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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

    Outbrain

    Score5 out of 10
    N/AOutbrain, headquartered in New York with offices globally, is an internationally known native advertising platform for curating and publishing content across a variety of channels and media spaces, containing editorial controls, analytics for judging impact, and related features.N/A
    Pricing
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutbrain
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutbrain
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutbrain
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Advertising
    In general, Bing Ads as an alternative to Google Ads is pretty weak. As mentioned, while it does have its use cases, many times these are limited as well. With Bing, it seems like there is always a large drop off in the quality of traffic versus advertising products, which …
    Incentivized
    Outbrain
    Chose Outbrain
    outbrain and Taboola both offer similar services. Outbrain had a larger network of quality sites where higher quality backend users were expected.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    68%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    88%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    70%
    Delivers good value for the price
    21 Answers
    86%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    65%
    Happy with the feature set
    20 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    59%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    17 Answers
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    67%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutbrain
    Ad Campaigns
    Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Microsoft Advertising and Outbrain
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    6.5
    6 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Outbrain
    -
    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 targeting5.85 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 Outbrain
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    6.6
    8 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Outbrain
    -
    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 Outbrain
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    7.3
    7 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Outbrain
    -
    Ratings
    Ad bidding7.37 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutbrain
    Small Businesses
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Amazon Advertising Sponsored Products
    Score5.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Amazon Advertising Sponsored Products
    Score5.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    AdSense
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutbrain
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (70 ratings)
    1.5
    (17 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (4 ratings)
    7.8
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (11 ratings)
    7.5
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft AdvertisingOutbrain
    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
    Outbrain
    If your client or organization is running a high volume awareness campaign, Outbrain would be a platform to diversify your mix with. Pretty low maintenance and easy to set up, you can get ads running in a few minutes. If your primary goal is conversions, there are probably better channels you can use where the targeting is a little more transparent and would likely see a higher avg conversion rate.
    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
    Outbrain
    • Website network: Outbrain provides high-quality websites in its network so that you can get a quality audience.
    • Affordable pricing: The CPC offered by Outbrain is relatively cheaper than other alternatives.
    • Content dashboard: The dashboard allows you to edit the content before publishing it on Outbrain's platform.
    Incentivized
    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
    Outbrain
    • Customer Service - Speaking to a human is nearly impossible, there is no "chat" function, and no phone number immediately available. Ultimately, I've had to email a generic CS contact and wait several days before heading back.
    • High Number of Guidelines - The number of guidelines one must meet before using Outbrain is much higher than any other ad platform I've used. Most of them are highly specific and not necessarily items that a website would have out-of-the-box.
    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
    Outbrain
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Outbrain
    The use case is very obvious, brand awareness and low cost conversions because of its reach in billions. The platform is easy to use, well sorted and defined with good click optimized algorithms and brands can use it without hesitation. If monitored well and optimized accordingly, this can prove to be one of the best advertising channels.
    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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    Outbrain
    We had an account manager assigned to us, but they really didn't offer too much help outside of the financial side of things. We used the self-serve platform with mild suggestions every few weeks from our reps amounting to "spend a bit more here."
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Outbrain
    Here at AdRizer my personal ad sources primarily revolve around Google Ads & Outbrain. Taboola is extremely similar to Outbrain minus the fact that strategies are dictated on the account level unlike by campaign with Outbrain
    Incentivized
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    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
    Outbrain
    • None. My perspective is that further testing is needed as well as additional tracking capabilities applied to be able to assess value. However, it's a CPC model and relatively inexpensive in regards to additional reach, especially if it's packaged in with an Earned media push into the marketplace.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots