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Intelligent automation: The secret to an advertising executive’s success and happiness

A mother and her daughter are working and learning remotely in their living room. The daughter is showing her mother Minecraft: Education Edition displayed on an HP Probook x360 G5 in tablet mode.
Automation can be daunting. Some may anticipate a future when machines are behind desks, there’s a lack of trust with algorithms, and let’s face it—in a world where we hear about a new, more infectious COVID-19 variant—there’s not much we can control.
 
However, our lives seem to have gotten busier, and automation is a tool that can help us. At work, how often do we deprioritize the most creative and strategic work that will transform our businesses because our teams are spending countless hours manually getting things done? At home, we could all use some personal time back to focus on what matters most — to read our favorite book, spend it with our family, or simply get on our Peloton exercise bike.
 
Is that possible? We are here to share our secret sauce to getting time back while improving your return on investment (ROI). Let’s start by looking at some of the industry leaders who have used Microsoft Advertising intelligent and automated products to their advantage.

Customer success through automation

British Gas:
  • After discovering Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), British Gas was able to refocus on high-impact projects and improve account performance.​
  • They saw a 44% increase in click-through rate (CTR) and got two hours back weekly, which used to be spent on manual optimization, to work on other projects​.
Lesfurets:
  • Upon implementing Enhanced Cost Per Click (eCPC) and Target Cost Per Acquisition (tCPA), Lesfurets drove a 182% increase in conversions year over year.
  • They were able to create a “’big impact on revenue for relatively little effort’” after giving the sophisticated bidding algorithms time to learn and optimize towards their goals.

Saving time through intelligent automation

Automation, especially combined with artificial intelligence (AI), can save you time. While automation by itself can assist in completing tasks, especially those that are repetitive, intelligence elevates automation. It learns from completing tasks influenced by the infrastructures you design, and real-time auction signals to automatically adjust along the way.

It can:
  • Save you time so you can focus on growing your business​
  • Focus on your most creative, high-impact, and strategic work by letting automated solutions assist with tactical and repetitive tasks​
  • Adjust swiftly with marketplace dynamics​ that are seasonally, or lately COVID-19 driven
Keeping up with dynamics like consumer behavior changes and competitive insights is done best with the infusion of intelligence and automation.​ Combine it with your expertise​: The “secret sauce” of real-time responsiveness can boost the groundwork (for example, bids and ad copy) you set.

How can you tap into intelligence and automation with Microsoft Advertising? Through Automated bidding and intelligent campaign designs. Below are some solutions that put brand safety and privacy at the center while helping you maximize ROI and business impact​!

Activate intelligent bidding and campaign designs today

Intelligent bidding
 
  • Enhanced manual bidding:
    • Optimize all the manual keyword bids you set towards driving more conversions and better ROI with user and query context signals, which help identify quality traffic in each auction.
    • By the end of April 2021, the new baseline for bidding will be Enhanced CPC (eCPC), or you may choose from the growing suite of automated bidding features.
  • New! Target impression share pilot:
    • As an expansion to automated bidding, target impression share automatically optimizes bids at auction time with the goals of showing your ads on absolute top of the page (the very first ad that appears on the first search results page), top of the page (in the first set of ads that appear on the first search results page), or anywhere on the page (in any position on the first search results page).
    • This will enable your brand to get premium visibility both during sustained and/or promotion periods, get competitive advantage using real-time signals, and increase your likelihood for more clicks and conversions.
    • We are focused on getting performance data on this closed pilot and hope to release it to everyone in the near future.
  • Coming soon! Portfolio bidding pilot:
    • You’ll soon be able to organize your automated bidding strategies more efficiently by assigning different campaigns within an account to share strategies.
    • This new technique will help you better optimize your campaigns collectively towards your performance goals.

Intelligent campaign design

 
  • New! Smart Campaigns (United States, United Kingdom):​
    • Smart Campaigns are the latest AI-powered feature for small businesses. They provide a simple, efficient, and easy way to get started with advertising and run campaigns on the Microsoft Search Network.
    • You can expand your reach and connect with a high-value audience with access to searchers on Microsoft Bing, MSN, Yahoo, AOL.com, and more sites powered by Microsoft Bing.
    • Get set up in a matter of minutes and watch while Smart Campaigns work to improve your ads, measure their performance, and show you clear, understandable results.
    • Save money by self-managing your online spend, and boost your ad performance.  The AI built into Smart Campaigns helps you get the best ROI by delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.
  • Responsive Search Ads (RSAs):
    • Ad copy is optimized to be the most relevant to what someone is searching for, when they search for it. Recommendations in your account will help you create new RSAs quickly based on your existing assets and AI-driven suggestions.
    • A/B ad copy testing is not necessary when using RSAs, as optimal combinations are served towards driving the highest quality traffic to your site.
    • From recent aggregate data across all advertisers who have added RSAs to their ad copy mix, there has been an average 14% increase in conversions and clicks, complemented by a 2% increase in conversion rate (CVR), with a consistent cost per acquisition (CPA).
    • Pro tip: Combine your ideal automated bidding strategy with RSAs to accelerate campaign performance improvements.
When someone asks you what your secret is to happiness and success, are you going to share that using intelligent and automated solutions from Microsoft Advertising enables you to work smarter, save time, and drive optimal results? Automated intelligence. But we’ll never tell.