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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Advertising

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) contains Microsoft's advertising solutions. Advertising formats include search (Microsoft Search ads), Display and Native ads, Retail Media, and Video and Connected TV (CTV) ads. Services include Performance Max, the company's conversion optimization AI assistant and guide.N/A

    OutboundEngine

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AOutboundEngine provides a hands-off way for small business owners to market and grow their business. The product aims to provide small businesses with what big companies have achieved with marketing automation. The service aims to help users keep in touch with clients and prospects with professionally designed, branded campaigns. Benefits include: driving engagement, surfacing warm leads from current contacts, generating referrals and repeat business from their existing contacts, social…

    $199

    per user

    Pricing
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutboundEngine
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Essential
    $199
    per user
    Value
    $299
    per user
    Premium
    $499
    per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutboundEngine
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$99 per user
    Additional Details—More information is available on the vendor's website.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutboundEngine
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Elm Street Technology
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    68%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    75%
    Would buy again
    42 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    70%
    Delivers good value for the price
    21 Answers
    75%
    Delivers good value for the price
    38 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    65%
    Happy with the feature set
    20 Answers
    75%
    Happy with the feature set
    42 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    59%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    17 Answers
    67%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    37 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    67%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    47 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutboundEngine
    Ad Campaigns
    Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Microsoft Advertising and OutboundEngine
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    6.5
    6 Ratings
    0% above category average
    OutboundEngine
    -
    Ratings
    Ad campaign creation8.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad deployment8.36 Ratings00 Ratings
    Display advertising6.46 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad display and retargeting segmentation6.46 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sequence targeting5.95 Ratings00 Ratings
    Contextual advertising5.56 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social advertising4.95 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Microsoft Advertising and OutboundEngine
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    6.6
    8 Ratings
    4% below category average
    OutboundEngine
    -
    Ratings
    Ad dashboards6.28 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad performance reports6.87 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad conversion tracking7.36 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad attribution reporting7.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad forecasting and optimization5.85 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad Auctions
    Comparison of Ad Auctions features of Microsoft Advertising and OutboundEngine
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    7.3
    7 Ratings
    14% below category average
    OutboundEngine
    -
    Ratings
    Ad bidding7.37 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Microsoft Advertising and OutboundEngine
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    -
    Ratings
    OutboundEngine
    5.9
    50 Ratings
    21% below category average
    Mobile optimization00 Ratings8.643 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings3.050 Ratings
    List management00 Ratings6.044 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of Microsoft Advertising and OutboundEngine
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    -
    Ratings
    OutboundEngine
    5.3
    38 Ratings
    23% below category average
    Automated sales alerts and tasks00 Ratings5.338 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Microsoft Advertising and OutboundEngine
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    -
    Ratings
    OutboundEngine
    10.0
    48 Ratings
    36% above category average
    Social sharing and campaigns00 Ratings10.048 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutboundEngine
    Small Businesses
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    HighLevel
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    LocaliQ
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutboundEngine
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (70 ratings)
    10.0
    (61 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (4 ratings)
    7.6
    (7 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (27 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (11 ratings)
    7.9
    (24 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutboundEngine
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Despite using our account for advertising with every other social media company, Microsoft flagged ours as fraudulent. After dealing with them for weeks, we finally got to a manager, who said that they didn’t know anything, couldn’t provide any information, and was unable to do anything about it. It seems odd, but it would flagger account every time we try to upload the campaigns from Google directly into their ad manager. I would suggest if you try and use their platform, don’t tell them you’re using Google cause they seem to have a thing against it. Once your account is flagged, they have no reasonable way of resolving it, nor they are able to offer any support. You’re better off to just try a different way. Ultimately, just don’t use Microsoft advertising if you can possibly avoid it. Hopefully soon DuckDuckGo will have their own advertising platform and we can eliminate Microsoft given the terrible time we have working with this one of many, social media platforms.
    Read full review
    Elm Street Technology
