It’s a cold hard fact that the world’s internet searches revolve around the mega giant that is Google. The search engine super beast holds the majority of search engine market share, and it should come as no surprise that they retain the majority of marketer dollars. Between Google’s constant growth as an ad platform and their ever-expanding, gigantic reach, marketers the world over can be forgiven for investing their complete advertising budget into the search engine.
But is there something else out there, hiding away in Google’s growing universe?
What is Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads)?
Microsoft Advertising is that hidden galaxy cruising along in the Google universe. Although it contains a significantly smaller share of internet marketing, Microsoft Advertising boasts a range of unique benefits that make it important for paid search marketers to comprehend.
Sure, we’re not here to challenge marketers’ use of Google Ads for their digital campaigns. Google Ads is, without a doubt, the way to go. But there are some amazing benefits to using Microsoft Ads that make it noteworthy and, perhaps, considerable for future digital campaigns.
Here’s why.
Reach & Share
Although it’s not Google, Microsoft Ads still contains a significant reach. With constant growth over the past 10 years, Microsoft Ads now owns 36% of the US market share. Overall, this equates to 122 million unique monthly users making roughly 5 billion monthly searches. This makes it an amazing alternative to Google as Australian marketers could be reaching an audience that those investing solely in Google Ads cannot.
Bing’s Audience is More Affluent
Bing’s American user base consists of a highly diverse, highly affluent demographic. Users are split evenly between men and women, with nearly 50% being under the age of 45. Half of Microsoft users are college graduates, over one-third of users have household incomes of US$100,000. What does this mean? That a significant proportion of Bing users are affluent and can purchase what you have to offer.
Unfortunately, in Australia, Bing’s market share is considerably smaller than in the US (3.38%). However, this doesn’t mean marketers selling their products on a global scale won’t benefit from Bing’s considerable American influence. Furthermore, you will still be reaching that percentage of users who won’t be receiving advertising through Google, and this can work as a significant advantage.
Finally, given that Bing is the default search engine for Microsoft PCs, it is safe to assume that many, less tech-savvy users will happily keep Bing as their default search engine. Although they may be slightly less tech-savvy, this doesn’t mean that they don’t contain the same buying power as those who would make the switch to Google.
Special Features
The Microsoft Ads platform hosts a suite of unique features that cannot be found elsewhere. First, the Microsoft Audience Network provides advertisers with ad placements that are multi-device and contain brand-safe experiences on premium websites. This includes partners like Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Edge and MSN.
What’s more, Microsoft’s 2016 acquisition of LinkedIn makes it a powerful force when it comes to B2B audience targeting. The acquisition has allowed for useful dimensions to developed including company, job and industry targeting.
Finally, Microsoft Ads contains unique ad extensions, including action and multi-image extensions. This gives advertisers more variety when it comes to reaching their audience.
Importing from Google
Microsoft Ads has a direct connection to the Google Ads API that makes it a breeze to import digital campaigns direct from Google Ads. This same link can be done for Google Merchant centre to work with shopping feeds. Marketers can even frequently schedule syncs to assist with management.
This being said, Microsoft Ads still handles things like location targeting and ad extensions differently. You will have to manually complete these adjustments and alter your budget once the import it complete. It is important to schedule a weekly negative keyword sync to ensure you are negating unnecessary terms across both search engines.
Conclusion
Although there can be no denying that Google is the world’s outright digital advertising superstar, this doesn’t mean there aren’t significant benefits to considering even a small Microsoft Ads investment. For marketers looking to subvert authority and reach a different, more affluent audience, Microsoft Ads could be a worthy consideration. With its steady growth over the last decade, and its dedication to providing special, unique features, Microsoft Ads is only looking to increase in popularity in the years ahead – this is something all marketers should be aware of.
