• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 2, 2020

Microsoft Advertising has quietly revealed a Garage Project that developers are working on to help small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) advertise on search and social media platforms. It gives small and medium-sized businesses one place to manage all their campaigns from social to search, including Bing and Google.

The platform takes in one budget, monitors ad performance on all platforms, and spreads the budget across multiple channels while optimizing performance. It automates ad generation, extension generation, and keyword generation.

Agency partners, especially one-person shops, have already expressed an interest in testing the platform.

Microsoft’s platform aims to help SMBs get online by giving them a platform to manage advertising on social networks.

Artificial intelligence manages most of the work. There is no need to pop in and out of multiple platforms.

While having an online presence might be the best way to attract new customers, it is incredibly time-consuming. Time is something that small and medium-sized businesses do not typically have.

Running search ads require a higher learning curve. Decisions to run search ads on Google or Bing require knowledge of how much and when to bid on keywords and how much to budget. They also need to know the type of copy to write and how often to run the ads.

After logging in, marketers can request that the platform help them advertise and/or manage social media campaigns.

Marketers that choose to do search and social advertising can run ads across Bing and Google, Facebook, and Instagram. Those that choose to run search can run ads across Bing and Google.

Users can connect up to 10 profiles that include their business name and phone number. The platform then asks users to state their goal, such as increasing website visits, increasing phone calls, or increasing foot traffic to physical locations. Picking a category is required, along with indicating the campaign status. 

There is a section to indicate location targeting, such as within 25 miles from the physical business.

Two types of ads are available: text and video. Image and text ads are served in Facebook and Instagram, and are created based on the categories selected.

Pre-created video ads are not available yet. The platform suggests budgets per campaign and monitors performance.

The platform also has a feature that allows customers to email the company.

The ability to advertise in LinkedIn also is in the works.