competitors aren’t even touching. This is known as first-mover’s advantage. The sooner you make a tactical marketing move such as focusing on Bing Ads, the better chance you have of outmaneuvering and out-marketing your competition. Therefore, if you’re looking for every possible competitive edge to master, your business really should not be ignoring Bing as part of its growth-focused pl
Overall, developing a long-term Bing Ads strategy that aligns with your growth marketing goals is an ongoing process that requires careful planning, analysis, and execution. Using many of the above points contained in this article, there is no doubt that you can build the foundation for a comprehensive and successful content marketing strategy using Bing Ads.
However, if you are looking for outside growth marketing expertise to help you get started and create a Microsoft ads plan that is aligned with your business’ revenue growth goals, why not schedule a free, no-obligation, growth marketing consultation with us today? Our growth marketing experts look forward to learning more about your business, and seeing where Bing Ads can fit into your business’ growth marketing mix.