Quick Answer
Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) is a paid search platform that reaches users across Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and partner sites in the Microsoft Search Network. For most advertisers already running Google Ads, it is worth testing because:
- The audience is smaller but often less contested, which means lower CPCs.
- LinkedIn Profile Targeting gives B2B advertisers a capability Google simply does not have.
- The one-click Google Ads import makes setup fast, though the import needs cleanup before you go live.
- Universal Event Tracking (UET) is the conversion tag that powers smart bidding, and it needs to be set up correctly before the platform can optimize automatically.
- Budget allocation should be data-driven: run it for sixty to ninety days, compare cost per conversion to Google, then scale or cut accordingly.
Who Is Actually on Bing, and Why CPCs Run Lower
The short version: Bing users are not a worse audience. They are a different one.
Microsoft reports that the Microsoft Search Network reaches hundreds of millions of people globally. The U.S. portion skews toward users who are older, more likely to be in professional or managerial roles, and more likely to use Windows PCs at work. That is not a knock on the network. For a B2B company selling software, a home services company targeting homeowners, or a financial services firm reaching 45-plus decision-makers, that audience profile is genuinely valuable.
CPCs run lower on Microsoft Advertising than on Google for the same keywords because the advertiser auction is thinner. Fewer companies are bidding, so the price-per-click is lower. This does not mean the buyer intent is lower. The same search query, the same commercial intent, fewer competitors chasing it.
The practical consequence: if you are running a campaign on Google for, say, a home remodeling keyword and you are paying a competitive CPC there, that same keyword on Microsoft Advertising will often cost you less per click. Whether it converts at a similar rate depends on the vertical and the audience fit, which is why you test before you scale.
The One-Click Google Ads Import and Its Traps
Microsoft Advertising's Google Ads import tool is genuinely convenient. You authenticate your Google account, select the campaigns you want to copy, and the platform pulls over your campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, extensions, and bids. For an advertiser who already has a well-structured Google Ads account, this is a fast way to get live on Microsoft Advertising without rebuilding everything from scratch.
But "fast" and "ready to run" are not the same thing. Before you unpause anything imported, review these specific areas:
Match types. Google's default match type behavior has shifted toward broad match in recent years. If your Google Ads account leans heavily on broad match, and you import that into Microsoft Advertising without tightening it up, you will burn budget on irrelevant queries quickly. Check your keyword match types and tighten where it makes sense.
Bids and Target CPA settings. Your Google bids are calibrated to Google's auction, your Google Quality Scores, and your Google conversion data. None of that context transfers. Imported bids may be too high or too low for the Microsoft auction. If you are using target CPA or target ROAS smart bidding on Google, those strategies import but have zero conversion history to learn from on the Microsoft side. Start with manual CPC or maximise clicks while UET collects data, then switch to smart bidding once you have meaningful conversion volume.
Ad extensions. Most extensions import, but some formats differ between platforms. Review every extension and confirm it renders correctly before going live.
Negative keywords. These import too, but verify the list is complete. A missing negative that you had in Google can cost you fast on a new account.
The import is a head start, not a finished setup.
Where Microsoft Advertising Outperforms: B2B and Older Demographics
Two audience segments consistently show stronger performance on Microsoft Advertising compared to Google Ads.
B2B buyers. A large share of Microsoft Search Network traffic comes from people using Windows machines in workplace environments, often signed into Microsoft accounts tied to their organization. That means they are researching business purchases at work, on work hardware, during work hours. For any advertiser selling to businesses, that context matters.
Older and higher-income consumers. The Microsoft Search Network audience skews older relative to Google. For verticals like financial planning, estate services, Medicare insurance, senior living, and home improvement targeting homeowners, this audience alignment can produce better conversion rates because the people clicking are closer to the actual buyer profile.
These are not universal rules. A vertically-focused test of your own campaigns against your own conversion data is the only reliable way to confirm whether the Microsoft audience fits your buyers.
LinkedIn Profile Targeting: The Feature Google Does Not Have
This is the single most underrated capability in Microsoft Advertising, and it is the reason B2B advertisers specifically should at least test the platform.
LinkedIn Profile Targeting lets you layer professional data from LinkedIn directly onto your Microsoft Advertising search campaigns. You can target, or bid up on, users based on:
- Job function (finance, engineering, operations, IT)
- Industry (manufacturing, healthcare, technology, legal services)
- Company name (a specific list of target accounts)
This does not exist in Google Ads. On Google, you can layer in-market audiences, affinity audiences, and customer match lists. But you cannot say "show my ad to people who work in financial services at companies with more than 500 employees." On Microsoft Advertising, you can.
For a B2B company running account-based marketing, or for any advertiser whose ideal customer has a specific professional identity, this targeting layer is a genuine competitive advantage. You are still in the search auction, buying intent, but you are adding a professional identity filter that tightens who sees your ads.
The practical setup: in Microsoft Advertising, go to the campaign or ad group settings, find the Audiences section, and add LinkedIn Profile Targeting as a demographic layer. You can apply it as a bid adjustment (bid more when a LinkedIn-matched user searches) or as a targeting restriction (only show ads to matched users). For most advertisers, the bid adjustment approach preserves volume while prioritizing higher-value clicks.
Setting Up Conversion Tracking (UET) Correctly
Smart bidding on Microsoft Advertising runs on Universal Event Tracking, or UET. Without it installed and connected to conversion goals, the platform is flying blind. Optimizing bids manually without conversion data is slow and expensive. Getting UET right from the start is not optional.
Here is how it works:
Step 1: Create a UET tag. In Microsoft Advertising, go to Tools > UET tags, create a new tag, and copy the tag code. This is a global site tag that goes on every page of your website, ideally in the <head> section.
