In our previous article “Microsoft Ads vs Google Ads: What Are the Differences?“, we delved into the main features of Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, emphasizing that they shouldn’t necessarily be seen as alternatives to each other, but simply as complementary platforms.
After exploring Google’s features in depth, we’re launching a series of publications focused exclusively on Microsoft Ads with this article.
Microsoft Ads: How to Create an Account
Going to the official Microsoft Advertising website, as a first step, the platform will ask whether to proceed with creating an account or importing existing campaigns from Google Ads or Meta Ads. Indeed, this is a great feature offered by Microsoft Ads
After clicking on Create account, you need to select your company’s location and the language of the ads.
Next, you need to enter your company’s website.
In the final step, Microsoft Advertising allows you to create the account along with a campaign or just the account (the latter is the option we recommend, as it’s best to set up an account correctly before starting).
After entering the legal information and payment method, you’ll be able to access all the features of Microsoft Ads.
The heart of this online platform is the column on the left. Here are all the main sections:
- Campaign Creation
- Campaigns: an overview of the campaigns put online.
- Conversions: section dedicated to tracking and conversion events.
- Media Library: contains all uploaded files, such as brand logos.
- Import: from here you can import campaigns directly from Google Ads, Meta Ads, Pinterest Ads, or from a file.
- Reports: like in Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising also has its section dedicated to data analysis.
- Merchant Center: specific area for brands that want to sell their products through Microsoft Ads.
- Billing
- Settings
- Tools: useful shortcut to access all the features offered by the platform.
Taking inspiration from Google Ads’ approach, Microsoft Advertising also suggests creating a campaign starting from the objective you want to pursue.
This guided approach is particularly useful for advertisers with little experience. The last available option, in fact, is Skip which allows access to all the platform’s campaigns in an advanced way.
On Microsoft Ads, there are the following types of campaigns:
- Search: these are the most used campaigns and allow you to show your text ads on sites like Microsoft Bing, AOL, Yahoo, DuckDukGo, Ecosia, and other partners. They work with the classic Google match types.
- Shopping: corresponds to the classic Shopping campaign, designed for those who sell products online through e-commerce.
- Premium Streaming: allows advertisers to have their video ads appear on premium streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Paramount, Roku, LG, Samsung, or Rakuten.
- Accommodation: ideal for hospitality structures like hotels.
- Performance Max: is the equivalent of Google’s Performance Max. It’s a type of campaign that leverages AI to achieve certain advertising objectives.
- Audience Group: interests are used to reach a specific target audience.
This article has provided an overview of how to create an account on Microsoft Ads, highlighting the main features of the platform and the different types of campaigns available. In upcoming articles, we will continue to delve into the world of Microsoft Advertising, exploring advanced strategies and best practices to optimize advertising results.
