blog post

The 10 Most Common Microsoft Ads KPIs to Uplift Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Florian Cabirol
October 24, 2023
| Lastest update
November 6, 2023
The 10 Most Common Microsoft Ads KPIs to Uplift Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Quick steps to create a Microsoft Ads report with Google Sheets:

You can easiliy create a Microsoft Ads report following this step :

  1. Get informations from the data integration from our Microsoft Ads connector.
  2. Create a source on catchr.io.
  3. Download our Google Sheets extensions.
  4. Configure and run your request
If you need more informations, you can follow the tutorial.

How to install Google Sheets Catchr Add-on.

To start exporting your Microsoft Ads data to Google Sheets, you need to install the Catchr add-on. You currently have two options :

Option A: Via the marketplace:

  1. Visit the Catchr Add-on page on the Google Workspace Marketplace and click "Install."
  2. Grant the necessary permissions for the add-on.
  3. Upon successful installation, open a Google Sheets to proceed.
Connect Google Sheet to Facebook Ads
Install Catchr Google Sheets Add-on

Option B: Directly within a Google Sheets:

  1. Open a new Google Sheets.
  2. In the top menu, click "Extensions", then hover over "Add-ons" and select "Get add-ons."
  3. Search for "Catchr" and choose "Catchr - data connector."
  4. Click "Install" and grant the required permissions.
  5. Close the installation pop-up when completed.
  6. Start using the Catchr add-on.
Install Catchr Add-on for Google Sheets
Install Catchr Add-on for Google Sheets

Once you have installed the add-on, you can start making requests.

The tutorial

Quick steps to create a Microsoft Ads report with Looker Studio:

You can easiliy create a Microsoft Ads report following this step :

  1. Get informations from the data integration from our Microsoft Ads connector.
  2. Create a datasource and new report on Looker Studio.
  3. Choose your metrics and dimensions.
  4. Use charts with your metrics and dimensions.
If you need more informations, you can follow the tutorial. You can also find a template for Microsoft Ads at the end of the page.

The tutorial

Quick steps to create a Microsoft Ads report with PowerBI:

You can easiliy create a Microsoft Ads report following this step :

  1. Get informations from the data integration from our Microsoft Ads connector.
  2. Create a source on catchr.io.
  3. Configure your request on the PowerBI request manager.
  4. Copy the given URL in PowerBI
If you need more informations, you can follow the tutorial. You can also find a template for Microsoft Ads at the end of the page.

The tutorial

Microsoft’s consumer base is massive, with over 270 million users around the globe. This statistic reveals the immense value of the platform for advertising your businesses with maximum revenue. However, carefully monitoring the progress is essential to measure how your ads are doing online to make adjustments accordingly.

That’s where you can rely on Microsoft ads KPIs. They let you estimate the success rate of your marketing campaigns so you can enhance your efforts and make the best of your investments. So, we have come up with the 10 most common Microsoft Ads KPIs you should know to uplift your marketing strategy. 

Microsoft Ads KPIs

KPIs are reliable and quantifiable figures to measure the success of your digital marketing efforts. They play a crucial role in boosting your business. That’s why measuring these Microsoft ads KPIs is at the heart of the matter. 

Below are some common examples:

  1. Website traffic to assess the value of your content
  2. Cash flow rate to measure the effectiveness of your budget
  3. Organic search results or SEO rankings to evaluate your brand awareness
  4. Lead generations to keep track of new customers
  5. Return on ad spend and return on investment to see whether your revenue is generating value

Microsoft suggests creating SMART Goals to define your KPIs. You can read more about this strategy in the following section to ensure that your digital marketing strategy is aligned well with your business goals.

Track Your Paid Digital Marketing with the 10 Most Common Microsoft Ads KPIs

Let’s discuss the top Microsoft Ads KPIs and compare the results against your competitors to see where you need to improve.

1. Cost Per Lead (CPL)

For companies, a lead is any potential customer or a sales contact. So, cost per lead refers to the amount paid by the advertiser to secure each new customer through a paid digital ad. It’s worth noticing that Microsoft advertising has a lower cost per lead than other platforms, such as Google Ad, making it a popular choice for marketing among advertisers.

It’s a valuable KPI for testing your ad performance and the number of leads generated through them. Just set a benchmark and compare your monthly or weekly CPL against it to estimate how your ads are doing regarding profit and loss value. To calculate the CPL, divide the total amount spent on marketing by the total number of leads generated.

2. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per acquisition is the amount charged to the marketers on acquiring a new customer. You can use this as a KPI to test the quality of your ads and how well it attracts new customers. Just allocate a reasonable budget and set a realistic CPA value you want to achieve in a week or month. For instance, a 25% acquisition rate each month.

Next, compare your performance with this benchmark by the end of a specific timeline. If your results are lower than expected, find loopholes and optimize your marketing strategy in a way that sits well with a broader audience, and they tend to convert as a result. You can calculate the CPA by dividing the cost of acquiring a customer by the total number of new customers.

3. Retention Rate

Retention rate measures the number of users who tend to be your repeat customers, and it’s one of the fundamental KPIs to boost your business health. A higher retention rate indicates that your customers are satisfied with your services or the products they purchase from your brand. With careful monitoring of this metric, you can multiply your profits and retain loyal customers.

However, the trick is to maximize your sales with the existing consumer base, as acquiring new ones is twenty-five times more expensive. That means you can lower your budget for customer acquisitions and spend it to maintain a relationship with your loyal customers for higher revenue and enhanced customer lifetime.

4. Click Through Rate (CTR)

The click-through rate indicates the total number of impressions (people who saw your ad) compared to the total clicks received on your ad. This one, among all other Microsoft ads KPIs, helps you understand your search engine ranking based on the relevancy of your ad content. While a higher click-through rate shows improved ranking, it is also heavy on the pocket.

Therefore, adopt a wise marketing move and adjust your CTRs within a suitable budget for maximum ranking on the search engines. However, it is quite challenging for advertisers to achieve a good CTR with Microsoft ads as the average rate is only as high as 2.83%, which is almost 30% lower when compared to Google Ads. But remember, consistency is the key!

5. The Share of Voice

What is the percentage of visibility and popularity of your brand against your competitors? The share of voice KPI answers this fundamental question to position your brand’s ranking in the market. To get your brand’s SOV, divide the brand visibility (total number of brand mentions) by the total market visibility (sum of your brand mentions with your competitors’).

There are several ways to increase your brand’s SOV. Focus on a customer-centric approach and create personalized experiences to foster a good brand image. You can also consider centering your ads around a social cause to drive engagement and generate significant marketing revenue by connecting with your audience.

6. New and Returning Users

The first-time visitors to your site are the new visitors, and the ones returning after every 20 hours of the first visit are returning visitors. Evaluating them as a KPI allows you to assess your content’s engagement rate and marketing efforts. The ideal rate should be somewhere between 30 to 50%, but can vary depending on the industry.

You can set a benchmark to estimate the number of users for a rough estimate by the end of each month. A higher percentage of returning visitors means your content is resonating with the audience, while a lower mark indicates room for improvement in your digital marketing strategy.

7. Conversion Rate

According to the Microsoft Team, conversion rate is one of the most powerful KPIs to measure your ad’s success rate. It checks for the number of visitors completing a desired action on your site or, in other words, turning into conversions. You can calculate this value by dividing the total conversions by the total number of visitors or clicks on your web.

The average conversion rate for Microsoft Ads is around 2.94%. So, this KPI can be the most effective when gauging the percentage of people aware of your product or think it’s convenient for them. Lower rates will help you recognize errors and optimize your ads to connect with a broader audience.

8. Cost Per Conversion

The cost per conversion refers to the price of converting a visitor into a paying customer. This KPI differs from the cost per acquisition because CPA involves all the marketing and advertising expenses, while CPC  only covers the cost of advertising campaigns. The average CPC rate is $151.11 per 43 conversions for Microsoft Ads.

Moreover, the platform has now introduced an Enhanced CPC feature that will adjust your bid (the maximum amount you can afford per click) according to the chances of conversion. You can also edit this value based on your budget. However, the goal is only one — optimizing your ads to achieve maximum results within a minimum budget.

9. Engagement and Traffic

This KPI shows whether the website is receiving clicks from the search engines. You can use these statistics, such as the number of likes, comments, shares, or visitors to your website, to see how your ads are doing and how you can improve them. Fewer traffic stats on your website mean you are misspending your marketing revenue.

Here are several ways to take advantage of this KPI:

  • Set specific goals you want to achieve with your marketing efforts
  • Devise a reasonable budget and align your ads with the rising market trends
  • Measure the progress after a particular and optimize your strategy accordingly

10. Average Time Per User

The average time per user is a beneficial KPI indicating the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. More average time per user implies that users are engaging on your site, and ad spend is nurturing value for your brand. With this, you can spot the errors and adjust your strategies to maximize the results.  

Use Catchr to Handle Complex Marketing Data

Microsoft Ads KPIs are crucial to captivate your target audience and drive more traffic. While investing and optimizing your ads is critical for your company’s success, the manual handling or processing of the raw data can get tricky if you do it yourself. Well, not anymore!

Catchr makes life easier for marketers with its multi-platform integrations and user-friendly interface. It streamlines the data visualization process by sorting the raw data into valuable insights for marketers. From developing attractive digital marketing reports to transferring data into your favorite tools, Catchr has it all figured out to help maximize your ad spend.

You can click here to book a demo right now or visit our official website for more details.

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Bonus : Your free Microsoft Ads Template

In this Microsoft Ads template, you will find all the metrics and dimensions you would need to get a better view of your data.

If you need more templates, you could look at our looker studio template gallery.

Bonus : Your free Microsoft Ads OverviewTemplate for PowerBI

In this Microsoft Ads template, you will find all the metrics and dimensions you would need to get a better view of your data thank to our integrations.

If you need more templates, you could look at our PowerBI template gallery.

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