Once upon a time, they were called Bing Ads…but now they are just Microsoft Ads. However, many B2B marketers still refer to them as “Bing Ads” because they are shown in the Bing search engine (among other places).
As a marketer for a B2B firm, you may be wondering if Microsoft Ads are worth the investment, or if you should stick with the tried-and-true Google Search Ads. As a B2B marketing agency working with firms across a variety of industries, our answer is simply “yes, you should consider Microsoft Ads in your marketing mix.” This does not mean canceling Google Ads and shifting the spend to Microsoft Ads, but it does mean that maybe you should consider adding an additional monthly budget for Microsoft Ads or moving a small portion of your Google Ads budget to Microsoft Ads.
Here are a few reasons why we recommend Microsoft Ads for B2B clients:
- The Microsoft Search Network has 724 million monthly searchers on its network. (Source)
- If you have a refined Google Search Ads strategy, it is easy to duplicate that on the Microsoft Ads platform. You can even set it to auto-update when you make changes on Google Ads.
- It typically requires a smaller spend to deliver high-quality leads.
There are additional reasons to consider Microsoft Ads for your B2B marketing campaigns. Let’s dig into what we are seeing with the ad campaigns and why we are championing these campaigns more in 2024 than in previous years.
It also feels right here to mention that we do not get kickbacks from Microsoft Ads and do not take commissions on ads we run on the platform. Our interest is purely in helping your B2B marketing campaigns succeed in connecting with your ideal buyers. Now, let’s dig in.
Seeing an increase in Bing organic traffic for sites
Throughout this year, we’ve been seeing an uptick in quality traffic – read “engaged visitors” – to our client’s B2B websites from Bing organic searches. Again, we manage a variety of B2B websites and marketing campaigns in various industries – from industrial to tech to consulting to finance. This is not anecdotal data. We’ve been marking the increases in monthly marketing reports on website traffic. It’s not a huge surge, but it’s a continuous uptick.
While we are seeing this uptick, it’s important to note that Google organic traffic is still driving anywhere from 70 – 80% of the organic traffic for many clients. However, even if we see a dip in Google organic traffic month over month or year over year for a particular client, Bing organic traffic is still increasing. It’s a trend we are watching and are continuing to watch.
ChatGPT and Microsoft
It’s a common misconception that Microsoft owns ChatGPT, it does not. BUT, it must be noted that Microsoft is a large investor in OpenAI – the creator of Chat GPT. If you want to look a little bit more at ChatGPT vs. Microsoft’s AI tech Copilot, here is some further reading. If you look at this further reading, you’d notice a fun little aside:
Why does any of this matter here? ChatGPT uses the Bing search engine as its built-in search engine. This means that people don’t have to use Bing as their default search engine to be using it for searches. People using ChatGPT, a wildly popular AI tool, will by default be using the Bing search engine.
This may be old news to you, but we are seeing the results via in the increase in Bing organic traffic.
Bing is the default search engine for many
Microsoft365 is a dominant software for many businesses, particularly for mid-to-enterprise B2B firms. And what is the default browser for Microsoft365? Edge. And what is the default search engine for Edge? Bing. Stay with me, I’m getting to the point.
For security purposes – particularly for cybersecurity, emerging technology, healthcare tech, or finance firms – network and computer controls are restricted at the user level. For this reason, many professional users at these B2B firms are not allowed to download or run a new browser other than what comes standard with the operating system on their computer. This means that Edge is often the primary browser and thus Bing is the primary search engine. Whether good or bad is not for me to say, but many professionals are using the Bing search engine.
Google trust has waned
Many people still use “google” as a verb, but the trust in the search engine itself is starting to wane. Even if your target market isn’t closely following the antitrust trial against Google, users are becoming more and more wary about privacy when searching online – which extends to searches for professional purposes like finding a new vendor.
Looking specifically at the Google Ads side of things, B2B marketers are becoming more skeptical of the actual ROI of Google Ads. Spend is way up for Google Ads for diminishing returns. Google is also pushing quite a bit of AI in Google Ads – essentially telling advertisers it knows better who wants to see their ads. But the thing is, Google doesn’t know better – well, not at this time anyway. All a B2B marketer has to do is look at the search queries that were considered relevant when showing their ad campaigns. If you don’t actively manage your negative keywords, Google will spend your budget before 9am every single day and the traffic will be garbage.
Now, we aren’t saying Microsoft Ads is without fault or infinitely trustworthy, but the proof is in the results you see when comparing attribution for lead generation sources. Take a look at your lead attribution and see how many “conversions” that came through Google Ads were actually spam.
Microsoft Ads: spend less, get strong results for B2B
Thanks for sticking with me on this journey through a new frontier for B2B search marketing efforts. In summary, with the surge in ChatGPT users, users tied to the Edge browser/Bing search engine, and diminishing returns on Google Ads, Microsoft Ads make sense to bring into the mix to generate new leads and reach your ideal market. We’ve been using Microsoft Ads for years alongside Google Ads. Recently though, we’ve been recommending that more and more of our B2B website and digital marketing clients incorporate Microsoft Ads into their marketing mix. For a small incremental spend on search ads, we’ve seen a nice increase in leads from the Microsoft Ads channel.
