Microsoft Advertising can be a secret ingredient in your dealer’s marketing strategy when used with Google Ads.

When your dealer advertises on multiple channels, you’re able to balance out the strengths and weaknesses of single marketing channels while reaching additional customers in more places.

Here are the unique advantages that Microsoft Advertising holds over Google Ads and why you should allocate some of your dealer’s budget to Microsoft Advertising:

Microsoft Advertising allows you to reach a wider audience

Because Microsoft currently owns three search engines, (Bing, Yahoo! and AOL) dealers that use Microsoft Advertising can create ads once and have those ads show up on all three search engines. In addition, Microsoft’s network is quickly growing, which means additional vehicle shoppers are using the network to research or shop for a vehicle.

Here are some numbers:

• Microsoft Advertising now has 34% of the desktop search engine market share worldwide
• There are 5.4 billion monthly searches conducted on the Microsoft Advertising Network
• 136 million unique searchers use the Microsoft Advertising Network

More importantly, when advertising on Microsoft’s network, you can reach 63 million searchers that Google Ads doesn’t reach. Needless to say, if your dealer isn’t using Microsoft Advertising, you’re losing out on valuable sales opportunities.

Microsoft Advertising also allows advertisers to reach an older and wealthier audience. Nearly 40 percent of the Microsoft Advertising Network ranges from 35 to 54 years old, with three-quarters of Microsoft Advertising users being over the age of 35.

In terms of income, over half of the Network wields a household income of over $75,000. One-third of the Network’s total have a household income of over $100,000.

Not only is Microsoft Network’s audience wealthier, but they’re also more likely to spend money on a product they find online, compared to the average Internet user. This may translate to more actionable sales opportunities for your dealer, like phone calls from interested vehicle shoppers who find and click on your ads.

In short, Microsoft Advertising allows you to reach an even wider audience and produce even better results than if you used Google Ads alone.

Why Microsoft Advertising should be in your dealer’s marketing strategy

Google and Microsoft’s networks each have unique advantages and disadvantages. Dealer Teamwork recommends that you use both to maximize each advertising platform’s strengths. A well-balanced marketing strategy that leverages multiple channels can yield better results.

Here are some of Microsoft Advertising’s advantages over Google Ads:

• Microsoft’s pay-per-click (PPC) auction is far less competitive than Google Ads. This is due to fewer advertisers bidding for ads on Microsoft Advertising’s network. Thus, clicks are cheaper, which means you can get more for your money as an advertiser.
• The average cost-per-click (CPC) on Microsoft Advertising can be up to 70 percent lower compared to Google Ads. In the automotive industry, CPCs are 32.5 percent lower with Microsoft Advertising than Google Ads.
• Microsoft Advertising offers more granular targeting at the ad group level.
• Microsoft Advertising enables advertisers to assign different ad campaigns to different time zones. Google Ads doesn’t have this capability.
• Microsoft advertisers can target specific audiences based on their device type and operating system. Google Ads can’t do this either.
• Microsoft Advertising gives you the option not to display campaign ads on desktop when targeting mobile users.

It’s also worth mentioning that Yahoo! and MSN each offer financial reporting. Because of this,  Microsoft Advertising ads tend to have higher retail search vertical click-through-rates (CTRs) than ones on Google Ads.

Yahoo! and MSN ads in retail search verticals also reach highly-interested prospects, receive more engagement, conversions and have higher CTRs than Google Ads.

Specifically, in retail automotive, Microsoft Network users who click PPC ads tend to be more engaged with the sites and landing pages they’re sent to after a click. In fact, Microsoft Network users convert at 10 percent to 56 percent higher rates than Google Ads.

In summary, Microsoft Advertising is generally cheaper than Google Ads, with its Network’s searchers engaging more with post-click websites and landing pages. However, Google Ads still holds the edge on the volume of searches and overall reach by a considerable margin.

As we mentioned earlier, if you’re going to include Microsoft Advertising in your dealer’s marketing strategy, it’s important to continue allocating budget for Google Ads as well. Microsoft Advertising should be treated as a complementary advertising resource rather than a replacement for Google Ads.

What Microsoft Advertising services does Dealer Teamwork offer?

With Dealer Teamwork, you’ll have access to our patented omnichannel advertising & media optimization platform, known as the MPOP®.

This unique platform saves you significant time, energy and money spent merchandising your dealership’s inventory. The MPOP® does this by enabling you and your dealership to quickly create offers once and publish them to all of your digital marketing channels in real-time using just one provider.

Currently, available marketing channels include Microsoft’s Advertising Network (Bing, Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, etc.), Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and email, with more channels on the way.

Dealer Teamwork is also a Microsoft Advertising Select Channel Partner with our Account and Search Management teams being Microsoft Advertising-certified.