Brands are taking notice of Microsoft Ads for a few good reasons.
Why You’re Hearing More about Microsoft (Bing) Ads
There’s been a noticeable spike in chatter about Microsoft Ads (formerly Bing) here at RSO.
Our own clients have stopped in their tracks lately as we’ve included it in some of our paid advertising discussions (usually followed with the response of: Does anyone use Bing anymore?!).
The truth is, you’re hearing about Microsoft Ads more often because it offers some distinct benefits over other PPC platforms, particularly Google Ads.
Sure, Bing has significantly fewer users than Google, but these advantages may give you reason enough to try it out:
Increased traffic and OpenAI: It may surprise you to know that traffic on Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, has been on the rise. In fact, it’s been making monthly incremental gains of as much as 10% year-over-year for the past couple of years. When its ChatGPT-like functionality was introduced earlier this year, Bing saw page visits rise 15.8% - putting more eyeballs on search and ads.
Granular targeting: When you advertise on Bing, you gain the advantage of audience targeting that is, frankly, better than the competitors. Namely, you can activate targeting by job title, industry, and profile, which are especially helpful for account-based marketing. Even if you’re not serving B2B customers, you can enjoy the unique advantages of targeting by social media profile, location, time, gender, age, and device.
Older audience with higher income: If you’re looking for more purchasing power from your paid advertising audience, you will be happy to know that Microsoft tends to see a mature audience with typically higher incomes than younger generations.
Lower cost-per-click: The playing field on Google Ads can be crowded. With Microsoft paid advertising, you have less competition, so your cost-per-click (CPC) will be lower than on Google. This can net you a better ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) if you play your cards right.
Higher click through rate: Yet another advantage for Microsoft Ads is its clickthrough rate (CTR), coming in at 2.83% compared to Google Ads 1.91% for search (it’s even lower on Google Display Network). Conversion rates at Bing, however, tend to skew lower than Google at 2.94% and 3.75% on average, respectively.
It’s important to note that ads on Bing are not for everyone. For those situations where it does make sense, though, it can fill in the gaps of your other PPC strategies, help you reach a more targeted audience, and meet your business goals in a space where few of your competitors are playing.
