Although Google is considered the king of paid search advertising, promoting your business on Bing might just help you reach a new audience and generate more revenue.
In this blog we’ll discuss everything you need to know about Microsoft advertising and how to create your first ad on Bing.
What are Bing Ads?
Bing is a search engine developed, owned, and operated by Microsoft. Microsoft rebranded Bing Ads to “Microsoft Advertising” in April 2019 however many marketers use the terms interchangeably.
Microsoft Advertising is the #2 most popular search engine worldwide with approximately between 4% market share. The platform lets you run Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads on the Microsoft Search Network which includes Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, MSN, AOL and more.
Microsoft Ads works very similar to Google Ads, however, there is a substantial difference in market size and potential reach.
What is the New Bing
You may or may not have heard of the ‘New Bing’ which Microsoft announced on February 7, 2023. This is Microsoft’s AI-powered search engine which is now available to preview at Bing.com.
The aim of the tool is to deliver a better and more tailored search experience for online users by providing complete, detailed answers to complex questions. This means users can search real life questions for example; ‘I am planning a trip for our anniversary in September. What are some places we can go that are within a 3-hour flight from London Heathrow?’ and received personalised search results.
As you can see in the example above, Bing AI search engine has made specific recommendations based on the user’s query, as well as giving a personal touch on the right where they communicate further suggestions based on different preferences they may have.
With these AI-powered features, you can:
- Ask your actual question as if you were talking to a person. If you ask a complex question, Bing will give you a detailed reply.
- Get an actual answer. Bing looks at search results across the web to offer you a summarised answer.
- Be creative. When you need inspiration, Bing can help you write poems, stories or even share ideas for a project.
The new Bing preview is ready to use at Bing.com, however Bing’s chatbot is currently in a limited preview mode while Microsoft tests it with the public, but there is a waitlist you can join for early access.
Advantages of Microsoft/Bing Advertising
We all know that Google dominates the search marketplace, with over 90% market share. So you may be wondering what are the benefits of advertising on Bing?
The ‘New Bing’ has created a lot of excitement recently. Within one month of their AI features being released, a total of 45M chats have taken place on the platform, with one-third of preview users being brand new to Bing, proving it to be a really good time to hop on the Microsoft bandwagon and join them on the journey.
Here are 8 more reasons you should consider employing Microsoft Ads in your marketing strategy:
1. Reach customers that can’t be reached through Google Ads.
Although Google has an average 86–96% market share worldwide, Microsoft Ads reach 63 million searchers that can’t be reached through Google Ads. Statista states that Bing’s audience consists primarily of individuals aged 45 – 54 with an income exceeding $100,000.
2. Access to the Microsoft Search Network
The Microsoft Search Network is growing rapidly. There are approximately 1.2 billion unique monthly users globally, and almost 620 million monthly searches conducted through the Bing Network from the UK alone.
3. The Bing Network is bigger than you think
Not only does Microsoft Ads own Bing, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, but it also generates search results for Amazon’s Kindle, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and is the default search engine for all Microsoft PCs. This means your ads will be displayed across multiple sites and their associated partners.
4. Lower competition
Although Microsoft Ads has a smaller audience segment than Google, there are much fewer active advertisers, which means it is easier to dominate the platform. As a result of low competition, you are more likely to achieve a higher ad position in the search results and reach more customers.
5. Higher click-through rates and return on investment
As there are fewer advertisers on Bing, users are more likely to click on the ads than searchers using other search engines. According to a Wordstream study, Bing Shopping ads have a 45% higher CTR than Google Shopping ads. The average click-through rate for Bing Ads is 1.25%, while it’s only 0.86% for Google Ads.
6. Lower cost-per-click and larger return on investment.
Although Microsoft has a smaller audience than Google, the average bid on Microsoft Advertising can be around 42% less than Google Ads. In spite of this, Bing ads still produce good conversion rates, resulting in a higher ROI.
7. Enhance ads with Microsoft’s ad extensions and automated extensions
Ad extensions are additional assets which appear under your search ad which provide additional information to your viewers such as your business address, phone number, etc. Microsoft Advertising allows you to add image extensions and social extensions which include your company’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts to help your audience engage directly with your brand. You can manually add the extensions to your ads yourself or use automated extensions which require no action on your end.
8. Import campaigns directly from Google Ads
Whilst many marketers view Google and Microsoft as competitors, they actually work really well together. Another one of Microsoft’s Advertising useful features is its ability to import campaigns directly from Google Ads. This means if you are already advertising on Google you can easily expand your advertising reach by running the same ads through Bing.
Learn how to import Google Ads campaigns to Microsoft Advertising here.
How to Create a Microsoft Ads account
Ready to get started? Here’s how to set up a Microsoft Advertising account.
To start, you need a Microsoft Advertising account. It’s free to sign up, and you can use an existing email address.
- Go to ads.microsoft.com
- Click ‘Sign up now’
3. If you haven’t already got a Microsoft account, click ‘Create one!’ (you’ll be prompted for an email address, password, first and last name, country, date of birth).
4. Once you have verified your email you are ready to set up your first campaign.
Step by step guide: how to set up a Microsoft Ads campaign
After you have set up your Microsoft account you are ready to create your first campaign. If you already run ads on Google you can import them by following the steps on this page.
Here’s how you set up you campaign from scratch:
Step 1: First, with any campaign you need to select your advertising goal.
Step 2: You will be asked to enter some information about your business.
Step 3: Specify the location you want to target. You can either select a specific location or a radius around the address of your business.
Step 4: Then you will be prompted for your keywords. Microsoft will suggest a few of these for you based on the website you entered in step 2.
Step 5: Now it’s time to create your actual ad. Again Microsoft will auto-suggest copy based on your website. Feel free to change it so your ad highlights the specific product or services your business offers, and be sure to include any special offers and discounts to grab the attention of your audience! On the right, you can see a preview of what your ad will look like – make sure to double check you are happy with it before moving onto the next step.
Step 6: Set up your budget. Simply input the amount you want to spend per day. Microsoft shows your competitors budget range and estimated performance to help you make an informed decision.
Step 7: Next Microsoft asks you for a little bit more information about your business, including the legal business name and address.
Step 8: The final step before you can go live is to set up your payment.
Now you are all set and ready to go!
Good luck embarking on your Bing Advertising journey. If you’d like to know more about Microsoft Ads and how we can help your business, contact us today for a free consultation.
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