Microsoft Advertising: Ultimate Guide 2020

Bing is a search engine people use to find content around topics, companies, or products that interest them. Microsoft Advertising is a platform that businesses can use to advertise online through Bing, Yahoo, and AOL, all owned and operated and partner sites. Any company can create and launch an ad with Microsoft Advertising; the average cost is $1.54 per click.

Paid ads increase online search visibility as they can ensure a business website receives top placement in search results. Ads created with Microsoft Advertising are particularly cost-efficient as users only pay for clicks their ads receive. You even get $100 in advertising credit when you spend your first $25. Your business will see lower costs per click and higher click-through rates with Microsoft Advertising compared to other pay-per-click (PPC) platforms. Click below to get started.

 Visit Microsoft Advertising

How Microsoft Advertising Works

Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) is a search advertising platform. The ads, known as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, appear in search engine results whenever users search a keyword that matches keywords from an ad. To create an ad, open a Microsoft Advertising account, then create your campaign, set your keywords, write your ad copy, add display features (like reviews), set your bid maximum and strategy, and then save your ad to launch it.

To open a Microsoft Advertising account, simply navigate to ads.microsoft.com and click “Sign up now.” Add an account email and password, then add requisite account information like your name, phone number, email address, time zone, and use case (how you will be using the platform).

Once you’ve created your account, you can create your ads. To create an ad, write ad text, set the URL people will be directed to when they click on the ad, and add additional elements called “Extensions” (display features like reviews, pricing tables, and images). Once you’ve created your ad, input your ad bid, total campaign budget, and target keywords.

When you’ve carefully researched and set up your ad, you can expect to match the conversion rates Microsoft Advertising predicted when you set your bid. You can monitor your ad performance by creating custom reports from your Microsoft Advertising account. Use these reports to understand key metrics like how effective a keyword is at producing conversions. If you aren’t reaching your goals, edit your campaign one element at a time to reach them.

Who Microsoft Advertising Is Right For

Bing specializes in targeting and serving the retail and financial industries, making it an ideal search engine marketing option for companies within these industries. It also targets a very specific consumer demographic—Bing users are more likely to be middle-aged or senior adults who enjoy an upper-middle-class income. This makes the Microsoft Advertising platform ideal for businesses that sell high-ticket items.

Here are the types of companies for which Microsoft Advertising is most suitable:

• Retail brands: Microsoft Advertising offers features that are useful for retail advertisers, including the ability to add calls to action, images, and product reviews to ads. The platform is also piloting the ability to add videos, tables, and a link searchers can click to view an interactive 3D rendering of products, allowing them to explore products right on the search results page.
• Financial brands: Microsoft allows you to place ads on the search results pages of Yahoo, its sister site, which serves many finance- and investment-focused users.
• Brands with high-ticket items: Searchers on the Microsoft Search Network (which includes Bing) typically have a high income of $75,000 or more, meaning companies that sell luxury items like high-end cars, large homes, or luxury travel packages would benefit from targeting that audience.
• Brands targeting an older demographic: Microsoft Search Network users more commonly fall within the 35 to over 65 age bracket, making it ideal for marketing products or services that would appeal to a middle-age to senior demographic. These include retirement homes, life insurance, and products often enjoyed in retirement, like RVs or cruises.

While Microsoft Advertising has a smaller user base than Google Ads (given the smaller number of Microsoft Search Network users versus Google users), the platform can effectively target an older and wealthier demographic as well as those engaged in the retail or financial industries. For other industries or target audiences, Google might be a better option.

Microsoft Advertising Costs

Signing up for a Microsoft Advertising account is free. However, Microsoft charges advertisers to display ads based on a cost-per-click (CPC) model; each time a searcher clicks on your ad, you’re charged a set amount based on your industry and chosen keywords. The average CPC for Microsoft Advertising on Bing is $1.54.

Microsoft Advertising Cost-per-Click by Industry

To keep your costs low, be sure to use high-converting keywords for your industry and target audience. Also, use negative keywords in Microsoft Advertising to find words that low-converting customers use; be sure to avoid these in your ads.

