Microsoft Ads is one of the most powerful digital advertising tools available, especially if maximizing reach is a primary goal. Advertising on Microsoft with Search ads alone could get you in front of 109 million PC users who conduct 6.4 billion searches every month.
While Google Ads can help you target many people online, the Microsoft Audience Network can supplement those campaigns to further extend your reach to millions more.
In this blog, SVP of Paid Media, Meghan Parsons, will look into what Microsoft ads are, the benefits of using them, and how to launch your next campaign.
My Expert Opinion on Microsoft Ads
People may wrongly believe that Google is the only option for advertisers, but this isn’t the case—Microsoft Ads and Bing are also critical tools that can supplement Google Ads campaigns.
Millions of people use Bing, LinkedIn, and other platforms across the Microsoft Audience Network, giving you the chance to get in front of even wider audiences, with 23% of these audiences spending more online.
These ads offer sufficient targeting capabilities to help you reach every audience segment, with a wide range of available ad formats and LinkedIn integrations.
To get the best results from advertising on Microsoft, you need to understand impression share and obtain Microsoft Advertising Certification. In doing so, you’ll be able to fully optimize ad performance and develop expertise.
Used in a fully integrated marketing strategy, along with other pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, Microsoft Ads can help you get the most from advertising in a multi-channel approach.
Knowing more about how Microsoft Advertising works and the many ways you can use it will ensure you properly integrate it into your complete digital marketing strategy.
How Do Microsoft Ads Work?
Microsoft Advertising is a specific type of PPC ad platform that gives advertisers access to the Microsoft Audience Network, which includes the Bing search engine, LinkedIn, and other platforms that allow Microsoft Ads.
Microsoft used to have a honed-in partnership with Yahoo, but they changed up their model in 2015 to begin servicing other advertisers as well. Basically, their network and marketplace share have grown exponentially.
Just take a peek at some metrics. Back in 2015, they held 31% of the US search share. As of 2024, they have 38.1%. Microsoft has also raised their search share in the UK, Australia, France, and Germany.
The network is more than just Bing.com. While that’s a huge part, there are also extensive partnerships with various properties across different media platforms. Microsoft owns and operates:
- Bing
- Microsoft Edge
- Windows
- Skype
- MSN
- Outlook
- Cortana
Plus, they’re in cahoots with third-party search partners like Yahoo and AOL, as well as properties like DuckDuckGo, CBS Interactive, The Wall Street Journal, WebMD, Forbes, Dictionary.com, and thousands more.
As a business, it makes sense to get your ads out to audiences who live on platforms like these. If someone performs a search on The Wall Street Journal, well—that’s powered by Bing. So if you want to advertise on WSJ.com, Microsoft ads are the way to do it.
Check out these PC paid click shares across industries:
For verticals with higher PC paid click shares, Microsoft actually over-indexes to foster an even bigger audience for specific types of searches that are already successful.
It’s also important to know how impression share plays a role in these ads. So, how does Microsoft Advertising define impression share? According to the platform, it refers to the number of times an ad appears divided by the total number of impressions. In other words, it measures the kind of reach your ads get in the designated auction marketplace, which can give you insight into how many people in your target audience are seeing your ads.
How (& Why) to Use Microsoft Advertising LinkedIn Profile Targeting
Microsoft announced its LinkedIn acquisition on June 13, 2016. Since then, they’ve developed a holistic approach to the Microsoft Advertising LinkedIn partnership.
Microsoft’s LinkedIn integration allows targeting based on LinkedIn profiles. It does this through a tool appropriately called LinkedIn Profile Targeting, which just so happens to be the only integration of its kind. This kind of exclusive opportunity to incorporate LinkedIn attributes into ad campaigns is particularly ideal for B2B industries targeting professionals, but it can also be great for targeting general audiences based on interests, income, and other demographic data.
Key Metrics for Microsoft Ads Using LinkedIn
This feature was in pilot for a while, but it came out of beta mode in the fall season of 2020.
During the trial, the tool had no trouble proving its effectiveness.
In fact, ads shown to audiences using Microsoft Advertising LinkedIn Profile Targeting saw their click-through rates jump 16%. Meanwhile, conversion rates increased by 64%.
Simply visit your Microsoft Ads search campaigns and bid boost (AKA modify your bids) on audiences you may be targeting.
What’s a Bid Modifier?
Bid modifiers enable advertisers to make adjustments to their bids for a particular element of their ads without altering targeting. For instance, you might want to increase or decrease your bid for ad impressions on mobile devices without altering audience demographics or other metrics.
