The second-biggest search engine after Google is Microsoft’s Bing. One justification for thinking about using the Microsoft Advertising platform in your online marketing strategy.
In March 2023 alone, 433 million search queries—or 24% of all desktop searches in Germany—were fulfilled by the Microsoft Search Network in Germany, according to Microsoft. According to a Statista estimate, in July 2023, Microsoft’s Bing search engine had a 9.19% market share in the worldwide desktop search engine market.
This article describes the benefits Microsoft Advertising has over Google.
Which partners belong to the Microsoft Search Network?
Millions of people use the websites, apps, and devices that make up the Microsoft Search Network daily.
Microsoft Edge is the browser used on Windows 10 devices to access Microsoft’s popular search engine, Bing. Other well-known partners of this network include Yahoo, Ecosia, DuckDuckGo, Siri, LinkedIn, search on Amazon devices and thousands of other websites that use the Microsoft search function. Ads are displayed on all these networks via Microsoft Ads.
How does Microsoft Advertising work?
Microsoft Advertising works on the pay-per-click principle (PPC). You place a bid that you are prepared to pay for a click on the ads. The ads are triggered by keywords and the costs apply when the ad is clicked.
The ads can be targeted by region, time, keyword or topic. Similar to Google Ads, this is an auction system in which you compete with other competitors for the ad rank and ads with higher relevance are ranked higher. The better the ads are optimised, the higher the ad rank.
What ad formats does Microsoft Ads offer?
The ad formats are similar to those of Google Ads. Microsoft ad formats are:
- Search ads
- Dynamic search ads
- Display banner ads
- Shopping ads
Benefits of Microsoft Ads
Cost
As Bing has fewer users than Google and fewer advertisers use the search engine for their advertising, there is also less competition in the auctions, which results in more favourable click prices. Compared to Google, Bing offers an average cost-per-click (CPC) that is about 60% less.
Audience
- 71% of Bing users are 35 years or older.
- Many companies use Microsoft as their operating system. The majority of these users use the default search engine Bing. Microsoft Advertising is therefore interesting for the B2B sector.
Performance
- The average click-through rate (CTR) for Bing Ads is 2.83%.
- 38% of Bing users have a household income of over $100,000.
- Over 800 million search queries are entered via Bing every day.
Placing Ads on Ecosia
One of Microsoft’s partners is Ecosia, a search engine. Ecosia stands for sustainability and uses its revenue to plant trees worldwide in cooperation with regional organisations. More than 170 million trees have been planted globally by Ecosia to date.
- 20 million users per month
- 2/3 of users are located in Germany or France
- Users between 20 and 30 years old
- Users share an interest in environmental issues
Therefore, it makes sense to place advertisements for sustainable products on Ecosia to reach the appropriate target audience.
Placing Ads on DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a search engine that prioritizes data security. Ads on this search engine can also be placed via Microsoft Advertising, all while maintaining your privacy. Clicking on an ad on DuckDuckGo does not link your search behaviour with a particular user profile, according to Microsoft Advertising. Thus, this search engine does not keep or share any information.
LinkedIn Targeting
Ads can be targeted to specific LinkedIn target groups via Microsoft’s partner LinkedIn. It is possible to target adverts to users with certain professional positions, industries or companies. With an advantage over Google, this feature is very interesting for the B2B market.
Conclusion
Expanding the marketing network and reaching additional users are two opportunities provided by Microsoft Advertising. Though the volume of searches is significantly lower than on Google, significant target groups can still be reached at lower click prices because of the limited number of competitors and the availability of LinkedIn targeting. This gives Microsoft a clear advantage. Moreover, a broader distribution on an alternative search network lessens the dependency on Google.