Every month we run through a series of questions to help you run your freelance business like a bigger business—“self-coaching” your way to better results and a better life. 

Hey!

We’re switching things up this month because I wanted to share a new tactic I’m seeing some nice success with, and that’s Microsoft ads. I’ve talked about LinkedIn ads before but these? They’re performing at an entirely different level for me at a really good price. 

You won’t see many freelancers using ads, but they’re something everybody should consider—especially after you’ve got a good feel for your market, your primary buyer, and the kind of things they’re looking for online. 

So this month, I’m going to introduce you to Microsoft Advertising (Formerly Bing Ads), why they’re working for me as a freelancer, and why you might want to consider them yourself. 

What kind of results can I expect?   

From my first run with ads on Microsoft,  my website traffic exploded to 10 times what it was before. Now while that was exciting, those numbers were too high. The campaigns weren’t targeted enough. 

My goal was to use Microsoft ads for a couple of very specific purposes—to drive newsletter signups and increase traffic to two new services. 

After tweaking the keywords, I was down to about 3x the traffic, and realized one service was a complete bust (people weren’t searching for it or anything related to it), but the best result was my newsletter. 

I’ve struggled to get organic newsletter signups. (I’ve probably only gotten about 10 in as many years running this business.) I’ve been getting one to two a week since setting up a lead magnet on HubSpot and driving traffic to the signup page. (Quick note: The lead magnet was critical. Before I added that I got none.) 

It’s definitely something I’m going to keep up and start investing more in as the year unfolds. 

Megan

Want some help exploring what your other options might be with MS ads? Stop by the BlackFreelance Mastermind Discord.