How to Grow Your Business with Microsoft Search Ads in 2023

By Cepy 9/06/2023 Post a Comment

Hi Online Friends,

If you're looking for a way to boost your online visibility, drive more traffic to your website, and increase your sales, you might want to consider Microsoft Search Ads. Microsoft Search Ads is a pay-per-click (PPC) platform that lets you advertise your products and services on both the Bing search network and its partner networks (Yahoo and AOL). The ads display at the top, bottom, or side of the Bing search engine results page.

I have been using Microsoft Search Ads for a while now, and I can tell you that it's a great way to reach potential customers who are actively searching for what you offer. In this article, I will share with you some of the benefits of Microsoft Search Ads, how to set up and optimize your campaigns, and some tips and tricks to get the most out of your advertising budget.

Why You Should Use Microsoft Search Ads in 2023

Microsoft Search Ads may not be as popular as Google Ads, but that doesn't mean it's not effective. In fact, there are several reasons why you should consider adding Microsoft Search Ads to your marketing mix in 2023.

Reach a Large and Valuable Audience

Microsoft Search Ads can help you reach a large and valuable audience that you may not be able to reach with Google Ads alone. According to Microsoft, the Bing network has more than 1 billion unique visitors each month, and accounts for 9% of the global search market. That's a lot of potential customers that you don't want to miss out on.

Not only that, but Microsoft Search Ads users tend to be more affluent, educated, and ready to buy than the average internet user. Microsoft claims that its users spend 23% more than the average internet searcher, and that 45% of its users have an annual income of more than $75,000. That means they have more purchasing power and are more likely to convert into customers.

Enjoy Lower Competition and Cost-Per-Click

Another benefit of Microsoft Search Ads is that it has lower competition and cost-per-click (CPC) than Google Ads. Since fewer advertisers are using Microsoft Search Ads, you can bid on keywords that are relevant to your business without having to compete with hundreds or thousands of other advertisers. This can help you get more exposure and clicks for less money.

According to WordStream, the average CPC on Microsoft Search Ads is $1.54, compared to $2.69 on Google Ads. That means you can save up to 43% on your advertising costs by using Microsoft Search Ads. Of course, the actual CPC will vary depending on your industry, location, and quality score, but in general, you can expect to pay less for each click on Microsoft Search Ads than on Google Ads.

Leverage Advanced Features and Tools

Microsoft Search Ads also offers some advanced features and tools that can help you create and manage your campaigns more effectively. Some of these features include:

Import from Google Ads: If you already have a Google Ads account, you can easily import your campaigns into Microsoft Search Ads with just a few clicks. This can save you time and hassle of creating new campaigns from scratch.
Audience Network: Microsoft Search Ads lets you extend your reach beyond the Bing search network by showing your ads on non-search placements (such as articles, videos, or apps) on sites like Microsoft Edge, MSN, Outlook, and other partner sites. These ads can help you connect with customers who are interested in your products or services but may not be actively searching for them.
Action Extensions: Action extensions are a type of ad extension that allow you to add a call-to-action button to your ads. For example, you can add a "Buy Now", "Sign Up", or "Download" button to your ads to encourage users to take action right away. Action extensions can help you increase your click-through rate (CTR) and conversions.
In-Market Audiences: In-market audiences are groups of users who have shown purchase intent for a specific product or service category. For example, if someone is searching for flights, hotels, or car rentals, they may be part of the travel in-market audience. You can target these audiences with your ads to reach them when they are ready to buy.
Dynamically Generated Headlines: Dynamically generated headlines are headlines that are automatically created based on the user's query and your ad copy. For example, if someone searches for "best laptops 2023", and your ad copy is "Shop for Laptops at Great Prices", your headline may be dynamically generated as "Best Laptops 2023 - Shop for Laptops at Great Prices". Dynamically generated headlines can help you match the user's intent and improve your ad relevance and CTR.

How to Set Up and Optimize Your Microsoft Search Ads Campaigns

Now that you know why you should use Microsoft Search Ads, let's see how you can set up and optimize your campaigns. Here are the steps you need to follow:

Create a Microsoft Advertising Account

The first step is to create a Microsoft Advertising account. You can sign up for free and control your account at every step. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, and you can set a monthly maximum or adjust your spend on a day-to-day basis.

To create a Microsoft Advertising account, you need to have a Microsoft account (or create one) and provide some basic information about your business, such as your name, email, phone number, country, currency, and time zone. You can also choose to receive tips and offers from Microsoft Advertising via email.