How to Set Up a Microsoft Ad in 8 Steps

To set up a Microsoft Advertising PPC campaign, first open a Microsoft Advertising account. Then, prepare to set up a campaign by doing research into the keywords your potential customers use to search for products and services like yours. Create your ad campaign by writing your copy, adding your keywords, and setting your budget and bid strategy. Finally, launch your campaign and use reports to monitor its performance.

Here are the eight steps to setting up an ad in Microsoft Advertising:

1. Create a Microsoft Advertising Account

To set up a Microsoft Advertising ad campaign, you must first open an account. Sign up on the company’s website, then provide pertinent information that will help Microsoft successfully market your business and allow you to track its performance, including your business’ location, your contact information, and your name. You also need to agree to the Microsoft Terms and Conditions to ensure you understand how to successfully remain a Microsoft Advertising user.

Create Your Account

To open a Microsoft Advertising account, navigate to the Microsoft Advertising homepage and click the “Sign Up” button in the top right-hand corner of your screen. From there, click the “Create One” link. On the next screen, enter your business email address, then input your preferred password. Click “Next.”

Verify Your Account

Once you’ve done this, you will be taken to a screen indicating you have been sent a code to the email address you provided. In a separate browser tab, log into your email account and find the email from Microsoft. Copy the four-digit code within. Navigate back to the Microsoft Advertising sign-up screen and paste the code in the field that says “Enter code.” Click “Next.”

Verify You’re a Person

On the next screen, Microsoft will ask you to verify you are a person by typing in a few letters and numbers. Enter these in the text box labeled “Enter the characters you see.” Check to make sure you have the lowercase and uppercase letters correct, then click “Next.”

Verifying you’re a person to open a Microsoft Advertising account

Provide Your Business Information

Next, you will be asked to fill out a longer form requesting information like your first and last name, your business email address, your business phone, business location (country), currency (U.S. dollar, for example), and time zone. Your first name, last name, and email address will be prepopulated based on the information you’ve already provided.

This form will also ask you for your primary use options. Choices are “To promote this business” and “To provide services to our business as an agency.” Most advertisers will be promoting their own business, so click the “To promote this business” checkbox. Next, click the Microsoft Terms and Conditions link to read about Microsoft user expectations, then check the box next to the Terms and Conditions link under the “Agreement” subtitle. Click “Create Account.”

Opening a Microsoft Advertising account

On the next campaign setup screen, you’ll be asked to set up a campaign, including setting your targeting preferences and budget, and adding your keywords. Because you still need to research to learn how to best optimize your campaigns for highest clicks, it’s best to skip these steps until you’ve selected your campaign keywords. To do so, simply click the “Skip This Step” link at the bottom of each screen that appears.

Skipping setting budget in Microsoft Advertising

2. Choose Your Keywords

Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns best target visitors who are ready to buy. If you want to target people at this stage, choose words people search when they’re ready to make a purchase. To find these words, start by researching your website’s analytics reports, then extend your research by examining keywords in a tool like Ahrefs and within the Microsoft Advertising platform.

Research Keywords Searchers Use on Your Site & on Bing

To choose keywords your audiences are using to find your products, do some research to understand what keywords your website visitors are already searching, both on your website and in search engines to get to your product pages. This will serve as a starting point for deeper keyword research.

First, look at the keywords your visitors type into your website’s search bar when looking for products they’re interested in buying. If you use Google Analytics, for example, track your website visitors’ behavior by looking at the Site Search reports to find the terms people type into your website’s search bars. Specifically, note the terms people use to search for the products you plan to advertise in Bing.

Google Analytics site search report

Next, learn the keywords people use to search for your products or services in search engines like Bing or Google. In Bing, you can find this information in their Webmaster Tools Search Keywords Report. It will show you which keywords are searched that bring up your site on Bing results pages, and how effective they are at getting people to click through to your website.