    OutboundEngine does a referral campaign and I've been able to close a couple of deals based on getting in touch with people who engage with this campaign and state they could use my services in the next 6 months. This is a great follow up tool for those you may or may not know are going to be needing your services.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Familiar interface, offers editor for bulk changes, adding negative keywords is much easier than in Google Ads
    • Nice reporting tools within the interface, detailed reports can be made fairly easily
    • Had very nice tools to help import/export ads directly from Google Ads, which saves a ton of time
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Elm Street Technology
    • The content that they generate to send to our clients is relevant and the clients want to engage with us. It makes us appear more professional and consistent, even though we are a smaller company.
    • It helps us stay in touch with clients and helps us stay top of mind. We are able to generate more new business leads if we are in consistent contact with current, former, and potential clients.
    • Their customer service and support is outstanding. All my questions were answered and I went into the program feeling confident and knowledgeable.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • Bing's ad platform could definitely use some improvements - it hasn't been updated in a long time, and it feels very outdated.
    • We feel that the optimization algorithms don't always perform as well for Bing Ads as they do in Google Ads (optimize for conversions, etc.).
    • It would be great to have even more integrations with LinkedIn audience targeting offered - right now, you can just make some bid optimizations in a couple of areas; we'd really like to get more robust options there, and maybe even things like cross-platform tracking.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Elm Street Technology
    • I do not like the use of drawings to attract new customers, and they have ignored my requests to eliminate that for my personal emails.
    • I do not like it when a competitor in my immediate market has the same posts. It cheapens the service or makes it appear that I am simply sharing another's post.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    We have had good success with it over all of our clients. We continually recommend bing to reach "the rest of the searchers".
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Elm Street Technology
    The biggest issue is poor ROI. The second biggest issue is rigid customer service process, lack of a sense of urgency, and inability to reach out to upper management with issues.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    It's very easy to use overall. It has an import from Google Ads to make things simpler. Overall, I would say you can get up and running very quickly. It's similar to other platforms, so if you have used them, it's intuitive.
    Incentivized
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    Elm Street Technology
    Overall, OutboundEngine is very user friendly. It is simple to set up and explore, and if there are any issues or questions, the customer service team and account managers are always available to help. They are very knowledgeable and were able to explain everything in detail to me. The program is easy to navigate and helps me stay organized, and an uncomplicated and straightforward solution was exactly what I was looking for
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Elm Street Technology
    I haven't had to contact Outbound Engine because I haven't had any application errors or unplanned outages. I basically have had such a trouble free experience with them that I haven't had to call. Everything is automated and I get a notice to review every isse. I suppose if I personalized the newsletter a bit more and added some of my own articles, I would need to contact them, (which I should really start to do) but so far things have been so on point, I haven't felt the need.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    Our Bing Ads reps are very good and attentive. They've offered good recommendations and are quick to resolve unexpected issues and problems. Occasionally they have roped in technical support folks that have been friendly and helpful too. The general helpline for Bing Ads is also very good, especially when compared to Google's customer support.
    Incentivized
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    Elm Street Technology
    The customer service was excellent! Everyone I spoke to was kind and knowledgeable. My account manager was easily reachable. Setup of the OutboundEngine program was explained really thoroughly, and we knew how we could best use the product to meet the needs of our clients and get our online and social media presence off the ground.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Obviously Google is a huge competitor. Typically Google is top of the game for many advertising solutions including search. Microsoft ads has a lower scale and reach compared to Google. However, Microsoft ads audience does not overlap much with Googles, providing incremental reach. Although Microsoft ads lags a bit behind in adapting the new updates that Google comes out with, their customer service is very good and they are likely to go out of their way to adapt their platform to your needs whereas their competitor does not
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Elm Street Technology
    I selected it for the ability to have an automated system do 3 things all at once, social media posts, emails and the instant communication with the chat box. I have never seen a chat come through that lead to a helpful client touchpoint. I have never used another product but have since begun to weigh some of the less expensive options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • We've had a very hard time spending our budgets on Bing which has caused us a lot of extra work on our end. We've essentially had to move that money back to Google or other platforms.
    • It does have an easy import from Google so you're not doubling efforts.
    • The CPCs tend to be less expensive than Google - which is always good for business owners.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Elm Street Technology
    • One client identified how one article I sent that he read saved him from having to replace his entire AC system.
    • One client actually thought I was sending this to him personally because I valued him
    • One of the above transacted with me twice for over $3M in sales
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    OutboundEngine Screenshots

    Screenshot of Automated Social Media MarketingScreenshot of A personalized snapshot of your account activity and warmest leads.Screenshot of Personally designed, tested, and automated emails