How Microsoft Advertising Offers Cheaper Results For Small Businesses

You don't have to spend your entire marketing budget on paid advertising

What is Microsoft Advertising?

    Microsoft advertising, formerly known as Bing Ads, is a form of paid advertising that uses the Bing search engine to reach potential customers. Advertisers can create text, image, and video ads that appear alongside Bing's search results. These ads can also target specific demographics and/or locations.

    When it comes to online advertising, there are many options to choose from. But two stand out above all others: Google Ads and Microsoft advertising. Although the latter is the most popular search engine in the world, if you're looking for a more affordable, which we'll get into, yet very effective way to reach more customers, Microsoft advertising may be the right choice for you.

Differences Between Microsoft Ads and Google Ads

    Microsoft advertising is a popular choice for businesses because it has a massive reach. Each month, Microsoft reports 14.7 billion searches. That's a huge amount! Especially when considering how much more businesses have to spend on Google Ads. The average cost of Microsoft ads is $1.54, which is 33% cheaper than Google. Thus, Microsoft offers a more frugal option for small businesses and startups.

    With Google's considerable place atop the search engine popularity scale, business owners will gain access to a customer base unrivaled by anything else. Of course, that's also where every other business is marketing, so the competition is also substantially higher. Whereas Bing, again, a smaller search engine, has just a slightly smaller customer base, and also comes with less competition.

    Microsoft shines even more when targeting a more niche or specific audience. This is not only because the more niche areas almost never have much for competition, but also because of the lower amount of competitors that you'd find on Google, where everyone else is. This is important to know, since businesses can pay even less in the auctions for the same keywords they'd be targeting on Google. 

    As for other services, such as business listings, most businesses would likely have better results with Google My Business, since that's where more people are searching. But Microsoft also has their own version called Bing Places. Although less popular than the former, the latter still will help customers find their way to your website or business.

So, is Microsoft Advertising Right For You?

    No matter what search engine you're using for paid ads, always remember to check your budget first. Even as a frugal bidder at the online auctions, you're still spending money. With that said, if you're on a tighter budget, Microsoft Advertising could be your gateway to a much bigger audience. It's not as popular as Google, of course, but it keeps expenses down if you're a smaller business, or even a startup. 

    In addition, you have to consider how much competition you'd have on Google Ads. That's industry dependent, and since I don't know what industry you're in, I can't help you without that information. But if you already know, then you're probably aware of how competitive your industry is. If there isn't much competition, I'd recommend Google Ads, since you'll win a lot more high value keywords on a bigger platform. If you're in a more competitive industry, however, then consider Microsoft Advertising for winning more keywords, and spending less when you do.

    Overall, both are amazing options. You can't go wrong choosing either, but again, it's recommended to decide using your budget amount, as well as the level of competition you'd face on each. 

    As always, if you have any specific questions or need help with your marketing, feel free to reach out to us at Bedford 360. We'll help you move forward however we can!