How to Boost Ecommerce Sales with Microsoft Advertising

Do you own an eCommerce business? Are your sales not satisfactory even after adopting obvious and excellent marketing strategies like running Google Shopping Ads? 

Then you should think hard about what you are missing. Running a Google Shopping Ad might feel like the ultimate successful thing to do for your eCommerce business, but if you want to cover all your bases and maximize your sales, you must use Microsoft Advertising. 

Now, you might be wondering how to do that. Well, that’s what we will be talking about today. 

Our today’s blog will guide you through some extremely effective eCommerce Microsoft Advertising strategies that are, in fact, very easy to follow. But first, let’s get a clearer idea about Microsoft Advertising, shall we? 

What Is Microsoft Advertising?

Formerly known as Bing Ads, Microsoft Advertising is a marketing tool that enables businesses and their products to pop up in search queries on Yahoo, Bing, and AOL. 

The way how Microsoft Advertising works is quite similar to that of Google Shopping Ads. When customers search for whatever they are looking for on platforms like Bing or Yahoo and if that is what you have been advertising through Microsoft Advertising, your ads will show on the customers’ search results.

However, the keywords that you will use should match the keywords frequently used by the users in order for your ads to rank higher. 

The ad campaigns run by Microsoft are basically PPC (Pay-Per-Click). That means, you only have to pay for those ads that the viewers will click on. The eCommerce business owners have full flexibility to custom-make these ads varying on location, demographic or other factors.

Why Should eCommerce Businesses Opt for Microsoft Advertising?

Now, you know what exactly is Microsoft Advertising, but you must be wondering whether or not to expand your horizon and go for this marketing tool. Have a look at these amazing benefits Microsoft Advertising comes with, especially for eCommerce businesses-

• Cost-effective: Microsoft Advertising does not require you to have a huge budget. This is why it can be a really good option for eCommerce businesses. You can set your own budget for the campaign according to your affordability.

• Easily integrated with Google Shopping Ads: It is highly likely that you are already running Google Shopping Ads for your eCommerce business. Now if you want to go for Bing smart shopping Advertising too, you can do it very easily as the campaigns of Google shopping can be imported to search engines supported by Microsoft advertising very easily. 

• Reaching more customers: When you start a business, you set up a goal to reach as many customers as possible, to make as many sales as possible. It is very natural. 

So, when you promote your business through Microsoft Advertising besides other platforms, you only expand your business. This will help you get more exposure and you will definitely make more sales.

• Lesser competition: Microsoft Advertising allows you to have lesser competition on search engines like Yahoo or Bing. This is because the number of business owners opting for Microsoft Advertising are quite less than the ones who are all settled with using Google ads. Make the best out of this opportunity. 

• Better ROI: The ROI that you receive by marketing through Microsoft Advertising are actually better. First, because you can set smaller budgets for campaigns than Google Shopping Ads. At the same time, Microsoft increases the bid for ads that are likely to have more conversions.

• Targeting a device: Microsoft, specifically Bing, has this feature where the business owners get the opportunity of targeting specific customers based on the device they are using. Bing can also detect the OS of the devices. In this way you can target mobile users particularly if you want, and thus, strategize your activities according to that.

Now that you know how beneficial Microsoft advertising can be for your eCommerce business, let’s get deeper and find out how to increase eCommerce sales with Microsoft Ads. 

How to Boost Ecommerce Sales with Microsoft Advertising

Merely running an ad campaign might not suffice if you have not established your brand name in the digital world. You will need to tweak the ads a bit, bring in improvements here and there to get the best result and see a noticeable surge in your eCommerce sales. 

Here are some very useful but simple strategies for eCommerce Microsoft Advertising-

• Create the Most Optimized Product Feeds

The first thing that you need to do to run an excellent ad for Microsoft search engines creates the most optimized product feed. A product feed is a file containing all the information related to the products. 

Product feeds will have your product images, categories, titles, and every other important detail. You have to upload this file to Microsoft Merchant Center in order to get approved. And once it is approved your shopping ads will start to display on Microsoft-based search engines. 

Remember, it is not quite easy to create a product feed worthy to be accepted instantly. You might need to take help with it. If your business is on any of the popular eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, you can easily take help of an ideal product feed plugin to create optimized product feeds for eCommerce Microsoft Advertising. 

However, as Bing or Yahoo is not widely used platform for running ads, you would have to select such a WooCommerce product feed generator plugin that can create product feeds that support both Bing and Yahoo. 

Once you have managed to create an ideal product feed with all the details related to your products, it will be accepted very quickly and it will help you showcase your business in the search engines in the best way.

• Make the Ads as Lucrative As Possible

The ads that you make should be catchy enough to hold the attention of the viewers. Nowadays, the online buyers are very restless and they do not like to spend much time seeing any ad. They will only pause and pay attention to your ads if yours are attractive enough. 

So, make your ads unique and extraordinary. Understand your customers’ mindset and their preferences. This will help you tailor the ads that they will like. If the shopping ads are worthy enough to hold the attention of the viewers, people who were not thinking of buying anything might consider trying out your products too. 

Doesn't it sound amazing? 

So, put efforts in making eye-catching ads, and it will help you grab more and more sales undoubtedly! 

• Emphasize On Brand Exposure

The exposure of your brand name bears much significance to attaining success and boosting sales. People like to buy products from a company that is popular and well-known. That is why your Microsoft ads should contain messages that talk about your brand. 