Bing search keywords report example

Check Keywords in Ahrefs

If you have the budget, use a paid keyword tool—like Ahrefs—to gather more information around high-performing website keywords and to find similar high-performing keywords. While there are a few metrics that will indicate performance, click-through rates (CTRs) are one of the most important. Click-through rates show you how likely people are to click on an ad after searching for a keyword.

To search keywords in Ahrefs, open an account via their homepage, then click on the “Keywords Explorer” tab. Change the search engine from Google to Bing and input one of the keywords your website users already use to find your brand or products online. Finally, click the magnifying glass to generate your report.

Searching for Bing data using the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Once you generate your report, you can see if your chosen keyword has a high click-through rate compared to similar keywords. You can also click on the list of similar keywords to compare click-through rates. These are important because, even if a keyword has a lower search volume (number of searches) than similar keywords, the people who search for them may be more likely to click your ad.

Ahrefs Keyword Explorer example report

Expand Your List & Check Keyword Costs in Microsoft

After honing your list of keywords, use a keyword planner tool like the one Microsoft Advertising offers to narrow in on which ones fit within your budget and perform well to reach customers who are ready to buy. While Microsoft offers a handful of tools for keyword research and planning, the Keyword Planner tool is the best at helping you narrow in on generally high-performing keywords.

To begin searching keywords, click the “Tools” tab at the top of the Microsoft Advertising dashboard screen, then “Keyword Planner” from the drop-down menu. Next, click on the link labeled “Search for new keywords, using a phrase, website, or category.” This will allow you to research keywords by search volume, suggested budget, and other metrics.

On the following screen, enter keywords you’re interested in targeting (based on your previous research) into the “Product or Service” text box. If you would like to search more than one keyword at once, simply separate them by commas. Then, click “Get Suggestions” at the bottom of the screen.

Searching keywords using Microsoft Advertising Keyword Planner

On the next screen, you will be presented with a large table of keyword suggestions. Record the ones that have a high search volume but that also are keywords your visitors are likely to search when they are ready to buy your products or services.

Additionally, keep the suggested bid amount in mind. This is the minimum Microsoft Advertising recommends you bid in order to target this keyword based on your location, targeting criteria, and the average cost-per-click for the keyword. If your budget is lower, you might find one with a lower bid rate.

Microsoft Advertising Keyword Planner suggested keywords list

For example, take a look at the table above. There are several keywords that searchers commonly use when they are ready to buy a Chevy Tahoe, including “Chevy Tahoe used,” “Chevy Tahoe Dealer,” “Chevy Tahoe Sale,” and “New Chevrolet Tahoe.” Fortunately, all of them have a low competition score and a high search volume. The deciding factor for an advertiser in this case would likely be the bid cost.

Now that you’ve researched keywords for your campaigns and you know what keywords will help you create high-converting campaigns, it’s time to actually put your campaigns together. Keep a list of the keywords you’d like to target to refer to as you do so.

3. Create Your Campaign

Creating your campaign is as simple as clicking “Campaigns” from your Microsoft Advertising Dashboard, then “Create Campaign” from the next screen. Once you’ve clicked this button, it will take you to a screen where you can specify your campaign settings.

Creating a Microsoft Advertising ad

4. Choose Your Campaign Settings

Your campaign settings include your goals, budget, the language of your ad, the locations you want your ad to appear in, and whether you want people only within your target location to see your ad or people who are also searching for pages about your location. To choose your campaign settings, follow the prompts to specify your campaign goals, budget, target location, and language.

Set Your Campaign Goals

When you choose a campaign goal, Microsoft Advertising suggests the most appropriate settings to reach that goal; however, you are free to customize settings. To set your campaign goals, choose from goals like “Visits to my website,” “Visits to my business location(s),” “Conversions in my website,” and other goals that align with your ad objectives. If you do not have ad or marketing goals, use a marketing plan template to define them.

