Microsoft On Connecting With Audiences Across Work And Life

The advertising industry is evolving fast. Across industries and around the world, we’re seeing marketers leverage Microsoft Advertising to recover and accelerate their businesses as they adapt to a rapidly-changing environment.

Digital acceleration, new consumer behaviours and values, and expectations for privacy are requiring brands to adapt how they reach and best serve people’s needs. As a result, there has never been a more crucial time for marketers to forge deeper relationships with people.

One of the most unique ways that Microsoft Advertising can help marketers is by connecting them with audiences at the intersection of work and life. The lines have blurred between people’s professional and personal lives. As people adapted to working, shopping, and living from home, we’ve seen digital engagement evolve and accelerate across devices. For example, prior to the pandemic, e-commerce was heaviest in the evening and morning hours, before and after commuting times. Since the pandemic we’ve seen shopping behaviours expand across a 12-hour period throughout the day. Consumers are ready to act at any time. And the behaviour is not reverting, as these trends appear here to stay.

Microsoft Advertising helps marketers reach people as they navigate between personal and professional task completion throughout their day. From Microsoft Bing to Edge to Microsoft News (MSN) to Outlook.com, marketers can be there in the moments that matter. At the heart of it all is Windows, and the 1.3 billion Windows devices that people rely on monthly to get their most important tasks done across work and life.¹ Windows usage has surged to more than 4 trillion minutes a month.¹ Windows users make up the majority of people that marketers can reach across the Microsoft Search Network and Microsoft Audience Network, and Microsoft Advertising is the most efficient place for marketers to reach them due to our audience makeup and the exclusive placements we offer.

The Windows audience on Microsoft Advertising:

• Purchasing power — Windows audiences on the Microsoft Advertising Network have a higher buying power index compared to the total internet population. The Microsoft Audience Network generates 9 million unique monthly searches² across devices via high-quality, brand-safe native ad placements, including Microsoft Edge, Outlook.com, MSN, and select partners.
• Propensity to purchase — Windows users spend 120% more online than the average internet user (BPI 220)³ and have a greater propensity to purchase online.⁴ Extending that example, Windows users are also more likely to engage with advertising to discover new products.⁵

In addition to a highly relevant audience for marketers, Microsoft Advertising provides access through unique and exclusive placements, including the Windows search task bar and Microsoft Edge default tabs. These placements not only foster high-quality engagement along the consumer decision journey, but also position marketers to connect with people in a meaningful context — before they might even go to any specific website. As we look forward, we’re making investments to continue to bring marketers new innovations and opportunities.

Microsoft Bing in the Windows search taskbar

Microsoft Audience Network on Edge new tab page

If audience quality matters, then context also matters. In an area that’s being defined, and redefined, by privacy expectations, Microsoft Advertising provides marketers access to rich audience intelligence through Microsoft consumer datasets — which consist of billions of signals, including LinkedIn data — so they can deliver more personalised experiences using privacy-centric tools in brand-safe environments. In addition, marketers can enrich their own first-party data with Microsoft audience intelligence to uncover new opportunities using Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and target audiences directly on the Microsoft Advertising Network using Customer Match, activate across a myriad of marketing channels, or scale through the Microsoft Advertising platform targeting capabilities.

We’re entering an era where relationships and partnerships are both becoming increasingly critical and yet must be sealed by trust and authenticity. Our approach to partnership is about providing access to audiences that can help grow our clients’ business, and multi-channel solutions and insights that empower marketers to leverage their most valuable assets to improve their bottom line — not ours.

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By John Cosley, SENIOR DIRECTOR, MICROSOFT ADVERTISING PRODUCT MARKETING 

References:

1 – Microsoft Internal Data

2 – comScore qSearch, Explicit Core Search (custom), AU, March 2021. The Microsoft Search Network includes Microsoft sites, Yahoo sites (searches powered by Bing) and AOL sites in AU. Data represents desktop traffic only.

3 – ComScore March 2021

4 – Global World Index (GWI) Q4 2020;

5 – Microsoft Internal data