Think about the message your brand is trying to deliver in front of potential customers. It can be a unique feature of any of your products or a new addition to your business or anything like that. 

The way you create your ads tell much about your brand value and in order to be a well-known brand and make more sales, you should put emphasis on increasing your brand exposure.

• Adopt the Strategy Just as Google Shopping Ads

It is very likely that you have considered running Google Shopping Ads before you opted for Microsoft Advertising. It is recommended that you maintain the original strategy that you adopted to run the Google Shopping campaign. 

This is because you must have put ample effort to make the Google shopping ads campaigns successful. And it is very much likely that the ads that have proved to be successful for Google will also be fruitful for Microsoft. 

The only thing that you have to think through while strategizing the campaign is the little differences that both these platforms have in functionality.  Reinventing something completely new can be time-consuming and it will subsequently lessen the amount of ROI for you. 

Whereas, using the same successful strategy for both platforms will decrease the overall costs for you and help you increase your ROI.

• Consider Microsoft Advertising As a Different Marketing Tool

Even though you are using the same strategy for both Google and Microsoft, it is possible that you will not gain as much success as you get on Google. And it is also possible that you will make fewer sales through Microsoft Advertising.

However, the key is to be consistent. If you let go of the marketing scheme after a short period of time observing lesser sales, your whole campaign might fail. The overall dimension of Microsoft advertising is very different from Google Shopping. And it takes some time to get hold of anything. 

The trick is to test and experiment with everything for a time being. It will give you an idea about what is working for your business and what is not. After you have that knowledge, you will gradually be capable of making better ad campaigns for Microsoft Advertising for eCommerce

• Use the Right Keywords

This is something very important. If you cannot select the right keywords to use in your ad campaigns, then it is possible that you cannot attain your targeted amount of sales. The keywords that are selected for ad campaigns are basically the words that the buyers put on search queries when they look out for any product. 

That is why you have to carry out thorough research on all the possible keywords for each one of your campaigns so that you can match with those. Using the right keywords will give your ad campaign a proper new look, increasing the possibility of more sales. 

Because the more likely it is that more people will see your ad when they intend to buy anything, the more conversion you will get. 

However, a very vital thing that you must consider while choosing the keywords for your campaign is the negative keywords. There might be terms that people are using to search anything on the search engines that are similar to what you are selling, but not exactly the same. These are the negative keywords. 

These words might drive traffic toward your ads, but it will not add any value because there will be no conversion. 

• Understand the Demographic

Another crucial strategy to boost sales through eCommerce Microsoft ads is to understand the demographic fully and properly. The demographic of Google and Microsoft are actually quite different. And in order to make the best out of Microsoft advertising, you must have knowledge about the people who are using these search engines in the first place. 

Different digital marketing strategists have found out that the people who use Microsoft search engines like Bing and Yahoo more are the people who are usually from higher income classes. This can prove to be very valuable information to you when you craft your shopping ads for eCommerce Microsoft Advertising. 

The shopping ads in general should be focused on the demographics. Not all kinds of graphics, keywords, and language are for people of all ages, countries, income classes, etc. You have to understand who you are making these ads for and what kind of language and graphics they prefer. 

If your ads are tailored in consideration to the demographic that uses Bing as a search engine, you can easily boost your sales within no time. 

1. Display a Proper Call-To-Action Button On the Ads

A properly placed CTA (Call-to-Action) button is actually a must for Bing smart shopping. These are the buttons where people will click on to view the products that you are promoting. Sometimes CTA buttons also take the viewers to the sellers’ websites or business profiles. 

This is one of the fundamental things to increase sales with Microsoft Ads. As we mentioned before, people are quite restless these days. If they like your ad and want to try your product, they will need to go through the procedures and the CTA button will take them to those procedures. 

However, if you put CTA on your ad but not so much in a visible manner, it will be of no use. The shoppers will not take the time to scrutinize your ad to look for the CTA. 

That is why it is highly recommended that you put your CTA button on your ads in a very prominent way so that the buyers can see it instantly when they are viewing your products. 

When you are using eCommerce Microsoft Advertising, you can put your CTA button with the help of an action extension. When you use the action extension, you will see a CTA button has been placed on your ad just beside the description part. It is easily visible and people can click on it to go to your site instantly.

Microsoft’s internal data depicts that putting your CTA through the action extension can help you increase your conversion to a great extent and without much effort from your side. 

• Showcase Social Proof

Suppose, a potential buyer is viewing your ad and liking your product. They know your product is exactly what they are looking for. They will still not buy it before checking the reviews and ratings that your eCommerce business has. 

The reviews and ratings that your previous customers give you are the social proof of your business. Social proof is extremely vital in order to make any sale and to boost sales. 

When people see that your products and business are liked by many other buyers and they read the detailed reviews, they get the confidence to buy the products. These ratings and reviews make them feel safe. 

Microsoft Advertising has a review extension that you can use to showcase the reviews and ratings of your business, which will subsequently act as social proof for your business. 

Final Words

Microsoft Advertising might not be the first digital marketing strategy that people opt for their eCommerce businesses, but if you want to secure your position in the market and attract customers from all demographics, then you do not have any other option than going for it. 

The opportunities that come with eCommerce Microsoft Advertising are endless. The only thing that you have to do is be strategic to scheme the best shopping ad campaigns for Microsoft Advertising. 

The blog has discussed some very effective strategies in this regard. Do let us know which one of these works the best for your eCommerce business!