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A frequent problem that occurs with our customers who use Microsoft Advertising is that they want to generate more traffic but are not able to do so – due to Bing’s respectively Microsoft Advertising Network’s restricted market share among search engines. However, Bing’s market share is growing, and so are the possibilities that come with it (Watch our webinar about Opportunities for Ecommerce in the new era of Bing). A popular way to get the maximum out of Microsoft Advertising is by expanding your campaign portfolio with Bing Shopping campaigns.
With them, it is possible to showcase your products in an impactful ad format that includes custom images, pricing and your company name. In order to do so, one of the most important things is to have a complete and optimised feed with all necessary components.
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Growing with Microsoft Advertising
The importance of Microsoft Advertising is growing, especially focusing on Bing Shopping campaigns. Since its start the total US spending on Microsoft Advertising Shopping ads grew by 54% in 2019 compared to 2018. Overall, Microsoft Advertising spending increased by 8% in the same period (status: end of Q2 2019).
With Shopping ads in Microsoft Advertising, it is possible to gain additional awareness and therefore conduct traffic to your online shop.
Due to Bing Shopping ads, a rather big retailer specialised in books/ebooks/audiobooks and toys with more than 8 million products in the feed was able to increase their clicks with Shopping ads in Microsoft by 36% in the first three quarters of 2019 – in addition, a plus of 5% in revenues was created through Shopping. All that was achieved with 15% lower CPCs than with Google Shopping ads.
Availability of Microsoft Advertising Shopping campaigns
Unfortunately, Microsoft Advertising Shopping campaigns aren’t available in all countries yet. Therefore we provide an overview. Currently, Microsoft Advertising Shopping campaigns are:
– released in US, UK, CA, IN, FR and DE
– in a release from 2020, new countries are available as well: NL, IT, ES, SE, CH, BE and AT
smec’s role in Microsoft Advertising
Our software solutions are capable of running also Bing Shopping campaigns. We can sync our shopping campaigns created and managed by smec’s automation and then they are moved from Google Ads to Microsoft Advertising. During the process, the calculated bids get transferred to Microsoft Advertising as well.
One very important thing is to keep in mind that the initial bid set in Microsoft Advertising should be higher than in Google Ads so that the ad has a realistic chance to get displayed. But no worries, as mentioned above, the actual CPCs are still lower than for Google Shopping. In the case mentioned above, the bids were increased by 200% to get as much traffic as desired.
If you need help getting started, don’t hesitate to reach out. We at smec are Elite Partner for Microsoft Advertising. Being a leading Elite Partner has its advantages. Our strong relationship with Microsoft enables us to swiftly resolve any account problems for our clients. With us, you get exclusive access to Microsoft Ads pilot and beta programs as well as learning materials, best practices, whitelists and tips for better account optimization.
Update 2023 – PMax in Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft introduced Microsoft Advertising’s Performance Max – to help clients leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in market-leading ways that save you time and build your business more effectively. Find out more about the benefits of this new PMax campaign type which can dynamically serve a variety of rich ads across Bing, AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Edge, Outlook, and more.