For the example that follows, we chose a common goal: “Conversions on my website.” Once you click on your goal, you’ll be taken to the “Campaign Settings” page. Begin filling out the form by entering a name for your campaign in the “Campaign name” field.

Microsoft Advertising goal options

Set Your Budget

Next, choose your daily budget in the “Campaign budget” text box. Keep in mind that Microsoft Advertising may use a little more or a little less than your budget on a daily basis based on the amount of site traffic on each day of the week. However, they won’t go over your monthly budget (which is your daily budget multiplied by about 30). So, plan out your monthly budget, then divide it by the days in the month to get your daily budget.

To set your budget, click on “Daily Budget Options” under your “Campaign Budget” text box. You will see the option of a “Standard” way to spend your budget or an “Accelerated” one. They strongly recommend you stick to the “Standard” option (which is set by default) because it spreads your budget evenly throughout each day. The “Accelerated” budget option spends your ad money quickly, starting at the beginning of the day.

You can also choose the option to “Apply a budget from a shared library.” This is only if you want to distribute your daily budget over several campaigns. When you’re creating your first ad, it doesn’t apply.

Setting your advertising budget in Microsoft Advertising

Set Your Location

On the next screen, you have the option of setting your location by country, region, state, province, city, or ZIP code. If you live in the United States, Microsoft will have the radio dial selected for Canada and the United States by default. However, you can also choose “All available countries/regions” to have your ads appear worldwide or “Let me choose specific locations.”

If you choose the latter, you will be presented with a box to add a ZIP code, country, state, or coordinates. Once you have added more specific location information (like a ZIP code), it will narrow in on this location on the map. Then, simply click “Target” to allow your ads to appear before viewers in that location or “Exclude” to keep your ads from appearing there. You can continue adding locations to include or exclude and it will keep a list for you.

Microsoft Advertising location targeting

On the next screen, specify who you want to see your ad in that location. Options are “People in your target locations” and “People searching for or viewing pages about your target locations.” If you own a vacation booking site, for example, you may choose the latter so people who want to visit your location can see your ad. If you own a plumbing business, you likely have a local audience, so you’d choose “People in your target locations.”

Set Your Language

Like Google, the Microsoft Search Network has different versions of its sites for different countries and languages. You can expand your ad’s reach by choosing to display it on Microsoft Search Network sites in languages other than English. On the next screen, select the language of the websites your ad will appear on. You can choose from Danish, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, French, Norwegian, Swedish, English, German, Portuguese (Brazil), and traditional Chinese.

You can also select “All languages” to allow your ad to appear on pages containing content written in any of these languages. We recommend choosing only one to ensure your target audience understands your ad in the language in which it is written.

Once you have filled out all the sections of the “Campaign Settings” form, click “Save and go to the next step” at the bottom of the form. This will take you to the “Ad Groups & Keywords” screen.

Filling out the campaign settings for a Microsoft Advertising campaign

5. Set Your Keywords & Ad Group

Next, set up ad groups. While these sound like a set of ads, ad groups are actually a set of related keywords people use to search online. A campaign can have multiple ad groups. For example, a men’s clothing line may create two ad groups for one ad to target men’s dress clothes and men’s casual clothes. To add your own ad groups, enter your domain and an ad group name on the page following “Campaign settings.” Then, add a keyword list.

Begin by inputting your website’s domain in the “Your website” box. Then, name your ad group. If you are including a list of keywords related to men’s casual clothes, for example, add that list in the “Enter keywords” box. Only add one keyword per line or simply add a comma between each keyword to indicate a new keyword. Don’t worry about the “Get ad groups and keywords ideas” box, because we’ve already done more thorough keyword research than is offered there. Click “Add new group.”

You can add as many keyword groups (ad groups) as you want. Once you’re done, click the “Save and go to the next step” button at the bottom of the page.”

Setting Microsoft Advertising campaign ad groups and keywords

6. Create Your Ad & Choose Ad Extensions

Now, create the ad people will be presented with when they search your keywords. Creating your ad includes writing the text of your ad’s headers and body, then adding extensions. Extensions add components to your ad like product images, prices, and reviews; business contact information; and relevant website links. Begin by clicking “Create your ad,” then fill out the form to create your ad copy. Scroll down to add extensions.