If you want to target people who work at Microsoft based on their LinkedIn profile, you may be willing to pay 20% more than your bid for that particular customer.
You can go into your campaigns and modify the bid with a 20% increase. Bid modifying just means adding on a percentage level by whatever you think it’s worth to help you score a particular audience.
Targeting Options for Microsoft LinkedIn Advertising
A lot of B2B advertisers are really taking advantage of Microsoft Advertising LinkedIn Profile Targeting. As a business, you’re able to target in three key ways:
- Targeting based on companies
- Targeting based on industries
- Targeting based on job functions
Layer these audiences in and boost your bid for the most targeted options.
Take Advantage of Seasonal Targeting
Plus, as holidays roll around, Microsoft opens up the opportunity for businesses to target audiences related to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and more.
Say someone searches online for an office chair during a Black Friday sale. Advertisers can go in and increase their bid by, say, 20% for certain audiences who they think are most likely to convert. Specifically, you might increase your bids on days with high demand (in the months or weeks before the holiday) and decrease them during quieter periods (such as a few days immediately preceding the target holiday).
The cool thing is you have a lot of different options when it comes to LinkedIn Profile Targeting. These include:
- 80,000 companies
- 148 industries (like law practice, retail, and financial services, to name a few)
- 26 job functions (such as marketing, accounting, and healthcare)
Remarketing Is Awesome—But for Expansion, You Need More
Remarketing is crucial to any marketing campaign, as it helps you get in front of audiences who may have seen your brand or offerings but neglected to buy. At the same time, you need to do more than plain remarketing to bring those people back.
Make Use of Dynamic Retargeting
Whenever Microsoft Advertising launches with an advertiser on Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN), their first step is to get their remarketing lists up and running. This helps companies re-engage with consumers.
There are a lot of different strategies to approach these particular ads.
Dynamic remarketing is especially powerful. This capability allows you to get ads in front of audiences based on their previous interactions. An example of this could include an ad for a particular product that people looked at on one of your website’s product pages, encouraging the potential customer to complete their purchase even if the item isn’t in their cart.
Who Has Access to Dynamic Remarketing?
Currently, only retailers who use feeds have access to dynamic remarketing. Business data feeds allow for dynamic customized ads that can update based on users’ Bing searches.
In 2021, MSAN plans to expand its dynamic remarketing feature to other verticals that also use feeds (like real estate and automotive industries, for example). Businesses have to add a snippet of code to their site so they can track product IDs and page types from their site.
With all this in mind, it’s worth noting that targeting and remarketing only helps if people have already been to your site. If you need to grow your business, you need to expand through those in-market audiences and other avenues like LinkedIn. You need to fill your funnel, and Microsoft Ads’ other features are going to be you’re in.
Use Effective Strategies to Enhance Your Remarketing
There are many ways to go about optimizing your remarketing efforts. For instance, you can use copy that exclusively targets those who’ve visited your site and expressed interest, with messages like “Still interested in [product]?” or “Come back to complete your purchase!” You can also create a sense of urgency, using copy such as “Get it before it’s gone!”
Additionally, you can make adjustments to your bids to boost remarketing ads and further entice people to complete their purchases. In the process, you might increase bids for impressions.
Make Sure You Have Sufficient Traffic for Remarketing
Another consideration when engaging in remarketing is site traffic. Remarketing will only really work if you have enough people coming to your site and visiting particular pages.
As such, try to expand audience reach with Microsoft Advertising to drive more traffic as needed, whether through your in-market audiences across the entire network or LinkedIn marketing efforts.
With the right approach to your ad campaigns, you’ll be able to get real results from remarketing efforts, continually connecting with audiences even after they encounter your initial ads.
How (& Why) to Make the Most of the Microsoft Audience Network
Microsoft Audience Network is a new way to get inventory for Microsoft Advertising through native ads. These audiences can connect you with millions of potential customers across multiple platforms.
Joining the MSAN provides businesses with premium placements on Outlook.com, Microsoft Edge, MSN, and select publisher partners.
The Different Types of Ads on the Microsoft Audience Network
There are three main types of ads in the network:
- Product ads
- Text ads
- Image ads
By and large, image-based ads are the largest in volume.
According to Lance Wilson, these premium publishers actually make up half of the MSAN network. There are strict publisher standards for these native placements—there’s no user-generated content, and Microsoft only goes with hand-selected articles.
In addition, you can use the following ad types to reach audiences in different ways:
- Search ads: These Microsoft Ads appear in search results on platforms like Bing and resemble organic search results, often appearing above them to drive more traffic.
