Microsoft Ads – why not forget about Bing?

28. 06. 2023 Autor

Bing is the search engine of the tech giant Microsoft, which falls far behind Google in terms of market share. But thanks to technical innovations such as integrating ChatGPT into search, it has ambitions to grab a more significant share of the search field.

Globally, Bing is the second largest paid search engine after Google. In March of this year, 11% of desktop searches were via Bing and 3% via Yahoo. Including Bing in your marketing mix can help you increase your range and reach your target audience in a different way.

Source: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/desktop/united-kingdom/

What does Microsoft Ads offer?

Microsoft Ads (formerly Bing Ads) offer search engine ads on the Microsoft ad network. They appear on search engines such as Bing or Yahoo, Ecosia, MSN, DuckDuckGo, and AOL.

These alternative search engines are used by very few people in the Czech Republic, but if you are expanding abroad, you should not forget about advertising in Microsoft Ads. Not only is it more used by users abroad, but through alternative search engines such as Ecosia, you can reach a target group that is more conscious about sustainability.

Advertising on search engines using Bing Ads (Microsoft Ads) can help you increase your reach and connect to more potential customers, in most cases at a lower cost than Google.

Expanding into the Czech Republic? Advertising on Bing should be as automatic as using Google Ads in the United Kingdom

Do you want to advertise your e-shop or services in the Czech Republic? Similarly to the United Kingdom, searches on Google and partner search engines bring most businesses an irreplaceable number of Conversions and Leads, you can expand your reach in the Czech Republic by advertising on Microsoft Ads. Its reach will not be close to Google’s results, but due to less competition, you can benefit significantly from its advantages.

And what are they? As mentioned earlier, there is less competition from advertisers in this market compared to Google Ads, which can lead to lower Cost per Click (CPC) as well as higher ad success rates. Microsoft Ads offers high-quality targeting that allows you to focus on a specific target group of users. Another advantage of advertising is the placement of ads in partner search engines, which increases the visibility and reach of the ad.

In April 2023, almost 10% of desktop searches in the Czech Republic belonged to Bing and its partner search engines. This fact shows the significant potential of this advertising tool in the Czech market.

Source: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/desktop/czech-republic/

How to get started with Microsoft Ads?

To get started with creating ads, you first need a Microsoft Advertising account and a UET-Tag to measure Conversions. If you use Google Ads, you can copy existing campaigns from your account. Always check the correct settings, budgets and bids.

The second option is to create campaigns from scratch. The structure of the Microsoft Ads interface is almost identical to the Google Ads interface. You can use the Microsoft Advertising Editor to upload campaigns to Microsoft Advertising. This will save you a lot of time.

Microsoft Ads vs. Google Ads

Both advertising platforms offer advantages that can be useful depending on the economic environment, individual circumstances, and desired target audience.

Google continues to be the top choice when it comes to search. Google Ads generally reaches a broader target audience. With Bing, on the other hand, you reach a target group that, at least according to numerous US figures, consists of users who are older, more educated and have higher incomes.

Microsoft is still actively investing in development and bringing new features in order to help advertisers improve their results. In particular, B2B advertisers will appreciate the LinkedIn Profile Targeting feature, which allows you to target ads based on the job titles and focus of LinkedIn users. The B2B sector uses Windows operating systems on the desktop, which uses Bing as the search engine by default, so this targeting has been very successful.

Microsoft has started testing a new type of ads, called multi-image ads, which allow up to 20 images to be displayed in a single ad. This feature is especially appreciated by businesses where visuals are key to engaging customers.

Compared to Google, Microsoft Ads offers more space to the advertiser. Up to eight sub-page links can be displayed in search results, while Google displays a maximum of four.

A screenshot of a Bing ad for the search query “women’s sneakers”.

3 reasons why you should use Microsoft Ads

1. You can open new channels

With Microsoft Advertising, you can set up another communication channel.

With Microsoft Ads, you can reach more users and also become less dependent on Google. Bing is gaining more attention and traffic by implementing artificial intelligence in search. It is expected that its contribution to search will grow.

2. Implementation is easy

Microsoft’s advertising interface is very similar to Google’s and is easy to understand for anyone who has experience with Google Ads. To get started, simply create a Microsoft Ads account and adjust the basic settings.

You can import campaigns from Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Pinterest Ads with just a few clicks.

3. There is little competition

Despite its growing reach, many advertisers are neglecting Microsoft Ads. This can be an advantage because it means less competition.

Click-through rates on Microsoft’s network are on average 30 percent lower than Google’s. This is only an average; variations can be significant depending on the industry. In general, however, click-through rates on the Microsoft network tend to be lower.

Lower Cost-per-Click does not mean lower relevance. Cost per Conversion or ROAS can also be significantly better on the Microsoft network. While exceptions exist, most of our managed Microsoft Ads accounts have a better Cost-per-Conversion ratio on the Microsoft network.