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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

    SpyFu

    Score7 out of 10
    N/ASpyFu is the eponymous SEO and PPC research platform from the company in Scottsdale, Arizona focused on "spying" on competitors, or basically using their behaviors to refine your own through keyword and content analysis, and backlink poaching. This positional search engine optimization and paid listings management platform touts the ability to lower costs and raise rankings via a Kombat-oriented approach... basically a cute way of saying "it makes comparisons" of how well your site does in niche…

    $39

    per month

    Pricing
    Microsoft AdvertisingSpyFu
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Basic
    $39
    per month
    Professional
    $79
    per month
    Team
    $299
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft AdvertisingSpyFu
    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 AdvertisingSpyFu
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Advertising
    Bing Ads works similarly to Google Ads (Formerly AdWords) in the fact that it is search engine marketing. It differs in how it reaches a slightly more educated audience, has lower CPC (less competition) and often a better ROI. "Green technologies", solar, wind, etc. work …
    Incentivized
    SpyFu
    Chose SpyFu
    When it comes to assessing the competition, SpyFu is fantastic. I prefer its competitor analysis features much more than SEMRush or any other platform out there. That is what I use SpyFu for. Regarding reporting and integrations, it doesn't quite seem like it's the best option …
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    It is comparable with SEMRush and others
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    I've only used SpyFu.
    Incentivized
    Chose SpyFu
    There aren't a whole bunch of companies that does what spyfu does well. I believe Spyfu also has the cheapest paid version of the lot
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    68%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    28 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    70%
    Delivers good value for the price
    21 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    27 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    65%
    Happy with the feature set
    20 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    29 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    59%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    17 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    67%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    22 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft AdvertisingSpyFu
    Ad Campaigns
    Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Microsoft Advertising and SpyFu
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    6.5
    6 Ratings
    0% above category average
    SpyFu
    -
    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 SpyFu
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    6.6
    8 Ratings
    4% below category average
    SpyFu
    -
    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 SpyFu
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    7.3
    7 Ratings
    14% below category average
    SpyFu
    -
    Ratings
    Ad bidding7.37 Ratings00 Ratings
    SEO
    Comparison of SEO features of Microsoft Advertising and SpyFu
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    -
    Ratings
    SpyFu
    6.6
    52 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Keyword analysis00 Ratings7.052 Ratings
    Backlink management00 Ratings6.040 Ratings
    SERP ranking tracking00 Ratings6.044 Ratings
    Page grader00 Ratings7.829 Ratings
    Competitive analysis00 Ratings7.051 Ratings
    Site audit / diagnostics00 Ratings7.232 Ratings
    Site recommendations00 Ratings6.031 Ratings
    Task management00 Ratings6.120 Ratings
    SEO Channels
    Comparison of SEO Channels features of Microsoft Advertising and SpyFu
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    -
    Ratings
    SpyFu
    5.8
    39 Ratings
    27% below category average
    Local SEO00 Ratings5.033 Ratings
    Social SEO00 Ratings5.028 Ratings
    Mobile SEO00 Ratings8.029 Ratings
    Global SEO00 Ratings5.035 Ratings
    SEO Platform & Account Management
    Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Microsoft Advertising and SpyFu
    Feature
    Microsoft Advertising
    -
    Ratings
    SpyFu
    7.2
    28 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Multi-domain support00 Ratings6.028 Ratings
    Integration with web analytics tools00 Ratings8.518 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft AdvertisingSpyFu
    Small Businesses
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Serpstat
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    WordStream
    Score6.9 out of 10
    Yoast
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Google Trends
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft AdvertisingSpyFu
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.4
    (70 ratings)
    7.0
    (62 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (10 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (4 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (11 ratings)
    7.6
    (13 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft AdvertisingSpyFu
    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
    SpyFu
    If you have a Google ads PPC campaign and then I would say this is more or less essential if you want to know what your competitors are doing. You can get very useful data out of it even if you subscribe for one month. And the pricing is very reasonable. Even if you don't use Google ads, I would say this is still useful for your SEO/SMO team since it gives you a great idea of what keywords and traffic your competitors are working on.
    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
    SpyFu
    • Keeping a tab on competitors organic and inorganic activities
    • Helps identify where the competitor is getting the backlinks from.
    • Identify competitors top content and the keywords that's bringing them traffic
    • Get proper information of their current and past ADS run on Google.
    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
    SpyFu
    • As with any database, their keyword database has limits, so the data returned is relative to their database, not necessarily the full picture.
    • When SpyFu database or scoring chances, the data provided can spike, thus causing confusion among stakeholders, we're reporting to.
    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
    SpyFu
    Love this tool but would like insights from all 3 major search engines not just Google. I would also like deeper understanding of the placement for local businesses on Google Places/Maps. Insight into mobile search rankings and best landing pages per industry would also help :) Overall, SpyFu is a necessity for serious search marketers.
    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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    SpyFu
    SpyFu is an easy to use tool, and has a self -explanatroy dashborad to generate the data needed to provide insights into any B2B SEO and PPC campaign. It is not comprehensive, but it certainly provides good enough insight to make it a valuable part of any agency tool stack
    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
    Read full review
    SpyFu
    SpyFu comes with a link to tutorial videos. I recommend you watch them. The software is capable of so much you really need to watch the videos and learn how to get the most out of it. When I have a question 90% of the time it's there. When it isn't, and I reach out to them, support is always quick and concise.
    Incentivized
    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
    SpyFu
    I was surprised to find I preferred Semrush when it comes to keyword research. SpyFu is great (and less expensive than Semrush), but I felt the data Semrush provided was vaster than SpyFu. I was able to get more competitors spending insights in Semrush than SpyFu. Overall, I liked the ability to use both in our keyword research for both paid and organic marketing.
    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
    SpyFu
    • Helping us track our ranking.
    • It helps solve the problem of ambiguity when it comes to Google Ads. It makes the strategy more clear.
    • You can sift through lots of different online analytics to find the information, but it takes way too long. SpyFu has it all in one place!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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