Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 141 - Microsoft Ads

Are you Microsoft Ads curious? 

I know I am, and I've been getting more questions about Microsoft Ads lately from my Google Ads coaching clients. 

The thing is, I am a Google Ads expert and have never actually used Microsoft Ads before. However, that didn't stop me from putting together a great episode for you today, because today is not only Episode 141 of the Inside Google Ads podcast, it is also Navah Hopkins' birthday. 

For those who don't know, she is the Microsoft Ads liaison. It's her job to talk about Microsoft Ads and to educate us all. And so, in honor of her birthday, I've put together this very special episode about what Google Ads practitioners should know about Microsoft Ads.

In order to put this together, I have three expert sources for you. 

The first is Navah herself. We had a great conversation late last year about Microsoft Ads. It's on my YouTube channel. You'll find the link in the episode description. 

The second is Matt Beswick's excellent PPC Zone Talk. 

And the third is Nikki Kuhlman's also excellent PPC Zone Talk. 

Links for all of those in the episode description. Let's dive into eight things Google Ads practitioners need to know about Microsoft Ads. 

I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I spent six years working for big brands at Google and now I work for you. 

This is Inside Google Ads, Episode 141: Microsoft Ads. 

First thing’s first, who should use Microsoft Ads? 

While of course, any kind of business that uses Google Ads can potentially see success on Microsoft, the place I find myself recommending it the most to clients is those in B2B. 

Why? 

Here are three key things about Microsoft Ads that can be especially useful for B2B advertisers. 

1. According to Matt Beswick, there are many corporations that have Microsoft only device policies. So if you're trying to reach enterprise level clients with strict IT security policies, they may be running Microsoft Edge and using Bing, not using Chrome and Google. And so by using Microsoft Ads, you might be able to reach them better. 

2. Next, also according to Matt Beswick, the average user on the Microsoft network tends to skew slightly older than what you might be used to on Google. This user base can be more highly concentrated with decision makers who've been promoted into roles where they have more corporate purchasing power. So there's potentially a higher value demographic available through Microsoft Ads than what you might find on Google. 

3. And third, both Matt Beswick and Navah Hopkins highlight the native B2B LinkedIn profile targeting capabilities in Microsoft. 

You see, Google doesn't own a social network. YouTube is a great search engine, not a social network. But Microsoft owns LinkedIn. And so you can layer LinkedIn company, industry, and job function data directly on top of your Search campaigns. In Google Ads, we do have some detailed demographics around industry and company size, but it's much more limited than what's available in Microsoft. 

So if you're a B2B advertiser who is either seeing success on Google and wants to expand that, or maybe you're having trouble making Google Ads work for you, it might be worth testing out some Microsoft Ads. 

Next, let's talk about some of the differences in control between Google and Microsoft. 

As we know, in Google Ads, automation is the way. We are tending to get less and less control over the years, although I will say we are getting features like some channel controls in PMax and Demand Gen, more negative keywords capabilities, it's not all bad. That being said, there are some unique control features available in Microsoft that we don't have in Google. 

5. First, according to Navah Hopkins, there is ad group level autonomy. Microsoft allows you to run location targeting, ad scheduling, and user-specific time zones at the ad group level. You cannot do that in Google. So this allows for potentially more campaign consolidation with different features broken up at the ad group level versus what you might be used to in Google, where you would need to have separate campaigns to leverage these controls. 

6. Next, also from Navah is a note about negatives. As Google Ads practitioners, we might use Broad Match negative keywords along with Phrase or Exact, but there's no such thing as a Broad Match negative keyword on Microsoft Ads. Every negative keyword behaves as Phrase or Exact Match. So you might need to build more negative keyword lists to prevent any unintended targeting. 

Last but not least, what are some unique to Microsoft features for all advertisers that we just don't have in Google? 

7. First, something that Navah Hopkins talks about a lot, Matt Beswick has mentioned as well, is impression-based remarketing. 

Microsoft allows you to retarget to people who were merely served an impression of your ad. You can target, exclude, adjust bids for Search, Shopping, or multimedia ads just based on impressions, and Google does not let you do this. In order for someone to be added to one of your data segments in Google, to one of your retargeting lists, they have to have actually interacted with your ad in some way, clicked on your Search ad or your organic result, viewed your video, et cetera. But Microsoft has impression-based remarketing. Pretty cool.

8. Next is a unique ad format that Navah Hopkins told me about called Multimedia Ads. This is a highly visual ad that’s served directly on the SERP. It has its own auction, separate from the Search or Shopping ad auctions on Microsoft, and just one advertiser wins that placement. It's like having a Display ad right on the search engine results page. And I had never heard of that before. I think that's a pretty cool opportunity for advertisers.

Last but not least, any Microsoft advertiser I talk to will give me these three tips. 

1. First, set up a Bing business profile. If you have a Google Business profile, you should also have a Bing business profile. It's free. 

2. Second, install the Microsoft remarketing Tag. You probably have the Google Tag already installed. Put that Microsoft Tag on your website as well. And that way, if 6 to 12 months from now, two years from now, you decide you want to start advertising with Microsoft, you already have that remarketing Tag in place.

3. And then third, Microsoft Clarity is a free tool you can use to understand what users are doing on your website. There are a lot of paid tools that offer this functionality, but Microsoft Clarity is free. And you actually don't even have to use Microsoft Ads in order to use Microsoft Clarity. B2B expert Sophie Logan actually spoke to my Inside Google Ads course members recently all about how she uses Microsoft Clarity to optimize her landing pages.

You can join Inside Google Ads today at learn.jyll.ca for that as well as all of my other guest expert recordings. 

But three key things anyone can do, whether you're advertising on Microsoft or not are:

1. Set up your Bing Business profile

2. Install the Microsoft Tag on your website

3. Install Microsoft Clarity on your website too. 

Your main takeaway for today is that Microsoft Ads is not just a clone of Google Ads. 

Yes, you can directly import all of your Google Ads campaigns to Microsoft to get started but if you're going ahead and giving Microsoft, you know, 10% to 20% of your budget, it's probably worth also giving it 10% to 20% of your attention to make sure you're leveraging unique features like impression-based remarketing, multimedia ads, lots of unique things you can do there that you can't do on Google. 

To be clear, I still love Google Ads. I have done my whole career in it. I think it has great opportunities.

But, in honor of my dear friend Navah's birthday, I wanted to share some of these tips and tricks you may not be aware of for Microsoft advertising.

If you'd like to hear straight from the experts I quoted today, Navah Hopkins, Matt Beswick, and Nikki Kuhlman, you can find the links to all of their videos in the episode description. 

And if you'd like to learn more about Microsoft Ads, drop a comment and let me know wherever you are watching or listening right now so I can bring some more of those experts straight to you.

I'm Jyll Saskin Gales and I'll see you next time inside Google Ads.