Short answer: For most businesses already running Google Ads profitably, Microsoft Ads are worth a properly measured test. Clicks are often cheaper and the audience skews older, more desktop and more B2B, but the volume is much smaller. Import your best Google campaigns, fix bids, negatives and tracking, then judge the result on cost per conversion after six to eight weeks.
If you're skimming
Key takeaways
- Microsoft Ads is an add-on to Google Ads, not a replacement. Bing and its partners handle a much smaller share of searches, so expect a fraction of your Google volume.
- Cost per click is often lower because fewer advertisers compete, but that only matters if the clicks convert at a similar rate.
- The audience typically skews older, desktop and work-based, which suits B2B, professional services and higher-value purchases. LinkedIn profile targeting is the stand-out feature.
- Importing from Google takes minutes. The work is in what you fix afterwards: bids, negatives, UET conversion tracking, audience and distribution settings, and auto-applied recommendations.
- Test with a fixed budget, a fixed time window and a decision rule written down before you start. Skip it if your Google Ads are not yet profitable or your volume is already tiny.
The question usually comes up once a Google Ads account is working. You have found keywords that convert, you are hitting a ceiling on volume or cost, and someone suggests Bing. The honest answer is that Microsoft Advertising is rarely a big growth lever on its own, but for the right business it adds profitable conversions at a lower cost per click, with very little extra setup.
The real risk is not that Microsoft Ads waste a fortune. It is that an imported campaign quietly runs on default settings, spends a modest amount on poor partner traffic and broad matches, and nobody looks closely enough to know whether it worked.
Who do Microsoft Ads actually reach that Google Ads does not?
Microsoft Ads reach people searching on Bing and on partner search engines that use Microsoft's ads, such as Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, plus placements across Microsoft's own products including Copilot. In practice that means a group of searchers you are not reaching through Google at all, and in our experience they tend to be older, on desktop and searching from work.
Where the searches come from
Much Bing usage comes from defaults rather than choice. Microsoft Edge uses Bing as its default search engine, Windows search sends web queries to Bing, and many company laptops are set up with Edge and left that way. That is why the audience leans towards office workers and older users who never changed their browser settings.
On top of Bing itself, the Microsoft Search Network includes partner sites. Yahoo and DuckDuckGo are the best known. Your ads can also appear inside Copilot answers, where Microsoft shows sponsored results alongside its AI responses. Check performance by publisher once data comes in, because each behaves differently.
Why the audience mix matters
An older, desktop-heavy, work-time audience behaves differently from a mobile-first one. In our experience desktop users fill in longer forms more readily and compare options more carefully. That suits:
- B2B services and software, where the buyer is searching from a work computer during office hours.
- Professional services such as legal, accounting, financial advice and consulting.
- Higher-value purchases where older buyers have more disposable income, such as travel, home improvements, health products and insurance.
It suits less well when your buyer is young, mobile-only and impulse-driven, such as a fashion brand aimed at under-25s or an app install campaign.
LinkedIn profile targeting
This is the feature Google cannot match. Because Microsoft owns LinkedIn, you can target or adjust bids by LinkedIn profile data: company, industry and job function. A software company selling to finance teams can bid more when the searcher works in finance, or at a target account list of named companies. On Google you can guess intent from the keyword. On Microsoft you can add who the searcher is professionally.
Without profile targeting
"Expense management software" brings in small business owners, students researching the category and finance managers at large companies, all at the same bid.
With profile targeting
The same keyword gets a higher bid adjustment for the finance job function and for industries you sell to, and a lower one for everything else. The budget shifts towards the people who can actually buy.
The common mistake is using profile targeting as a hard filter from day one, which shrinks volume until you learn nothing. Start with bid adjustments instead.
Are Microsoft Ads cheaper than Google Ads?
Per click, often yes. Per conversion, sometimes. Fewer advertisers bid on Microsoft Advertising, so the auction is less crowded and cost per click on the same keyword is frequently lower. The trade-off is that the volume of searches is much smaller, so a cheaper click does not automatically make it the better channel.
Why clicks tend to cost less
Search ad prices are set by auction. The more advertisers chasing the same keyword, the higher the price. Many businesses run Google Ads and never set up Microsoft, so on Bing you are often competing with fewer rivals for the same query. Fewer rivals, lower clearing price.
That is not universal. In some competitive B2B and finance categories, clicks can cost close to Google. You only find out by testing.
