Bathroom photo showcasing Build with Ferguson products.
Build focused on three digital advertising products with Microsoft Advertising to maximize their online reach: Microsoft Advertising Syndication, Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), and the Microsoft Audience Network. Their strategy produced impressive results, as the company saw a 70% increase in click volume with Microsoft Advertising from 2019 to 2020, with these three products as key drivers of that growth.
“Syndication allows us to expand our reach to other websites,” Vipperman says. “We can then keep our message constantly in front of our customers, which is huge for us.”
The success Build achieved on Microsoft Advertising Syndication convinced them to aggressively try to capture even better results. “We’re still early in our use of Syndication, and we’re definitely expanding it right now. Everything we’ve seen so far has justified the expansion,” Thurman says.
In addition to using syndicated paid search, Build also leveraged Dynamic Search Ads to ensure they serve ads on every possible user query, even when they do not have keywords built out to cover certain products. Their DSA performance has been just as efficient as the rest of their program, and as time goes on, Microsoft’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) continues to improve and help Build showcase as much of their massive inventory as possible.
Kitchen photo showcasing Build with Ferguson products.
“We have insight into what our customers are actually looking for and we're able to match their searches with a relevant ad even if we don't bid on the exact keyword they’re using,” Vipperman says. “I think that's the biggest value of that product.”
The company was also one of the first advertisers to utilize the Microsoft Audience Network, which identifies a potential customer’s intent and dynamically serves a native ad, either image or feed-based, across various Microsoft properties such as MSN, Outlook, and Edge. Powered by Microsoft’s AI and machine learning, the Build team says the Microsoft Audience Network routinely outperforms other display platforms in terms of efficiency, relevance, and brand safety. That leads to more engagement and has been a tremendously efficient format to drive both upper and lower funnel customers to Build with Ferguson.
Using these three Microsoft Advertising products has helped ensure that Build reaches a broader audience of both new and existing customers, providing a boost to Build’s traffic and efficiency. “It’s exciting to see that we can specifically target to the people who are more relevant to our business. We’re increasing our efficiency, our targeted ads, and making sure that we’re getting in front of the right people,” Vipperman says.