Microsoft Advertising is the advertising platform that allows businesses to create and manage pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns on the Bing search engine and its partner networks, which include sites like Yahoo.
Reach people in a task-oriented mindset who have a higher buying power, spend more online, and are more likely to engage with ads to try new offers.
Create personalized experiences using powerful audience intelligence and platform capabilities that improve campaign performance.
If you’re already using another product like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, it’s easy to pull that campaign into Microsoft Advertising.
Whether you’re new to Microsoft Advertising or an existing customer, our experts are available to help you create a successful campaign.
Customers search.
People enter search terms called keywords into search engines like Bing.
Customers see your ad.
If the keywords in your ad match a search, your ad appears next to or above search results on Bing.
Customers contact you.
You can configure your ad so people can call you, visit your website or go right to your door.
All types of businesses find value and success with Microsoft Advertising. Whether you’re focused on local calls and foot traffic, or want to drive traffic to your website from across the country or around the world, Microsoft Advertising has solutions for you.
Your current customers may search for your business by name, making it easy to find you in search results. But customers you’ve yet to reach are more likely searching for general terms that wouldn’t necessarily bring up your business in search results. Advertising next to relevant Bing search results puts your business front and center with interested customers you otherwise might not reach.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is adjusting your website to improve your natural ranking in search results. You cannot pay to improve your website ranking on Bing or Yahoo, thus we often refer to these results as unpaid or “organic” search results.
Clicks from SEO are free. But SEO also requires technical expertise and involves some factors over which you have only limited control.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is paid advertising that appears next to or above unpaid (or “organic”) search results. These paid ads are purchased through Microsoft Advertising.
You pay for SEM clicks. But SEM gives you more control over when your website appears on results pages and you decide how much you want to pay. And you can measure which ads are working and quickly improve your results.
You don’t have to choose between SEO and SEM. You can do both!
Yes! Call a Microsoft Advertising specialist at 877-635-3561* and we’ll set up your first campaign for you for free. We’ll give you tips on getting the most out of your ads and set you up for success. We’re here to help.
Here are some tips to get better results:
◦ Review your budget and bid strategy. If your ads keep pausing, your budget limit may be set too low. Competitive bids help your ad stay in a strong position to catch eyes and get more clicks to your website.
◦ Expand your targeting, both for location and for devices (computer, mobile and tablet).
◦ Make sure your ads and website are relevant to the keywords you bid on. Would someone searching your terms expect to see an ad for your business?
While your first instinct may be to lower your budget, first try lowering your maximum bids. Yes, this could mean fewer customers visit your site. But if you increase your quality score and build ads with a strong performance history, you may be able to win a good ad position with a lower bid. That would lower your cost per click and help stretch your budget.
View a wide range of performance trends in your account to quickly see key stats: ad clicks, the number of times your ad appeared (impressions), spend, average cost per click, click-through rate, average ad position, cost per acquisition and conversions. You can also run performance reports to get insights into how well your campaigns are doing.
Yes! In fact, we encourage it. Only one ad will show at a time but running multiple ads lets you test different approaches to see what’s working best with your target customers. Frequently, businesses try out different ads for specific products or pages.
Sign up for Microsoft Advertising.
You have a few options to help choose your keywords. First you’ll want to think of the terms one of your customers might use to search for your products and offerings. Those search terms are a great starting point. Then you can use tools right in your account to find more keywords.
Within Microsoft Advertising, click Campaigns on the top of the page, click the Keywords tab, and then click Add Keywords. This will let you:
◦ Search for new keywords based on one you enter.
◦ Search a website for keywords.
◦Search your destination URLs for keywords.
Here are a few tips that can help make your ad stand out.
◦ Keep your ads relevant. One way to improve relevance is to use your customers’ most popular search terms in your ad titles and text.
◦ Describe what sets your product apart.
◦ Use your customers’ language. Use words and a writing tone that are likely to attract your typical customer.
◦ Be specific. The clearer and more specific the offering, the better. For example, rather than “big discounts,” specify an exact percentage, such as “50 percent off.”
◦ Give customers a reason to click your ad right now. Offer a specific call to action, such as encouraging customers to request a brochure or consultation, download a free e-book, subscribe to a newsletter, or take advantage of a limited-time discount.