Why cost per click is the wrong scorecard
What matters is cost per conversion, or return on ad spend if you sell online. A cheaper click that converts at half the rate costs you the same per sale. The calculation is simple:
Cost per conversion = cost per click ÷ conversion rate.
| Example | Google Ads | Microsoft Ads (scenario A) | Microsoft Ads (scenario B) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per click | €2.00 | €1.20 | €1.20 |
| Conversion rate | 4% | 4% | 2% |
| Cost per conversion | €50 | €30 | €60 |
| Verdict | Baseline | Clearly worth it | Worse than Google despite cheaper clicks |
Scenario B usually comes from unchecked partner traffic or broad match drift. Fix those before you conclude the channel does not work.
What "much smaller volume" means for your budget
Because Bing and its partners handle a much smaller share of searches than Google, your Microsoft campaigns will usually spend a fraction of what the same campaigns spend on Google, even with generous budgets. If your Google account spends €10,000 a month, do not expect to move €10,000 to Microsoft. In our experience, the imported version of a mature account often cannot spend more than a small slice of that at a sensible cost per conversion. Plan the test around what the channel can absorb, not around what you would like it to spend.
When Microsoft campaigns underspend, the instinct is to raise bids until they do. That usually buys the same few searches at a higher price. If the campaign cannot spend the budget at your target cost per conversion, the market is simply smaller. Accept it and keep the budget where the returns are.
How do you import Google Ads campaigns into Microsoft Ads, and what do you fix afterwards?
Microsoft Advertising has a built-in Google import that copies campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, extensions and negatives from your Google Ads account in a few minutes. The import is the easy part. What makes or breaks the test is the cleanup afterwards, because imported settings were tuned for Google, not for Microsoft.
What to import
Do not import the whole account. Pick the campaigns that already work on Google: usually brand, your best non-brand search campaigns and, if you sell products, shopping. Leave out experiments, campaigns you are about to pause and anything that is unprofitable on Google. If it does not work there, the import will not fix it.
You can set the import to repeat on a schedule so Google changes flow across. Be careful with that. A recurring import can overwrite bids, budgets or ads you changed on the Microsoft side. If you use it, choose exactly which elements it updates, and do not let it overwrite your Microsoft-specific bids.
The post-import fixes
Shopping campaigns
If you sell online, Microsoft has its own product feed tool (Microsoft Merchant Center). You can import your existing Google feed rather than building a new one, then import your shopping campaigns. Check that products are approved before you judge performance.
The most common import mistake
The most common mistake we see is importing, glancing at the dashboard a week later and either scaling or killing it on almost no data. The second is importing broad match keywords with no conversion tracking on the Microsoft side. Give the cleanup an afternoon. It decides whether the test is worth anything.
Running Google and Microsoft side by side
PPC management services across both search engines
We set up Microsoft Ads alongside your Google Ads, fix tracking and settings properly, and tell you plainly if the test does not earn its place.
See our PPC management servicesHow do you test whether Microsoft Ads are worth it for your business?
Run a fixed test: a set budget, a set period of six to eight weeks, the same conversion definition as Google, and a decision rule written down before you launch. Judge it on cost per conversion against your Google baseline, and check that the conversions are new rather than ones you would have won anyway.
A worked test plan
Here is a simple example. The numbers are illustrative, so swap in your own.
Starting point
Google Ads spends €8,000 a month and produces 160 leads, a cost per lead of €50. The target is €60 or lower.
Test set-up
Import the brand campaign and the two best non-brand campaigns. Budget €250 a week, so €2,000 over eight weeks. UET tag live and checked before launch. Same lead form counted as the conversion.
What to expect
At an example cost per click of €1.50, €2,000 buys roughly 1,330 clicks. At a 3% conversion rate that is about 40 leads, a cost per lead of €50. Enough data to make a decision.
How long to run it and how much data you need
Two rules decide whether you have enough data. First, run for at least six weeks so you cover several full weekly cycles and any learning period for automated bidding. Second, spend at least three to five times your target cost per conversion in each campaign before you judge it. With a €60 target, a campaign that has spent €120 and produced no leads has not told you much. One that has spent €300 with no leads has.
With long sales cycles, judge on an earlier conversion, such as a qualified lead, and follow those leads through your CRM afterwards.
The decision rule
Write this down before launch and share it with whoever owns the budget, so the result is not argued about afterwards.
| Result after the test | Decision |
|---|---|
| Cost per conversion at or below target, lead quality similar to Google | Keep it. Raise budgets on the winning campaigns until cost per conversion starts to rise, then expand to more campaigns. |
| Cost per conversion up to around 30% above target | Fix and extend for four more weeks: tighten negatives, check partner traffic by publisher, lower bids on weak keywords, review landing pages on desktop. |
| Cost per conversion well above target after enough spend, or leads clearly worse quality | Stop. Keep only the brand campaign if it is cheap and protects your name, and revisit in a year. |
Check that the conversions are new
Brand campaigns on Microsoft almost always look brilliant, because people searching your name were going to find you anyway. Judge the non-brand campaigns separately. If total leads across the business did not rise during the test, while Microsoft claims 40 of them, some of those were moved rather than added. Compare total leads in your CRM before and during the test, not just platform numbers.
