Greetings Happy Readers! Microsoft Advertising is a type of PPC advertising that can be quite effective. During this week’s PPCChat session, host Julie F Bacchini & guest host John Lee found out, what kind of campaigns marketers are running in Microsoft Advertising, recent features and capabilities, PPCers exceptations from MSFTAdvertising and more.
Q1: Are you currently advertising on the Microsoft Advertising network? If not, why not?
Yes, for most clients. At least getting campaigns in there to test for a few months. @selley2134
Yes! it helps us expand our targeting and is indispensable in the b2b space. @JuliaVyse
We are! We run Microsoft Ads in 6 territories under a separated budget @scright
Yes, I am. Leaving incremental conversions/revenue on the table isn’t my style. @robert_brady
My current clients are only on Google. I am actively trying to get them on Microsoft too… @NeptuneMoon
Yes! We always at least start with both Google and Microsoft Ads, and often see better results from Microsoft Ads. @beyondthepaid
We try to persuade every client who’s on Google Ads to let us run Microsoft Ads. @heyglenns
Yes – I’m a @MSFTAdvertising fan girl XD That said, lately, some lead quality issues on the audience network have caused us to pull back (namely getting bad emails and or fake leads). Can’t tell if that’s a vertical or channel issue. @navahf
We do it across all our clients. We often find they aren’t when we take them on board. For a host of reasons. Spend isn’t always huge but I’ll take incremental rev growth any day. @duanebrown
Yes but only on a small handful of accounts. The main reason is due to clients not having the budget for two platforms or historically poor performance from the platform for a client. @C_J_Ridley
In Europe, I feel it is only worth the effort in the UK where Bing has the biggest market share. Becomes marginal in other European countries IMO. @soanders
Yes, proudly. But I will never call it Microsoft, it is Bing Ads, and that is the hill I will die on today @JonKagan
I am, but in general in Europe, it doesn’t have a large volume to be a crucial channel in our marketing strategy @MaiMolina_
Q2: What types of campaigns are you running in Microsoft Advertising?
Search, specifically for B2B audiences with LinkedIn targeting layered on. We also have some retail running and public sector. lots going on! @JuliaVyse
Only active on MSFT in the UK with shopping feeds and text ads. @soanders
Search (but with search partners in separate campaigns) mostly. @robert_brady
Just search campaigns for right now @beyondthepaid
Don’t feel bad John, I am deeply skeptical of audience networks everywhere. If I want a display, I go to a specific display offer rather than an add-on. @JuliaVyse
I’m currently running Search campaigns in the accounts I manage but @CarMatsCoUK is running shopping ads on MAds and it’s performing just as good as Google Ads (just on a smaller scale). @C_J_Ridley
I run everything I can(search, shopping, audience network) – love what Microsoft does for clients and how easy it is to integrate into marketing plans. @navahf
We have shopping, search, and some display. Currently running. The MSAN (is this still what they are called?) campaigns can do pretty well depending on the account @selley2134
Literally all verticals/clients, but healthcare gets the largest share of the spend. @JonKagan
Search & Shopping. We’ve built out separately from Google rather than import also – we trialed a PMax import last week to see the results and it was not compatible which is why we keep builds separate! @scright
Mostly search and DSA. I find shopping ads can be hit or miss. It does well for commodity-type products but beyond that, it’s a hot mess. @duanebrown
Q3: Is there anything in Microsoft Advertising’s platform that you have wanted to try but have not yet? Why haven’t you?
Shopping. My particular clients have relatively modest budgets, so it’s not easy to get them onboarded to one shopping platform, let alone two. Plus, Amazon has the shopping-search brand awareness. @JuliaVyse
Tried it all, but not given sufficient time/effort to their tracking due to having to adjust events or MSAN, because I don’t have a good excuse so I am just going to awkwardly stop typing now. @JonKagan
I keep looking for an opportunity to use the credit/financial vertical ads – the main hurdle has been in getting clients to provide creative and documentation in a timely manner – dream add on feature would be a verification hub @navahf
Trying to get more clients/budget on to MSAN. Would love to test more of the Linkedin targeting options.@selley2134
I really want to have a client to use the new nonprofit program for Microsoft Advertising! @NeptuneMoon
Similar-to Customer Match audiences on Bing. Was amazed to find this isn’t a thing yet @jporcas
Kinda have to try it all to find out what works… even when you mostly work on ecom brands. Each brand and ad account is unique. I wish running shopping ads was a smoother experience. @duanebrown
Q4: This question is directed at @John_A_Lee but please reply to and comment on what he shares here. John – what are some of the new features and capabilities Microsoft Advertising has rolled out recently?