- Display ads: You also have the ability to use display ads within the network on various sites, featuring images and copy to connect with audiences through initial or retargeting ads.
- Video ads: These ads can harness the power of video to build connections and drive more conversions, supplementing image display ads.
What Powers Advertising on Microsoft Platforms?
With Microsoft Advertising, strong industry ad performance is driven by leading AI technology and exclusive audience data. There are 242 million unique monthly US-based visitors in the whole network. That’s 92% of the nation’s population. And MSAN uses 10 billion daily cross-screen data signals to target its users.
The Benefits of MSAN
All of the ads through MSAN are brand-safe experiences, which means transparency and control for advertisers, including site performance and exclusion. Plus, they’re highly contextual ad placements based on Microsoft’s first-party intent data, available only through Microsoft Advertising.
With all ad campaigns, you can benefit from highly relevant ad placements that reach the right audiences, with advanced targeting capabilities. They also work well with LinkedIn strategy data for a unique advantage over Google Ads and other advertising channels.
Key Microsoft Ads Features and Tools for Campaign Success
So, where do advertisers start with MSAN?
Lance points out that business would typically have their search campaign already up and running. MSAN is a different approach to get you on native ads, so it’s usually an expansion from search tactics. After all, audience-specific campaigns aren’t driven by keywords, but rather lists.
On MSAN, there are numerous targeting options. You can choose one or more profile, user, and intent targeting tools to reach your ideal customer:
- Dynamic remarketing
- In-market audiences
- Custom audiences
- Product audiences (dynamic remarketing only for retailers with feeds)
- Similar audiences
- Customer match
- Custom combinations
- Location targeting
- Device targeting
- Linkedin Profile Targeting
- Age and gender targeting
There’s one cool feature, in particular, you ought to know about, and it has to do with image ads.
Within the user interface, you can review your images in ad previews. That image needs to be a particular size (1200 wide x 628 high, to be specific). Microsoft crops your image for you and repurposes it for other placements.
If there are issues in your ad preview, you can re-crop your image, upload a new image, or select a different image for an individual aspect ratio. You can add just one image, but Microsoft recommends using four images and changing them frequently for best results.
Because of the data unique to MSAN, Microsoft is seeing better performance on partner sites. This includes a doubled CTR on MSN, 1.2x greater CTR on Outlook, and 3.5x greater CTR on publisher partners.
Take Advantage of Budget Flexibility for Microsoft Ads
Here’s one more feature that proves Microsoft Audience Network goes above and beyond:
Within your Microsoft Advertising search campaigns, the LinkedIn Profile Targeting feature is only a bid modifier. You can gather the data, layer on the audiences, and bid up or down based on the relevancy of that particular target. However, you can’t exclusively target people through search.
However, you can exclusively target those audiences through your MSAN campaigns.
With adequate budget flexibility using the Microsoft Audience Network, you can ensure you get the most from your budget when advertising on Microsoft platforms. As needed, you can redirect your budget to the ad campaigns that more urgently need it, helping continually optimize performance.
The Importance of Microsoft Advertising Certification
If you want to experience long-term success with Microsoft Advertising, it pays to get Microsoft Advertising Certification. Becoming a Microsoft Advertising Certified Expert will lend more credibility to your brand and help you master the platform.
How to Get Certified With Microsoft Advertising
If you want to become a Microsoft Advertising Certified Expert, you can do so by visiting Microsoft’s Learning Lab. This tool will educate you on the different aspects of Microsoft Advertising and provide you with a set of learning paths to earn you badges, which you can display on your LinkedIn profile to showcase your expertise.
The different learning paths include:
- Search Advertising
- Display, Native, and Video Advertising
- Retail Advertising
- Retail Media
- Digital Advertising Fundamentals
- Programmatic Advertising
- Generative AI and Automation Advertising
Once you complete each path, you have the chance to earn four main certification badges, which include:
- Search Advertising certification
- Display & Video certification
- Retail certification
- Retail Media certification
Complete both the Retail and Retail Media certifications, and you also get a shareable Commerce badge for LinkedIn.
After earning all four certification badges, you’ll achieve Microsoft Advertising Certified Expert status, which you can also display on LinkedIn.
The Benefits of Microsoft Advertising Certification
Ultimately, obtaining certification through Microsoft Advertising can give your brand some value in a couple of key ways.
One main benefit is the ability to enhance your expertise. As you learn how to use everything from search and display ads to retail media, you can get a deep understanding of the platform to make full use of it and all of its tools.
At the same time, you can highlight your expertise on LinkedIn, which would make you appear more reputable in your industry among your audiences.
