Microsoft Ads.

When you think of Search Engine Advertising, as an entrepreneur you probably don't immediately think of Microsoft Bing. Logical, because the other search engine giant, Google, has dominated the market for years with some 90% market share. That makes it interesting for business owners and SEA specialists to start with Google Ads, so you can quickly reach a large part of your target audience that way. However, that does not mean you should ignore Microsoft Ads, with a market share of around 10%. Today, we will dive into the world of Bing and convince you of the added value this channel can add to your performance objectives within your online marketing strategy.

Search engines on Microsoft

The Microsoft network consists of a number of different search engines you can advertise on, namely: Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. You can read more about them below.

Bing

Bing is Microsoft's premier search engine, launched on 3 June 2009. It is the second-largest search engine behind - yes, you guessed it - Google. Bing partnered with Facebook until 2014 and until then was integrated into Facebook's search function.

Yahoo

Probably rings a bell with 80's and 90's kids. Chances are that generation used that platform to look at various homepages to get crucial info on everything you found interesting back then and scoured Hyves profiles. Today, Yahoo functions as a news site and search engine in one.

DuckDuckGo

No, this is not the sequel to Duck Hunt -the genius shooter on the Nintendo 8 bit-but a search engine that safeguards your privacy. This search engine promises not to store any user data about you, so you can't be followed by those ''annoying'' display banners. In addition, it does not store any browser history. So you can surf the internet anonymously!

Obviously, most of Microsoft's gains are to be made on Bing.

Now that you also know a bit about the placement options on the other search engines and everyone's advantages, let's delve further into Bing.

B2B Objectives

First, Bing is very interesting for B2B targets because of its integration with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 computers. Many large companies use Windows PCs, because of the big price differences with Apple. And these therefore run Microsoft Edge by default. This significantly increases the chances of reaching a business audience via your search or shopping Ads. Bing is also used by a slightly older audience with a more generous spending pattern. Of course, this too contributes to your ROI.

Campaign types on Microsoft Bing

It might be good to mention right away that you can now use almost all campaign types on Bing that you also use on Google. Also Google's latest campaign type; the performance max, meanwhile, is exportable in to Bing, where it will be served as smart shopping. Although you may wonder whether that is desirable. After all, Bing's algorithm is not comparable to Google's. Also, smart bidding works a lot less well on Bing compared to Google. So that will just be manual cpc updating again! Incidentally, Microsoft has been smart enough to make it possible to export your Google Ads campaigns to Bing with just a few clicks. That does make life easier for the SEA specialist. Just adjust your automated bidding strategies before pressing that green button, though. Otherwise, it will cost you money.

LinkedIn profile targeting

In a number of countries, it is possible to use LinkedIn profile targeting through Microsoft Ads. So you can match the keywords and display placements you buy with a number of targeting options on LinkedIn. For example, it is possible to show your ads to users in combination with company names, industries and job titles. Currently, it can only be used in the US, UK, Canada, Austria, France and Germany. So if you serve customers in these countries, it is high time to test this. For advertisers in the Netherlands, please be patient.

Lower cost per click

While Bing has been around for almost 15 years, it is still relatively little used by advertisers. This naturally leads to less crowding in the auction, which in turn results in lower click prices. Count your winnings.

Renewed Interface

In 2020, Bing came out with an update in its interface. The look and feel changed, leading to a better user experience and clear insights into reports. In addition, what is also very nice is the fact that the interface is a lot faster than Google's. Although, of course, the latter is not that difficult. (Get your shit together Google)

Investment ChatGPT

That Microsoft has big plans for Bing was of course already evident from the renewed investment it made last January in OpenAI, the parent company behind ChatGPT. This, now its second investment, amounted to a whopping 10 billion, indicating that Microsoft has serious plans for the search engine's growth. Google's response -Bard- to the ChatGPT-Microsoft partnership took just a few weeks to be announced officially in the media. This just goes to show how fast things can move between the rival tech giants. Nothing is currently known about Bard's integration into Google unlike ChatGPT, which is already fully integrated into Bing. Since the announcement of its investment in OpenAI, Microsoft Bing has been gaining considerable popularity. Whether this is hype or whether this rise will continue remains to be seen, but this seems to us a great time to start optimising Microsoft campaigns.

Here are a few more advantages of Bing:

• Interesting for business and wealthy target group
• Linking with LinkedIn target groups
• Cheaper click prices due to lower competition
• Easily import campaigns from Google Ads
• User-friendly and fast interface
• Microsoft has a strong focus on growth and improvement
• Microsoft Bing gains popularity with advertisers

Conclusion

That Microsoft Ads is a lot smaller than Google Ads is beyond dispute, but the USPs this channel has over Google make it extremely suitable to add to the performance mix. The lower cost per click combined with a (business) wealthy target audience, make Microsoft Ads an indispensable addition to your SEA strategy.

Need help formulating a profitable SEA strategy? Feel free to contact with our specialists.

Author: Jan Bouman