Create Your Ad

To create your ad, click the “+Create Ad” link. Once you’ve done so, a box will pop up with a form you must fill out to create your ad. First, insert the URL (landing page) where you want to direct people after they’ve clicked your ad. For more information on creating a landing page, read our guide on landing pages.

Next, input the headline for your ad, which will be linked to your landing page. This can be up to 30 characters long and will be the most prominent part of your ad. You can then add a second and third title, both of which can be up to 30 characters long and will appear next to your primary title separated by a divider. These will all be linked using the final landing page URL. Be sure to use the keywords with the highest click-through rates (CTRs) you researched in step 2.

Next, add the path (URL) people will see directly under your titles. This tells people where they can expect to land once they’ve clicked your link. For example, in the example below, the path looks like www.menshop.com/casuals/summerstyles, and tells people they will visit the Men’s Shop website section that showcases men’s casual clothing summer styles when they click your ad.

Once you’ve set up your title, URL, and path, it’s time to write your ad. You can do so by adding text to the “Ad text 1” and “Ad text 2” boxes. You can add up to 90 characters in each box, and they will appear together as one paragraph (two lines) directly underneath your title and path callouts. Remember to use your keywords from step 2 here to show people your ads are relevant to their searches.

If you would like your users to see a different page when they click on your ad from a mobile device, add the URL of that page in the “Mobile URL” box. Just make sure your landing pages are mobile-responsive.

Finally, review your ad by viewing it in the right-hand side of the screen. If you’re satisfied with your ad, click “Save.” If you would like to include extensions, scroll down further on the page.

Ad creation page in Microsoft Advertising

Add Your Extensions

In addition to creating a basic ad, you can provide additional information with your ad via ad extensions. When you do, information like images, customer reviews, pricing information, business contact information, and additional links will appear underneath your ad. As you scroll down the ad creation page, you can enable ad extensions you’d like to include.

Add ad extensions by scrolling down to find the ad extension you’d like to add, then clicking “Add new [name of extension] extension,” filling out the pop-up form with the information you’d like to add, and clicking “Save.” When it takes you back to the “Create Campaign” page, click “Save” again under each extension. To learn more about the extensions available to pair with your campaigns, visit the Microsoft Advertising extension list with descriptions.

Keep in mind that this additional information will only appear if your ad gets placed at the top of the search engine results pages. Whether your ad appears at the top of the list depends on if you set a high enough bid to outrank your competition (see next step to set your bid), how well you optimized your ad copy, your audience’s location, and how well your ad aligns with the landing page it links to.

Once you’ve written your ad copy and added all the extensions you wish, click “Save and go to next step.” This will take you to the “Budgets & Bids” page.

Adding a pricing extension to your Microsoft Advertising campaign

7. Confirm Your Bid & Launch Your Ad

Your bid is the amount you wish to pay when your ad is clicked. When someone searches for your keyword, Microsoft Advertising compares all advertisers competing for the same keyword and favors those with higher bids. To set your bid, confirm your budget (set in step 4), then how it will be distributed, and how much you wish to bid on your keywords.

Setting bids in Microsoft Advertising

Confirm Your Campaign Budget

Under “Campaign budget” on the “Budgets & Bids” screen, confirm your daily budget. This should already be prepopulated with the same daily amount you specified when you filled out the campaign settings form.

Set Your Bid Strategy

If you choose “Conversions” as the campaign goal, as we did in step 4, you will see three options under “How do you manage your bids”: Manual, Enhanced CPC, or Maximize Clicks. Using the arrows to the right of the drop-down box, select the one that best suits your goals and budget.