Once you create your account, you can access the Microsoft Advertising interface, where you can create and manage your campaigns.

Create Your First Campaign

The next step is to create your first campaign. A campaign is a set of ad groups that share the same budget, location targeting, and other settings. You can create multiple campaigns for different products, services, or goals.

To create a campaign, you need to choose a goal, a name, a budget, a location, a language, and a bidding strategy. Here are some tips on how to choose these settings:

Goal: You can choose from different goals for your campaign, such as visits to my website, conversions on my website, phone calls to my business, or visits to my business location. Choosing a goal can help you optimize your campaign settings and measure your performance.
Name: You should choose a descriptive name for your campaign that reflects its purpose and helps you identify it easily. For example, if you are selling laptops, you can name your campaign "Laptop Sales".
Budget: You should choose a budget that works best for your business and goals. You can set a daily or monthly budget limit for your campaign, and you can change it at any time. You can also choose to distribute your budget evenly throughout the day or accelerate it to show your ads more quickly until your budget is depleted.
Location: You should choose the locations where you want your ads to show. You can target specific countries, regions, cities, or areas within a certain radius from your business. You can also exclude locations where you don't want your ads to show.
Language: You should choose the language of the users you want to reach with your ads. You can target multiple languages if you have multilingual ads or landing pages.
Bidding strategy: You should choose a bidding strategy that aligns with your goals and budget. A bidding strategy is how you set and adjust your bids to maximize your results. You can choose from different bidding strategies, such as manual CPC (where you set your own bids), enhanced CPC (where Microsoft adjusts your bids based on the likelihood of conversion), or automated bidding (where Microsoft sets and optimizes your bids for you based on your goal).

Create Your Ad Groups and Keywords

After creating your campaign, you need to create your ad groups and keywords. An ad group is a set of ads that share the same keywords and target the same audience. A keyword is a word or phrase that triggers your ads when someone searches for it on Bing or its partner networks.

To create an ad group, you need to choose a name, an ad group type (standard or product), and an ad group bid (the default amount you are willing to pay for each click on your ads in this ad group). You can also add ad extensions (additional information that enhances your ads) such as site links, callouts, structured snippets, or location extensions.

To add keywords to your ad group, you can use the keyword planner tool or enter them manually. The keyword planner tool can help you find relevant keywords based on your product or service, website URL, or category. It can also show you the estimated monthly search volume, competition level, and suggested bid for each keyword.

You should choose keywords that are relevant to your business and match the user's intent. You should also use different keyword matchtypes (such as broad, phrase, exact, or negative) to control how closely your keywords match the user's query. For example, if you use the keyword "laptop" with broad match, your ad may show for any search related to laptops, such as "laptop reviews", "laptop accessories", or "laptop repair". If you use the keyword "laptop" with exact match, your ad will only show for searches that are exactly "laptop" or close variations of it.

Create Your Ads

The final step is to create your ads. An ad is what the user sees when your keyword matches their search query. Your ad should be relevant, compelling, and clear, and should encourage the user to click on it and take action.

To create an ad, you need to choose an ad type (such as expanded text ad or responsive search ad), and enter your ad copy. An expanded text ad consists of a headline, a display URL, and a description. A responsive search ad consists of multiple headlines and descriptions that Microsoft can mix and match to create the best-performing ad for each user.

You should follow these best practices when writing your ad copy:

Use your keywords: You should include your keywords in your headline and description to show the user that your ad is relevant to their search. This can also help improve your quality score and ad rank.
Highlight your unique value proposition: You should tell the user what makes your product or service different or better than your competitors. For example, you can mention your features, benefits, prices, discounts, guarantees, or testimonials.
Include a call-to-action: You should tell the user what you want them to do after clicking on your ad. For example, you can use words like "Buy Now", "Sign Up", "Download", or "Learn More" to create a sense of urgency and entice the user to take action.
Test different variations: You should create multiple ads for each ad group and test different variations of your headlines, descriptions, and extensions. This can help you find out which ads perform better and optimize your campaigns accordingly.

