Microsoft earnings: Search, LinkedIn advertising revenue rise

Advertisers invested more than $3 billion on Microsoft Advertising last quarter, fueling the revenue growth.

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Microsoft released its earnings report for its second quarter. In it, we learned that search and news advertising was up 32 percent year over year. LinkedIn revenue was grew by 37 percent.

The company lumps together search and news advertising revenue and subtracts traffic acquisition costs (TAC), which is money Microsoft pays to Bing Ads network publishers and news partners.

In Q2, Microsoft reported more than $3 billion in revenue from search and news advertising. This was fueled by higher revenue per search for the holiday quarter, according to the company. On the conference call, CEO Satya Nadella noted the company’s total revenue from advertising, including LinkedIn, has surpassed $10 billion over the past 12 months.

Speaking of LinkedIn, it accounted for another $3.5 billion in Q2 revenue for Microsoft.

Overall, Microsoft reported record revenue of $51.7 billion for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2021.

Why we care. Microsoft said its Q2 advertising revenue growth was better than expected, which is clear evidence of a strong advertising market. Holidays drive up cost-per-click prices for advertisers, and revenue for the ad platforms every year. But clearly, companies continue to invest money in paid search advertising, which is a proven channel to generate results. As for Q3, Microsoft forecasts more growth, but in the “mid- to high-teens” range.

Source: Microsoft Earnings Release FY22 Q2


About the author

Danny Goodwin
Staff
Danny Goodwin has been Managing Editor of Search Engine Land & Search Marketing Expo - SMX since 2022. He joined Search Engine Land in 2022 as Senior Editor. In addition to reporting on the latest search marketing news, he manages Search Engine Land’s SME (Subject Matter Expert) program. He also helps program U.S. SMX events.

Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. He previously was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.

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