Tips for a Successful Microsoft Ads Campaign
To help you succeed with your campaigns on Microsoft Advertising, here are a few key tips:
Optimize Targeting With LinkedIn
You can refine your campaign targeting by leveraging LinkedIn profile data within the Microsoft Audience Network. Choose from demographics, locations, devices, and other targeting measures to supercharge campaigns in a way that’s uniquely available through Microsoft Advertising and MSAN.
Align Your Ad Content With Microsoft Advertising
The Microsoft Ads platform is particularly professional, as it targets LinkedIn users and many B2B audiences more than other platforms. To cater to this tone, you should make your ads direct and high-quality, with clear calls-to-action (CTAs).
A/B Test Your Ads to Find the Right One
Before launching your ads, it’s often best to conduct A/B testing to determine what works and what doesn’t.
Try running two test ads, each with one element changed, whether it’s copy, visuals, or targeting options. You can then look at analytics and reports to see which combination works the best, which can give you some ideas for future campaigns.
Advanced Tactics: Integrating Microsoft Ads With SEO and PPC Strategies
When advertising on Microsoft platforms, there are some critical tactics that can fully optimize these campaigns for better results, such as:
Align With SEO
To complement your Microsoft advertising strategy, you should use SEO tactics that help you dominate search results. Search ads can rank for terms in Sponsored results on Bing, while SEO efforts targeting those same or similar terms can catch people below in organic results.
SEO could also help you target more competitive terms that you might not be able to bid for as easily with PPC, giving you a more cost-effective alternative.
Use Multi-Platform Advertising
Don’t limit your ad campaigns to Microsoft Advertising. Instead, use a blend of PPC tools, including Google Ads and various assisting tools like Semrush, to create a fully optimized campaign across all platforms.
While the content of your ads might differ between Google and Bing or other platforms, try to keep them aligned in terms of branding. Using similar imagery and messaging will make your brand more recognizable and add more credibility as you maximize visibility.
Leverage Data for Cross-Platform Insights
Use the data collected through Microsoft Advertising analytics and reports to inform the rest of your PPC campaigns. For example, you might discover that a certain set of ads resonates with a particular audience, which could influence your Google Ads campaigns or vice versa.
Conversely, if ads aren’t doing so well with your Microsoft Ads audiences, you might find that you’ll get better results with Google Ads as you target different audiences on each or use different types of ad content.
Are Audiences the Future of Advertising?
With all this progress for audience-driven campaigns, I can’t help but wonder, Are audiences the future of advertising? Will they replace the keyword more and more?
According to our expert Tess, the keyword isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But she does have some pivotal advice:
“Make sure you have an audience strategy in place. Know who your audience is and who you want to target. Even if you’re not going to go in and dedicate a specific portion of your budget to audience targeting, at the bare minimum you should be layering them onto your campaigns so you can collect the data of who’s interacting with your ads.” – Tess Milligan
Those are some wise words, if I do say so myself.
Looking to the Future with Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft ads are great because they’re rooted in seriously impressive data. With what went down in 2020, the company wanted to visit some trends from past financial crises.
“After the 2008 financial crisis, consumers predicted they’d spend 29% less during the holidays. In reality, retail sales only dropped about 4.7%.” – Tess Milligan
Tess adds that we can expect retail to maintain its health, particularly in the areas of food and beverage, hobby, personal care, office equipment, and others.
Search volume will likely continue to increase. Cost-per-click values have decreased during the pandemic, but experts expect them to bounce back.
With so many folks working remotely, desktop and tablet use continues to grow. Meanwhile, weekend volume and non-business hour volume are both growing by 11% and 12%, respectively.
Whatever you choose to do. One thing remains true:
“Know your audience and target them with intentionality.” – Tess Milligan
If you’re not being deliberate with audiences and you’re not in MSAN, you’re missing out on a good chunk of revenue. There’s a ton of value here and a lot more coming in every single day.
Experience Microsoft Advertising Success With the Help of Ignite Visibility
As your business develops, it can be difficult to balance your PPC and other marketing efforts, with Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads requiring ample attention and focus.
For some added help with advertising, turn to Ignite Visibility. Our experts can assist with:
- Developing strong ads for Bing ads and other Microsoft Advertising platforms
- Using MSAN and LinkedIn data to help identify the perfect target audiences
- Measuring campaign data to determine how to optimize campaigns further
- Optimizing targeting and budgets to drive more impressions and conversions
- And more!
If you’re ready to get results with your Microsoft Ads campaigns and other aspects of digital marketing, get in touch with our team today.
