A successful Microsoft Ads campaign is about more than just keyword research and metrics tracking. To get the most from your campaign and maximize your ROI, follow these tips.
1. Know Your Audience
Whether these ads work for you really depends on what you’re selling and who you’re selling them to. For example, slightly older and wealthier audiences may prefer Bing to Google, so if you’re selling, say, wine boxes aimed at middle-class Americans aged 45+, Bing could be perfect for you.
The best way to know if Bing’s worth your time? Build a customer profile. Identify who you’re targeting and what they respond to best.
Do you already use a tool like Google Analytics? Check your demographics data. If you trend towards a younger audience, you might not get the results you’re looking for from Microsoft ads.
2. Import High-Performing Google Ads
If you’re already running high-performing Google Ads campaigns, it makes sense to import them into Microsoft Ads. While you can, of course, simply set up entirely new campaigns, you’ll save time and effort by just importing your successful campaigns.
Not sure which Google Ads campaigns to import? Think about which ones are most likely to appeal to the demographic you’re targeting on Microsoft Ads and work from there. You can always remove these campaigns and import others later.
One final point here: Just remember to double-check that everything moved over seamlessly from Google Ads to Bing before you go live.
3. Improve Your Targeting
71 percent of respondents in a recent survey said they prefer ads that are tailored to them. To get the most from your Microsoft Ads, you must ensure they’re targeting the right audience. How do you measure this? By pulling multiple analytics reports.
For example, you could track segments including:
- audience
- time of day
- device
- geography
Say you discover you get the most conversions from mobile devices on weekends before 5 p.m. Focus on ensuring your ads appear most frequently at this time to maximize your conversions. You’ll get the most ROI from your budget this way!
You’ll find all the tracking tools you need on the “Campaigns” page.
4. Use the UET Tag
To track your conversions accurately, you need to set up the “Universal Event Tracking” (UET) tag. Why? This tag allows you to see exactly what users do after they click on your ad and visit your site.
In other words, if you want to know whether someone bounces from your landing page immediately or actually commits to a purchase, you need a UET tag.
It’s easy to set up. First, go to your “Campaigns” page, click “Conversion Tracking,” then “UET tags.” Give it a name to help you identify it. In the description box, enter your URL or website name. Save the tag you’ve just created.
Next, copy the code and paste it into the pages of your website you wish to track. WordPress plugins can help here.
Finally, add some conversion goals to your tag, whether it’s tracking how long someone spends on your website, purchases they make, and so on.
The Microsoft support page has more guidance on how to run UET tags if you’re new to them.
5. Monitor Your Quality Score
Your quality score reveals how your Bing Ad stacks up against competitors’ ads. It’s based on three things: your CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Here’s what the scores mean:
In short, a low-quality score means your ads won’t appear as often as they should, whereas a high-quality score means you’ve got a competitive keyword and CTR, so your ad appears more often.
To view your score, click the “Keywords” tab on the “Campaigns” page and check out the “Qual. score” column. Check it frequently to confirm your Microsoft ads are performing well.