Step 2: Deploy it through Google Tag Manager. If you are already using GTM (and you should be), paste the UET tag into a Custom HTML tag in GTM and set it to fire on All Pages. This is the cleanest deployment path and keeps your tracking infrastructure centralized.
Step 3: Define conversion goals. Back in Microsoft Advertising, go to Tools > Conversion goals and set up the events you want to track: form submissions, phone calls, purchases, or whatever constitutes a conversion for your business. Each goal maps to a specific UET event or destination URL.
Step 4: Verify. Microsoft Advertising has a UET Tag Helper browser extension that shows you whether the tag is firing and whether conversion events are being recorded. Use it before you consider your tracking live.
Step 5: Wait for data before switching to smart bidding. Microsoft's automated bidding strategies, including Target CPA and Target ROAS, need conversion history to learn from. A general rule of thumb is to wait until each campaign has accumulated meaningful conversion data before switching away from manual or enhanced CPC. The platform will show a "Learning" status while it calibrates. Give it time before drawing conclusions about performance.
If you want a deeper look at how to build a tracking pipeline that flows from click to actual revenue outcome, our conversion tracking and analytics work covers the full system.
How to Decide How Much Budget to Shift
Microsoft Advertising is not a Google replacement. It is a complementary channel. The question is not whether to abandon Google, it is how much incremental budget Microsoft Advertising can absorb before the returns start to thin.
A practical framework:
Start with a test allocation. Take a subset of your best-performing Google campaigns, import them, clean them up as described above, and run them with a modest budget for sixty to ninety days. Do not start with your full Google spend. You are gathering data, not making a permanent commitment.
Compare cost per conversion, not cost per click. Lower CPCs are meaningless if the conversion rate is also lower. The metric that matters is cost per conversion, or cost per acquisition, against your target. If Google is delivering conversions at a cost you are happy with, Microsoft needs to beat or match that number to earn more budget.
Look at the quality of conversions, not just the count. Imagine a professional services firm that runs this test and notices that Microsoft Advertising delivers a higher percentage of qualified leads compared to Google for the same campaign. That downstream quality difference would justify a shift in allocation even if the raw conversion volume is lower. You cannot see this without tracking that goes past the click, which is exactly why UET setup and, ideally, CRM-connected attribution matters.
Scale what earns it. If after ninety days Microsoft Advertising is delivering conversions at a competitive cost, increase the budget. If it is not, cut it back and reinvest in what is working. The goal is finding the efficient frontier of your paid search spend across both platforms, not running both platforms for the sake of diversification.
Our paid media team runs cross-platform paid search programs where budget allocation between Google and Microsoft is optimized monthly based on actual conversion data. If you are unsure how to structure the test, book a strategy call and we can walk through your current setup.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Microsoft Advertising?
Microsoft Advertising is a pay-per-click advertising platform that lets businesses run search ads across Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and partner sites in the Microsoft Search Network. It was previously called Bing Ads. Advertisers bid on keywords, and ads appear when users search for those terms on any network property. The platform also supports audience ads, shopping campaigns, and responsive search ads, similar in structure to Google Ads.
Are Bing Ads worth it?
For most advertisers already running Google Ads, yes, Bing Ads (Microsoft Advertising) are worth testing. The network reaches a smaller audience, but CPCs tend to be lower because fewer advertisers are competing in the auction. For B2B advertisers, the LinkedIn Profile Targeting feature alone is a compelling reason to test the platform. The best way to evaluate it is to run a sixty-to-ninety day test with a subset of your Google campaigns, compare cost per conversion, and scale based on what the data shows.
How is Microsoft Advertising different from Google Ads?
The core structure is similar: keyword bidding, ad groups, campaign types, and smart bidding strategies. The main differences are the audience (Microsoft's network skews older and more professional), the auction competition (fewer advertisers, generally lower CPCs), and one specific feature Google does not offer: LinkedIn Profile Targeting, which lets you layer professional data like job function, industry, and company name onto your search campaigns.
How do I import my Google Ads into Microsoft Advertising?
Microsoft Advertising has a built-in Google Ads import tool. In the Microsoft Advertising interface, go to Import > Import from Google Ads, authenticate your Google account, and select the campaigns you want to copy. The tool transfers campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, extensions, and bids. After importing, review your match types, bids, and ad extensions before going live, since the imported settings are calibrated for Google's auction and will need adjustments for Microsoft's.
What is UET in Microsoft Advertising?
UET stands for Universal Event Tracking. It is Microsoft Advertising's site-wide conversion tracking tag, similar in purpose to the Google Ads conversion tag or the Google tag. You install it on every page of your site, define conversion goals inside the platform, and it begins recording when a user who clicked your ad takes a desired action. UET is required for smart bidding strategies like Target CPA and Target ROAS to function. Without it, the platform cannot optimize bids toward actual business outcomes.
Does Microsoft Advertising work for small budgets?
Microsoft Advertising can work with modest budgets, and the lower CPCs relative to Google mean a given budget can buy more clicks on the same keywords. That said, smart bidding requires conversion volume to learn effectively, so very small budgets may not accumulate enough data for automated bidding to stabilize. For small budgets, manual CPC or enhanced CPC bidding is a more reliable starting point while you build conversion history.
Can I run Microsoft Advertising alongside Google Ads?
Yes, and this is the recommended approach. Microsoft Advertising is designed to complement Google Ads, not replace it. Most advertisers use the Google Ads import to replicate their best-performing Google campaigns on Microsoft, then manage them as a separate budget line. The platforms are operated independently but share a common goal: finding the lowest cost per conversion across the combined paid search spend.