Advertisers angered by this week’s reports of Google’s artificial inflation of auction prices (and a little auction-position manipulation to boot) might be eager to hear about any positive advertising updates from Google’s competitors.
Luckily, Microsoft delivered some new ad products earlier in Sept. that have caught our eye. In this post, I’ll describe the updates and give my take on what’s most promising (and why).
Enjoy!
There are four significant updates I’ve got my eye on. Microsoft advertisers can now:
Advertisers seeking efficiency and scale (which is pretty much all of us) should be especially intrigued by the ability to copy their top-performing RSAs to multimedia ads. Adding visuals to the most resonant RSA messages will help advertisers catch more eyes with engaging themes and verbiage.
If you haven’t yet put RSAs into play, start there! RSAs let advertisers test a range of tactics, from flexible copy themes that allow winners to emerge to rigid pinned messaging known to be effective. Use them to test themes, and try dynamic keyword insertion – we’ve seen it boost performance on our ads, especially when pinning to the first headline position.
Do I expect these changes and the Google news to shake up search market share? No. But given the evidence that Google doesn’t always have our best interests at heart, it’s always good to diversify your campaigns and platforms – just make sure the results are worth it for your brand or clients.