Microsoft Advertising and Advertiser Experience

At a time where Facebook is looking less attractive for advertising purposes (just blame Apple!), Microsoft is doing everything it can to entice marketers to use its own advertising platform. Not only is the advertising platform improving itself, but there’s also now integration between the customer data platform, Dynamics 365, and Advertising. Whether you’re a Microsoft advertiser or looking for alternatives after the iOS 14 update, the timing of the new integration is certainly an interesting one from Microsoft.

New Integration Opportunities

So, there’s now integration between Microsoft Advertising and Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. But what does this mean? For one thing, you can use your customer segments developed in Dynamics 365 in Microsoft Advertising. In simpler terms, you’re bringing the customer segments into the Audience Network and Search Network for improved targeting.

If you already use the Dynamics 365 Customer Insights platform, this integration is great news, and it could save your marketing team a decent amount of time. Lots has been said about Facebook and the loss of data, but this integration means an improvement in first-party data. The whole process is unified and sits under one roof rather than the silos that we had before.

Microsoft believes that this is the best way to deal with the phasing out of cookies. First-party data is necessary for delivering personalized ad experiences. In the past, we built our audiences on third-party platforms, but recent history tells us that this solution lacks stability.

The company also said as part of the announcement that the integration helps businesses to scale their advertising efforts in the long term. As the business grows, all the important information is in one place and it’s easier to target the customers most likely to convert.

Naturally, it’s also easier to use audience segments across not only Microsoft Advertising but also all other destinations. With no simple integration, we’re reluctant to continually update the audience manually. Now, the integration takes place in seconds and segments are always up to date. Ultimately, this should lead to increased ROAS (return on ad spend) and ROI (return on investment).

More on Microsoft here: Microsoft’s Fresh Advertising Uses That Will Help Your Company

Benefits of Microsoft Integration

As an example of how this integration could work, Microsoft presented the idea of a business with both an online website and a physical store. Currently, you’re managing both entities separately. However, it’s now possible to combine the two worlds using Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. Suddenly, all data is held in one place. Whether it’s generated by the physical store or the website, it’s in the same place to improve customer understanding. The better our customer understanding, the more information we have to fuel customer interactions and resonate with the very people who keep the business going.

Then, you can use this information on Microsoft Advertising. With all data unified, you’ll create segments and reach out to them using the advertising platform on Microsoft. Of course, you’re also free to move this data to various other platforms. Let’s say that you want to use the customer segments in an email marketing campaign on MailChimp. Alternatively, it might be Autopilot, Marketo, dotdigital, or another platform entirely.

As you combine data, you can reach out to people who have visited your physical store and bought products without visiting your website. Especially if you have a more extensive product selection online, you could make them aware and prevent losing them to an online competitor.

Elsewhere, we can see companies targeting those who bought from the service before then returning the product. Otherwise, you might want to reach out to people who buy one product regularly but could have an interest in others.

After a year like 2020, you can even use this new integration to boost your revenue and curate return customers. Let’s say that you have a group of customers who regularly buy a particular brand from your store. Get them all into a marketing campaign in Microsoft Advertising and encourage them to buy again.

We know that some people reading this guide are interested in Microsoft Advertising because of everything happening elsewhere in the advertising world right now. Thankfully, the good news is that Microsoft ads are seen right across the brand’s extensive list of products. This includes:

• Bing
• Outlook
• Microsoft News
• DuckDuckGo
• Verizon Media

According to Microsoft, the total potential audience is 500 million strong and it’s an engaged audience of that size. As well as being more confident in purchasing products, Microsoft says that the audience spends more time online while also including people not available on Google. 38% of all searches are done across the Microsoft Advertising Network.

Improvement to Customer Match

One of the reasons Microsoft’s improvements have been getting so much attention is also partly due to the changes to the Customer Match system. Originally, Customer Match was in a testing phase, and this meant that it was only available in the United States. Now, it has been released to more countries. The only regions not able to access Customer Match are China, the EU, and the UK.

For those who have stayed away from Customer Match or didn’t utilize the tool during the open beta, the feature is now available to all users.

What’s Customer Match?

Let’s take a step backward because we appreciate that not everybody is hot on the Microsoft Advertising system. Essentially, the whole process is designed to allow businesses to target customers using first-party data. For example, you can use Customer Match to reach out to people who have provided their email addresses to you.

Using a Customer Match list, you can implement a campaign either on the Audience Network or the Search Network. Either way, you’re leading more accurate ad campaigns and, hopefully, generating stronger results. Results vary based on numerous factors, but Microsoft suggests a lower CPA by up to 44% in addition to a higher conversion rate of up to 120%.

Ultimately, the Customer Match lists you produce all depend on your goals with individual campaigns. For example, you might create Customer Match lists based on newsletter subscribers, recent customers, prospective leads, or loyalty programs. You can use these lists to improve performance, upsell, cross-sell, or build brand awareness. Some advertisers even use these lists to exclude them from marketing campaigns. Naturally, this ensures that all ads are seen by fresh customers rather than those who have already converted.

Bringing Everything Together

If you want to enjoy everything we’ve discussed in this guide, it all starts inside Dynamics 365 Customer Insights as you generate customer segments. With the new integration between this tool and Microsoft Advertising, moving segments across from one to the other couldn’t be easier. Even if you have no Microsoft Advertising experience, we don’t foresee any problems for you.

Now, you’re ready to target this customer list in a way that suits your needs. As well as on Microsoft Advertising, you can use these segments on Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and many other platforms (now you’re starting to see why this information is so important!). With all the problems that Facebook has experienced recently, Microsoft Advertising could be a way around the iOS 14 update.

Over time, it’s clear that the industry has been attempting to move away from third-party data. Some browsers are working on solutions to replace third-party cookies and iOS 14 allows consumers to stop tracking with just one tap. As an advertiser, a proactive approach is recommended in this new environment. Rather than waiting for others to compile data on your behalf, take control of the process and start building your own first-party data.

If we’ve learned anything about the battle between Facebook and Apple, it’s that we need to find new ways to reach audiences. We can’t rely on the systems of old, and we can’t rely on third-party data always providing an option. With first-party data, you’re in control and you can resonate with the audience without worrying about what happens in the world of third-party data, a world in which you have no control.

With Microsoft integration and improvements to Customer Match, you aren’t at the mercy of other companies and their whims. Instead, you have all the essential data inside your business’ dashboard. You create ad campaigns that resonate, cross-sell, up-sell, build brand awareness, and create campaigns with your audience excluded too (if you want to find new leads).

The fact that you can export segments from Microsoft and use them on Google and Facebook adds a new dimension to the advertising niche. We recommend researching the solution some more for all advertisers because it could be what you need moving forward. Rather than just exporting each time, it’s also worth considering advertising on the Microsoft family of services itself.