Here are the bid strategies you can choose from based on your conversion goal:

• Manual: Manual keeps all bids at the exact bid amount you select in the next section.
• Enhanced CPC: This option allows Microsoft Advertising to adjust your bid automatically to increase your click-throughs and purchases. You will have to set up conversion tracking on your website by creating a Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag and adding it to your website’s code. This allows Microsoft to track conversions on your website, like form completions and app downloads. Microsoft explains how to do this in their article, What Is Conversion Tracking?
• Maximize clicks: This selection allows Microsoft Advertising to adjust bids so your ads earn the most clicks.

Once you’ve set your strategy, scroll down to set your bid.

Set Your Bid

Setting your bid is the last step before saving your campaign and launching it. In this section, Microsoft Advertising prepopulates the form with a bid suggestion. It’s OK to just leave this as is. But, if you want, you can adjust the amount up and down, and it will tell you the resulting estimation of monthly impressions, clicks, and conversions, and how much you’ll spend on your ad. Change the amount to fit your budget and your marketing goals.

In the below image, we have adjusted the bid amount from the prepopulated $1 to $3. As a result, Microsoft Advertising estimates our campaign will be clicked 1,878 times, seen 42,455 times in search results, and that we will spend $229.57 to run the campaign for a month. It further estimates that the ad will appear within the first two ad results on the search engine results page.

Examining views, CTR, spend, and ranking based on bid

Save Your Ad to Launch It

Once you have finished setting up your bid, you are ready to launch your ad. To do so, simply click the “Save” button at the bottom of the screen. Once your ad has been saved, it will begin to run.

8. Monitor & Optimize Performance

Microsoft Advertising offers the ability to download reports on any of your goals by simply clicking the “Reports” tab on the top of the dashboard, then clicking the goal you wish to create a report for on the left-hand panel. To track an ad’s performance after it goes live, complete the form that pops up after selecting your goal from the “Reports” tab, specifying everything you want included in the report and when you want to run the report. Then, download it.

For example, to set up a “Conversion” report, click “Reports,” then “Conversions.” Fill out the form to include the date range you’d like the report to cover, the time increments for the report (day, week, month, or year), your time zone, and what format you’d like to use to download your report (XLS, TSV, or CSV).

Filling out the conversion report settings form in Microsoft Advertising

On the next screen, choose the columns you’d like included in the conversion report, such as clicks, impressions, click-through rates, ad spend, conversion rate, revenue, and return on ad spend.

Choose conversion reports columns in Microsoft Advertising

Next, you can filter columns to only include results by device type, keywords, campaign status (active or paused), and other criteria. This allows you to narrow in on your campaign results to understand how your ad appears before specific searchers.

Filter Microsoft Advertising ad report results

Under “My report settings,” choose when you want your report to run. You can schedule this by clicking the radio dial for “Daily, “Weekly,” or “Monthly,” choosing the time you’d like to run it (12 p.m., for example), and adding a start and end date.

Finally, if you want a “Total” row added to your report that totals up each row’s metric performance, check the “Include Total Row” box.

Setting report run timing in Microsoft Advertising

You can also save the report as a custom report so you can easily run it again when needed. To do so, simply check the “Save as custom report” box. Once you’re done, click “Run.”

5 Free Microsoft Advertising Tools

Microsoft Advertising offers several tools to help you plan and create your ad. Their top tools focus on planning which keywords to target with your ads by comparing keyword costs, click-through rates, search volumes, competition levels, and more.

Here are five free tools to help you maximize the performance of your ads:

