Ads in MS Ads – is it worth being there?

The Internet is undoubtedly mankind’s greatest invention. It connects businesses and people to each other by enabling users around the world to communicate quickly. It also makes it possible to find the information you are looking for about, for example, services or products. Without a doubt, advertising on the Internet is now booming, especially in post-pandemic times, when most businesses were forced to move sales just to the Internet. Until recently, the monopolist in terms of search advertising was Google Ads. More recently, its biggest competitor, ie. Microsoft Advertising, has appeared – a total novelty on our market, which is very quickly convincing a growing number of advertisers. So what are its advantages and why should you start using this system now?

What is Microsoft Advertising?

The Microsoft Ads platform (formerly called Bing Ads), is very similar to Google Ads. The service offers users many tools and options that allow for more precise targeting of the target group. You can choose keywords, location, type of devices, as well as create remarketing. Thanks to this, ads are displayed to users who are more likely to click on the ad and make a purchase, which increases the chance of achieving business goals.

It offers advertising of products and services on Microsoft’s Bing search engine and on Microsoft’s partner advertising networks, such as Yahoo!. As part of the Microsoft Ads panel, we have the ability to optimize campaigns for a whole range of KPIs – CPC (Cost Per Click), CPM (Cost Per Mille), CPA (Cost Per Action), ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), or IS (Impression Share).

Therefore, the goal of Microsoft Ads is to provide companies and marketers with the necessary tools to monitor and optimize campaigns, enabling them to reach their target group, thereby increasing the visibility of their products or services in Bing search results and on partner websites, which in turn increases sales and website traffic.

Microsoft Ads market share

According to data provided by StatCounter from 2022, Bing ranks second in the world, just behind Google’s search engine in terms of the most popular search engines in the world. Globally, Google scored 93.18%, while Bing accounts for 2.87%. Yahoo! was third with 1.12%, followed by Yandex (1.02%), DuckDuckGo (0.52%) and Baidu (0.42%). 

Microsoft Advertising has been present in many other markets for a lot of years and offers all kinds of tools and features that allow advertisers to personalize and optimize their advertising campaigns. In Poland, Bing appeared at the beginning of 2022 and is gaining more and more allies. According to data from 2022, Bing’s share in the search engine market in Poland is about 3.08%.

The most popular search engines in Poland in 2022

_{Source: Own chart based on:https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/poland/#monthly-202201-202212}

Although MS Ads is not the most popular advertising platform in Poland, it is worth paying attention to its capabilities and carefully examining whether it can be an effective option for a given advertising campaign. It may still be interesting for some advertisers in Poland, especially for those who want to reach specific target groups or compete with fewer advertisers.

Microsoft Ads formats

Microsoft Ads offers a variety of ad formats that allow advertisers to choose the most appropriate solution for their campaigns:

1. Search ads that appear at the top of search results on Bing and Yahoo. These are usually text ads that appear in response to a specific search query.

2. Dynamic ads that automatically tailor their content to users’ queries. They are based on the content of the advertiser’s website and the user’s search phrases.

3. Ads in advertising networks, which means graphic, text or video advertisements displayed on websites, applications and games in the Microsoft Advertising network.

4. Product ads, which are designed to present products along with their photos, prices and names of online stores based on product feed. These ads appear in Bing Shopping search results and on some Microsoft Advertising partner sites.

5. In-app ads – appear in apps on mobile devices on Microsoft platforms such as Windows, Xbox or Skype. They can be text or graphic.

6. Video ads are displayed on Microsoft Advertising partner sites and on YouTube. These may be pre-roll, mid-roll or post-roll video ads that appear before, during or after video content on partner sites.

7. Remarketing campaigns, i.e. those that are displayed to users who have already visited our website or performed specific actions on it.

8. LinkedIn Campaigns – ads displayed on the LinkedIn platform, which is owned by Microsoft.

How to start?

The general process of operating in Microsoft Ads can be described in a few simple steps.

First, you create an account in the Microsoft Ads platform, and then you create an ad campaign with a specific goal and budget. 

As part of campaigns on the Bing Search Network or on partner sites, you choose keywords that are designed to trigger the display of ads. You then create these ads consisting of a title, description, and URL based on the keywords you chose earlier.

In the next step, you need to determine the target audience, i.e. the people the ads should reach. This can be done by selecting locations, devices, target groups and remarketing options. You then choose the most valuable Smart Bidding strategy for the advertiser or use manual bidding. These rates determine how much you will pay for each click or impression of your ad.

Once your campaign has been launched, it’s a good idea to regularly monitor and optimize it to get the best results. You can do this by adjusting your bid strategy, keywords, ads, and targeting.

For Microsoft Ads to be effective, there are several important factors to consider. The most important thing is to match the content of your ads to the target group. It’s crucial to understand the needs and behaviors of users who will be most interested in your product or service and adjust your ad content accordingly. Each target group may require a different advertising strategy. Microsoft Ads offers a number of targeting tools that allow advertisers to reach the right target group.

You can use geo targeting, audience targeting, remarketing, and many other tools to increase the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.

Ad content should be attractive and encourage users to click. Your ad text should be concise, clear and compelling, and the graphics or video should be relevant to the content of the ad and of high quality.

Keywords are a fundamental component of an effective advertising campaign. Choosing keywords that best describe your offer and are most frequently searched for by users will increase the chances of your ads displaying to the right target group.

It is important to keep up to date with trends and changes in the industry in order to adapt campaigns to the current needs and user behavior. Tracking search trends and user behavior will help you adjust your advertising strategy and increase its effectiveness.

Bing vs ChatGPT Correlation

ChatGPT is a large artificial intelligence platform that is used to generate answers to questions asked to it. It is based on advanced machine learning technology.

Although Bing and ChatGPT are completely different products, it is possible to use them in tandem for better search results. Microsoft has recently introduced the “Intelligent Answers” feature, which uses ChatGPT technology to generate more detailed and precise answers to questions asked in the Bing search engine, giving it an edge over Google in this regard. We think that with this new technology, the popularity of the Bing search engine will continue to grow.

Summary

Summarizing, there are various reasons that may attract advertisers to use Microsoft Ads:

1.Microsoft Advertising, at least for now, has less competition than Google Ads, which can mean lower cost per click and better ad positions. It is worth starting to use its capabilities now, before the competition does.

2. Microsoft Advertising is gaining an increasing share among advertising systems on the Polish market, as evidenced by the growing number of advertisers using it. 

3. The platform offers many tools for precise targeting, such as selection of keywords, locations, devices, target groups, as well as remarketing options. Thanks to this, your ads may reach people who are most interested in your products or services.

4. Click-through rates for ads on Microsoft Ads are often lower than on other advertising platforms, which can translate into a better ROI from the campaign.

5. By launching a campaign in MS Ads, we can display ads, e.g. on LinkedIn, which is one of the platforms owned by Microsoft.

6. Microsoft Advertising enables advertising in partner networks, which increases the reach

of your ads.

7. Microsoft Advertising offers an intuitive user interface and easy operation, making it as easy as pie to create and manage campaigns.

8. It also offers technical support for advertisers, including advice on campaigns and best practices.

Although the platform is not as popular as Google Ads, it is still very valuable and necessary to consider if you want to increase your visibility on the Internet, while gaining new customers.