Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising is a popular way to generate traffic to a website, with text ads, display and video ads giving advertisers a variety of ways to reach their target audience. Over the years, PPC Ads have become synonymous with Google Ads, with Google being the most used search engine in the UK and the US. Due to its lower market share of searches, Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) often gets overlooked. So in this article we’ll look at whether Microsoft Ads could be a worthwhile platform for you to promote your business to potential customers.
A brief history…
Advertising with Microsoft began back in 2006 as MSN adCenter. Its platform replaced the ads shown on MSN Search which had previously been powered by Overture and then Yahoo!. Microsoft was the last of the big three search engines (MSN, Google and Yahoo!) to launch its PPC platform.
Several years (and acquisitions) later, Microsoft signed an agreement with Yahoo! in 2010 to not only power its search engine, but also its ads. The agreement, known as the Microsoft Search Alliance, brought together two of the biggest search engines, Yahoo! and Bing (after MSN Search was rebranded).
In 2012, Microsoft renamed adCenter to Bing Ads to reflect the new name of its search engine. Then in 2019, the platform was renamed again to Microsoft Advertising.
How is Microsoft Advertising different to Google Ads
Microsoft Advertising looks and functions very much like Google Ads. In fact, if you have a Google Ads account, you’ll feel reassuring at home in the Microsoft Advertising platform. Menu items, navigation and account structure as well as terminology is very similar if not identical, so it’s not going to take long (or a steep learning curve) to get to grips with it.
Microsoft claim their users are different to Google, reaching 60 million people Google doesn’t and having a higher percentage (38%) of users with higher incomes (over $100k per annum). A large proportion of its user demographic (40%) is between the ages of 35 and 54.
Advertising with Microsoft also boasts better results than Google Ads with a higher click through rate and a lower cost per click (CPC). It’s important to note, however, that this can vary by industry and location.
The biggest difference between the platforms is their market share. And this is the main reason the platform is overlooked by advertisers. It’s seen as the underdog with only a small percentage of users choosing Bing over Google.
Benefits of Microsoft Advertising
#1: It gives you another platform to reach your audience. We wouldn’t recommend choosing one platform over another, but adding Microsoft Advertising into your strategy gives you more opportunities to get in front of your potential customers.
#2: Larger US market. Although the market share in the UK is relatively small (Bing and Yahoo! combined make up around 5.86% at time of writing, according to Statcounter.com), in other markets, such as the US, its market share is higher (9.53% – Bing & Yahoo! combined market share). So, if your customers are in the States, it’s definitely worth considering.
#3: Import and sync campaigns from Google Ads. If you’re running campaigns on Google already and overwhelmed at the prospect of setting them up again on Microsoft Advertising, you’ll be relieved to hear that there’s an import feature that lets you import campaigns from Google Ads. Imports can be scheduled to occur regularly meaning any changes you make in Google Ads will be reflected in Microsoft Ads too.
#4: Less competition. Not everyone is using Microsoft Advertising, so for many industries the competition is less fierce which means you’re more likely to get exposure with a lower budget.
#5: Cheaper CPC. Because the competition is lower on Bing, the bids haven’t been driven up as much meaning the cost to advertise is lower than Google Ads.
Downsides of advertising on Bing
Smaller audience means less traffic. If your Google Ads are generating low volumes of traffic, there’s a chance your Microsoft Ads won’t generate much at all.
So is Microsoft Advertising right for your business? If you’re getting a good volume of traffic and sales through your Google Ads, we think Microsoft can be a great addition to reach new people. As with any PPC platform, you only pay when someone clicks on your ads, so if there’s no one clicking, you’ve not paid anything to learn that Bing isn’t the platform for you. It’s simple to import what you already have set up in Google Ads, so the cost of getting started is minimal.
If you’re not already advertising on Google (perhaps because it’s too expensive!) why not try Microsoft Ads as the cost is likely to be less. Just be aware that, depending on your search terms, you may not see a huge volume of traffic.
If you’ve seen that you get a decent amount of traffic from Bing organically in your Google Analytics reports, this could indicate that it’s where your audience is at, so advertising could be a good way to capitalise on this.
Are you advertising on Bing already? Let us know in the comments about your experience.
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