• Add Keywords: The Add Keywords tool is free and accessible by signing into your Microsoft Advertising account and clicking “Campaigns,” then “Keywords,” and “Add Keywords.” It allows you to search for keyword ideas by inputting an initial keyword, website domain, or ad destination URL. It gives you basic information like suggested bids for ads that target that keyword in a specific location (like a country or ZIP code).
• Keyword Planner: This free tool offers a moderate amount of keyword information. It can be accessed by clicking the “Tools” tab and then “Keyword Planner” from your Microsoft Advertising account dashboard. It allows you to search keywords by entering a phrase, a product category, or website domain. In turn, you get keyword search volumes, the level of competition (keyword difficulty), and a suggested bid rate.
• Microsoft Advertising Intelligence: This is a free tool that you can access from the “Tools” menu of your account dashboard. It can be downloaded to work as an add-in for Microsoft Excel, providing in-depth keyword research information like historical costs and audience geographical and demographic information. It also offers keyword-specific metrics such as clicks, impressions, click-through rates, and CPCs.
• Ad Preview and Diagnostics Tool: This is a free tool accessed by clicking “Tools” and then “Ad Preview and Diagnostics Tool” from your Microsoft Advertising account dashboard. You can use it to input a keyword assigned to one of your campaigns, then see if your ad appears on the first search engine results page without the search counting toward your click-through rate or impressions. If it doesn’t appear, the tool gives you a reason why your ad isn’t performing so you can fix it.
• Microsoft Advertising Editor: This is a tool you can download from your “Tools” tab in your Microsoft Advertising account dashboard. It allows you to download an application to your desktop for editing your campaigns offline, then syncing with Microsoft once you’re online with just one click. You can also manage your budget, bids, copy, URLs, and extensions offline.

Pros & Cons of Microsoft Advertising

When paired with the right brand and the right target audience, Microsoft Advertising can yield impressive returns. On the other hand, brands can often reach more people when advertising on larger search engines; limited reach and more niche user demographics mean Microsoft Advertising isn’t always successful for advertisers. Learn whether Microsoft Advertising is best for your brand by reviewing the pros and cons below.

Pros of Microsoft Advertising

Here are the pros of using Microsoft Advertising:

• Multiple ad locations: When you advertise with Microsoft Advertising, your ads don’t just appear on the Bing search engine, but also across Yahoo and AOL sites as well as search partner sites.
• Robust targeting: Microsoft Advertising allows for some more granular targeting options than some other search advertising platforms, including Google Ads. For example, if your business’ customers are more likely to buy when they search for your products or services on the go, you can choose to only have your ads appear before mobile users and not desktop users.
• Less competition: In general, Microsoft Advertising users get more results from their keywords because there is less competition than on larger competitors with millions more advertisers. This means advertisers usually pay less to target keywords and enjoy greater engagement from the keywords they target.
• High-income user base: Microsoft Search Network users are primarily an older (over 35) audience with a larger household income (over $75,000). This means Microsoft Advertising users can capture conversions from a high-income demographic they may not be able to effectively target on search engines like Google, which are more popular with younger generations.

Cons of Microsoft Advertising

Here are the cons of using Microsoft Advertising:

• Reach: Because the Microsoft Search Network has roughly 36% of the PC search market share in the United States, it has a lower reach than Google. This means your ads are likely to appear before fewer people than if you advertise on a larger search engine.
• User demographics: While the Microsoft Search Network’s older user base can be an advantage, if your brand’s target audience is primarily millennials or younger, you will probably experience low conversion rates by advertising with Microsoft Advertising.

Microsoft Advertising vs Google Ads

Bing and Google are the primary search engines in the United States, with Google having a much larger reach than Bing. Google’s conversion rates are slightly higher, but so is their average cost-per-click rate. Moreover, Microsoft Advertising generally targets an older, more affluent audience than Google Ads.

Bottom Line

Microsoft Advertising, formerly known as Bing Ads, allows businesses to create and run an advertisement that appears on Bing, Yahoo, and AOL owned and operated and partner sites. To create an ad, open a Microsoft Advertising account, set goals and keywords, design an ad, specify a budget and bid strategy, and launch your ad. Microsoft Advertising best suits businesses in the retail or finance sector or those with audiences over the age of 35 and with a $75,000 or more yearly income.

Before you can create your ad, you need to create a free Microsoft Advertising account. Fortunately, it only takes a few steps and gives even non-tech-savvy advertisers everything they need to get started right away. Once your account is launched, you can have an ad up and running in minutes. Click here to get started with Microsoft Advertising.

Visit Microsoft Advertising