Attribution adds another wrinkle. Google and Microsoft each count conversions they touched, so a buyer who clicked both can be claimed twice. Use one neutral source, such as GA4 or your CRM, as the referee. If your tracking cannot separate the channels cleanly, sort that out before the test. Our marketing analytics services often start exactly here.
When are Microsoft Ads most likely to be worth it?
Microsoft Ads are most likely to pay off when your Google Ads are already profitable, you sell to an older, desktop or business audience, and you are hitting a ceiling on Google where extra spend costs more per conversion. In that position, even a modest number of cheaper conversions is a real gain.
The signals we look for:
- Your Google campaigns are constrained. You are already capturing most of the available impressions on your best keywords and the next euro on Google costs noticeably more than the last. Microsoft gives you the same intent from a different pool of searchers.
- You sell B2B or professional services. Work computers and LinkedIn profile targeting make this the strongest fit.
- Your average order or deal is valuable. Smaller volume matters less when each conversion is worth a lot. Ten extra leads a month for a consultancy can be worth more than a hundred extra sales for a low-price product.
- Your buyers skew older. Categories like travel, home and garden, finance, insurance and health often see good Bing audiences.
This sits alongside the broader question of whether paid search pays for you at all. If you have not settled that yet, read our guide on whether Google Ads are worth it first, because Microsoft is a step that comes after Google, not before.
"Our Google search campaigns hit our cost per lead target, but they already show for most relevant searches and raising budgets pushes the cost per lead up. Our buyers are finance managers at mid-sized companies. Let's test Microsoft with €2,000 over eight weeks and keep it if the cost per lead stays under €60."
"Google Ads is too expensive and not converting, so let's try Bing because the clicks are cheaper."
Which businesses should skip Microsoft Ads?
Skip Microsoft Ads, or at least postpone them, if your Google Ads are not yet profitable, your conversion tracking is unreliable, your Google search volume is already tiny, or your audience is young and mostly on mobile. In those cases the extra channel adds work without adding much return.
Your Google Ads are not working yet
If Google campaigns are not hitting their target, the problem is usually the offer, the landing page, the keywords or the tracking. Microsoft will import the same problems at a smaller scale and give you less data to diagnose them. Fix Google first. Proper Google Ads management services are the better use of time and budget at that stage.
Your niche is tiny on Google
If a very specific local service gets a handful of searches a month on Google, Bing will have a fraction of that. A campaign that produces one lead every two months cannot be tested or optimised in any meaningful way. The exception is a brand campaign, which can be cheap insurance against competitors bidding on your name.
Your audience is young and mobile-first
If your buyers are mostly under 30 and buy on their phones from social media, Bing's desktop and older audience is a poor match. Your next euro is probably better spent on paid social services or improving conversion on the site you already have.
Nobody has time to manage it
An imported and forgotten account tends to drift: search terms widen and partner traffic creeps up. If nobody will look at it weekly, do not run it. If you want it covered without adding to your own workload, a PPC agency can run both engines together, and our guide on how to outsource digital marketing explains how to hand that work over well.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Bing Ads was renamed Microsoft Advertising, and people still use both names. The platform covers Bing search, partner search engines such as Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, and placements across other Microsoft products.
Not to start. Imported ads and your existing landing pages are fine for a test. Do check that the pages work well on desktop, since more Bing traffic comes from desktop, and refine the copy later once you know which keywords convert.
Usually yes, because brand clicks tend to be cheap and it stops competitors taking the top spot on your name. Just report brand separately, so its strong numbers do not hide weaker non-brand campaigns.
Microsoft can show your ads inside Copilot responses, so you get some paid presence in that format. It does not influence whether Copilot or other AI tools mention you in their organic answers, which depends on your content and reputation rather than ad spend.
Start with a test budget large enough to buy three to five times your target cost per conversion in each campaign over six to eight weeks. After the test, let performance set the budget: keep raising it while cost per conversion holds, and stop when it starts to rise.
What to do next
If your Google Ads are profitable and you sell to an audience that fits Bing, a Microsoft Ads test is a low-risk way to add conversions. Keep it disciplined:
- Write down your target cost per conversion and the decision rule before you import anything.
- Import only your proven campaigns, install the UET tag and work through the cleanup checklist above.
- Run for six to eight weeks, report brand and non-brand separately, and check the result against your CRM, not just the platform.
If you would like a second pair of eyes first, ask for a free written audit within 48 hours. We will look at your Google Ads, tell you whether Microsoft Ads are worth testing for your business and what to fix before you do.