Just as we got used to calling AdWords Google Ads, another major company in the marketing world has changed the name of their ad platform. Bing Ads, formally Microsoft adCenter, has rebranded to Microsoft Advertising. Rik van der Kooi, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Advertising, announced that the change of name is largely because their clients and partners already know them as Microsoft. “…it’s no longer just reaching more people that matters to growing your brand. It’s about making each connection feel one-to-one, at just the right time and place.”
What’s Staying the Same?
Although Bing Ads is undergoing a major brand change into Microsoft Advertising, the Bing brand will still be present. With Bing reaching major milestones including half a million advertisers, more than half a billion consumers and becoming the exclusive search advertising provider of Verizon Media Properties, Bing search engine will stay as is.
Another thing that will not be changing: consumer privacy. The rebrand focuses on introducing more products with built-in AI for personalization. These features can bring issues when it comes to the consumer’s privacy, which Bing is known for being adamant on protecting.
What’s Changing with Microsoft Advertising?
Bing Ads will now be known as Microsoft Advertising. This will be the first step in introducing new features that focus on personalization through AI. Marketers will still use this platform to access users on Bing, MSN, AOL and other sites powered by Bing. Their partner program is also changing to Microsoft Advertising Partner Program, to create unison between platforms.
What Does This Mean for the Future?
The announcement promised to bring more marketing products with built-in AI, which we have already been introduced to in the last year. Microsoft Audience Network, an audience marketing solution, was announced last May and uses AI, user intent and user profile data to match a person’s needs to advertiser’s offerings. The program claims to always be learning and adapting to provide better results and ROI. In van der Kooi’s recent blog post, he announced Microsoft Audience Network product enhancements including viewable impressions, image upload and management tool updates, as well as expanding the audience to Canada and the UK later this year.
Microsoft Advertising has also made large leaps in their shopping offers for both consumers and marketers, their newest tool being Sponsored Products.The tool allows two partners, typically manufacturers and retailers, to share the cost of advertising to boost visibility and drive product sales. This new feature gives manufacturers the opportunity to drive more traffic to their top products with access to new reporting and optimization capabilities, while retailers get more marketing support at a fair price. Microsoft says that this feature will increase clicks, conversions and ROI. Sponsored Products is still in the beta stage, and currently only available in the US.
The change to Microsoft Advertising should not be a shock as other platforms from the company have changed their names to Microsoft such as Microsoft News. With all the new products that will be launching in the upcoming year, we are looking forward to see what Microsoft Advertising will become.