Vertical ads – credit cards, automotive, cruise, travel, etc. Expanding into 29 additional markets (with more to come!). Dynamic descriptions for DSA. Video extensions for search. Video ads for Audience Network. And, and, and… @John_A_Lee
We lifted the spend restriction on use of Customer Audiences. @John_A_Lee
We also just released Ad Creator – an easy-to-use tool for creating great looking images for image extensions, native ads, etc. @John_A_Lee
Q5: For search campaigns, what is your go-to optimization strategy? Or said another way, what optimization strategy do you prioritize and/or spend the most time working on?
Always looking to see how we can improve the lives of our advertisers (in case you needed context for the question)! @John_A_Lee
We’ve had big success massively consolidating campaigns recently rather than using auto imports from Google. Makes sense, less volume so need to consolidate more for tCPA to work well @jporcas
Unlike big G, I tend to go broad match + audience intent. Usually, it’s a LinkedIn audience. Focus on volume, then flip over to conversions when there’s enough data to work with. Often public sector is very traffic-oriented. @JuliaVyse
Search, I find is the most frustrating part of Microsoft. I spend most of my time focused on search term reports and negating the crazy matches I get for phrase and exact. @selley2134
Shamefully, max clicks because I can’t import my GA conversions in @JonKagan
Follow a similar path to Google. Find what works and scale like a MOFO with FOMO @duanebrown
Q6: What could Microsoft Advertising be doing better or more of to benefit you, your campaigns and your clients?
Seamless integration with GA, make calls a conversion metric, do something with in-store calculations that don’t require liveramp, local search ads, let me advertise on Xbox, better control of what domains I show in on syndicated network @JonKagan
Get shopping ads to be more consistent with results. My guess is the ML isn’t as strong as Google’s and I know Google has had a huge head start. I want to spend more money @duanebrown
Our team tends to need more in-platform support. troubleshooting, setting up IOs, getting things going takes more lift than our clients tend to have the bandwidth for. @JuliaVyse
Stop calling it Microsoft advertising, seriously this is literally what the 5th name I’ve had for you all in 17 years. @JonKagan
Also needing support. @lisarocksSEM
Fix search targeting make exact, exact. Shopping bids are just very weird to figure out (have to bid $3 to get your ad to show at a $.60 CPC). When I Click keep me signed in, keep me signed in. @selley2134
Talking with the team. They said making Merchant Center could be easier for clients to give us access and also just managing feeds. I wish MSFT would just copy what Google has done and call it a day. Would make everything easier for them, us and platform parity. @duanebrown
Maybe I’m wrong when I think shopping ads seems like such a huge opportunity that a PM at MSFT is sleeping on. In no way do I think it’s easy to make better. When I look at what Google is doing… I have to ask why can’t MSFT be just as amazing. @duanebrown
Q7: Do you have questions for @John_A_Lee about Microsoft Advertising?
Any hope of vehicle ads?? @runnerkik
@runnerkik Sarah – in what context? We have Automotive Ads already. Feed-based and that serve vehicle details (year, price, etc.) in the SERPs. @John_A_Lee
Yes in that context that you explained – I would love more information about how to run Automotive Ads that are feed-based for our clients please. @runnerkik
Yes. Automatically opt-in DSA titles and descriptions? What’s the logic behind this? @MaiMolina_
@MaiMolina_ The descriptions are new, but the data on the back-end shows a tremendous lift in performance (CTR, etc.). @John_A_Lee
I heard recently that MSAN is 35% of Bing’s revenue? Is this true? How is this split changing in FY23? @jporcas
@jporcas I don’t know the math off the top of my head, but MSAN is big and growing. We have big goals and plans for our native platform through this year and into 2023. Stay tuned @John_A_Lee
Who do I need to talk with to make shopping ads as good as search on Microsoft? @duanebrown
@duanebrown Duane – I’ll put you in touch with some folks over email. @John_A_Lee
PPCChat Participants
- Shaun Elley @selley2134
- Julia Vyse @JuliaVyse
- Scott Wright @scright
- Robert Brady @robert_brady
- Julie F Bacchini @NeptuneMoon
- Melissa L Mackey @beyondthepaid
- Glenn Schmelzle @heyglenns
- Navah Hopkins @navahf
- Duane Brown @duanebrown
- Chris Ridley @C_J_Ridley
- Anders Hjorth @soanders
- Jon Kagan @JonKagan
- Mai Molina @MaiMolina_
- James Porcas @jporcas
- John Lee @John_A_Lee
- Lisa Raehsler @lisarocksSEM
- Sarah Stemen @runnerkik
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