A Detailed Table Breakdown Related to Microsoft Search Ads

To give you a better idea of how Microsoft Search Ads works and compares to Google Ads, here is a detailed table breakdown that summarizes some of the key features and differences between the two platforms:

Feature	Microsoft Search Ads	Google Ads
Search network	Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and other partner sites	Google and other partner sites
Audience network	Non-search placements on sites like Microsoft Edge, MSN, Outlook, and other partner sites	Non-search placements on sites like YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Play, and other partner sites
Audience size	More than 1 billion unique visitors per month	More than 3.5 billion unique visitors per month
Average CPC	$1.54	$2.69
Bidding strategies	Manual CPC, Enhanced CPC, Maximize Clicks, Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS	Manual CPC, Enhanced CPC, Maximize Clicks, Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS, Target Impression Share
Ad types	Expanded text ads, responsive search ads, dynamic search ads, product ads (shopping), app install ads (audience network), image ads (audience network), video ads (audience network)	Expanded text ads, responsive search ads, dynamic search ads, call-only ads (search network), product ads (shopping), app install ads (search network), image ads (display network), video ads (display network)

FAQ About Microsoft Search Ads

What is Microsoft Search Ads?

Microsoft Search Ads is a pay-per-click (PPC) platform that allows you to advertise your products and services on the Bing search network and its partner networks. The ads can appear at the top, bottom, or side of the Bing search engine results page.

Why should I use Microsoft Search Ads?

Microsoft Search Ads can help you reach a large and valuable audience that you may not be able to reach with Google Ads alone. Microsoft Search Ads users tend to be more affluent, educated, and ready to buy than the average internet user. Microsoft Search Ads also has lower competition and cost-per-click (CPC) than Google Ads, which can help you save money and get more exposure and clicks for your ads. Microsoft Search Ads also offers some advanced features and tools that can help you create and manage your campaigns more effectively.

How do I create a Microsoft Search Ads account?

To create a Microsoft Search Ads account, you need to have a Microsoft account (or create one) and provide some basic information about your business, such as your name, email, phone number, country, currency, and time zone. You can sign up for free and control your account at every step. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, and you can set a monthly maximum or adjust your spend on a day-to-day basis.

How do I create a Microsoft Search Ads campaign?

To create a Microsoft Search Ads campaign, you need to choose a goal, a name, a budget, a location, a language, and a bidding strategy for your campaign. Then, you need to create your ad groups and keywords. An ad group is a set of ads that share the same keywords and target the same audience. A keyword is a word or phrase that triggers your ads when someone searches for it on Bing or its partner networks. Finally, you need to create your ads. An ad is what the user sees when your keyword matches their search query. Your ad should be relevant, compelling, and clear, and should encourage the user to click on it and take action.

How do I optimize my Microsoft Search Ads campaigns?

To optimize your Microsoft Search Ads campaigns, you should follow these best practices:

Choose relevant keywords: You should choose keywords that are relevant to your business and match the user's intent. You should also use different keyword match types (such as broad, phrase, exact, or negative) to control how closely your keywords match the user's query.
Write compelling ads: You should write ads that are relevant, compelling, and clear, and that encourage the user to click on them and take action. You should include your keywords in your headline and description, highlight your unique value proposition, include a call-to-action, and test different variations of your ads.
Add ad extensions: You should add ad extensions (additional information that enhances your ads) such as site links, callouts, structured snippets, or location extensions. Ad extensions can help you provide more information to the user, improve your ad relevance and quality score, and increase your CTR and conversions.
Track and measure your performance: You should track and measure your performance using the Microsoft Advertising reporting tools. You should monitor metrics such as impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions, conversion rate, cost-per-conversion, quality score, and return on ad spend (ROAS). You should also use conversion tracking to track the actions that users take after clicking on your ads.
Test and experiment: You should test and experiment with different campaign settings, ad groups, keywords, ads, and extensions to find out what works best for your business and goals. You should use the Microsoft Advertising experiments feature to run split tests on your campaigns and compare the results.

Conclusion

Microsoft Search Ads is a powerful PPC platform that can help you grow your business online in 2023. By using Microsoft Search Ads, you can reach a large and valuable audience that is actively searching for what you offer on Bing and its partner networks. You can also enjoy lower competition and CPC than Google Ads, and leverage advanced features and tools that can help you create and manage your campaigns more effectively.

If you want to learn more about Microsoft Search Ads or get started with your first campaign, you can visit the official website or contact me for a free consultation. I have been using Microsoft Search Ads for a long time and I can help you set up and optimize your campaigns for success.

I hope you found this article helpful and informative. If you did, please share it with your friends or colleagues who might be interested in Microsoft Search Ads. And don't forget to check out my other articles on digital marketing topics.

Thank you for reading!

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