Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads, Microsoft adCenter and MSN adCenter) is a service that provides pay per click advertising on the Bing, Yahoo!, and DuckDuckGo search engines. As of June 2015, Bing Ads has 33% market share in the United States.
Similar to Google Ads, Microsoft Ads uses both the maximum amount an advertiser is willing to pay per click (PPC) on their ad and the advertisement’s click-through rate (CTR) to determine how frequently an advertisement is shown. This system encourages advertisers to write effective ads and to advertise only on searches which are relevant to their advertisement.
Microsoft Ads allows advertisers to target their ads by restricting their ads to a given set of demographics and by increasing their bids whenever the ad is seen by a user of a certain demographic. As of November 2006, no other PPC advertising system has a similar feature. Similarly, Microsoft Ads allows advertisers to run their ads on specific days of the week or certain times of day.
Similar to Google Ads Editor, Microsoft Ads provides a desktop tool to manage campaigns offline, called as Microsoft Ads Editor. Using this editor, you can make offline changes to your campaigns and later sync it online.
Microsoft Ads also provides APIs that can be used to manage advertising campaigns.
Step 1: Sign Up to Bing Ads
- Go to http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-au/sign-up
- Select Sign Up
Step 2: Select which option is best for you
Before we get started, let’s check that you have the right email address.
There are two ways to sign in to Bing Ads:
- Use an existing email address (if you have a business email address that you are not already using with Bing Ads). Please refer to Method A below.
- Create a new email address (if you do not want to use or do not have an existing email address that you use for work, or if you are already using it to sign in to Bing Ads). Please refer to Method B below (skip Method A).
Step 3: Import/Create Campaign
Once you have a created a Bing Ads account, create your campaign to allow your ads to go live. There are 3 ways to do so:
- Option 1: Import from Google AdWords if you have an existing AdWords account.
- Option 2: Create a New Campaign if you don’t have an AdWords account.
- Option 3: Skip this step if you would like to create a new campaign some other time.
Step 4: Go Live
One last step! Before your advertising campaigns can go live, you will need to add a form of payment. First, choose the Country/region of your billing address and your Billing options in the drop down box. Click Next and add your payment information. For more information, view How do I pay for Bing Ads?
Alternatively, you can skip this step if you would like to add your payment method at later date.
