Service, by platform
Microsoft Ads management: the cheap second channel, once Google is clean
Microsoft Ads puts your Search campaigns on Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, AOL and the search box built into Windows and Edge, usually at a lower cost per click than Google and in front of a smaller, older, more desktop-heavy audience. StatCounter's UK figures put Bing at around a tenth of desktop searches and low single figures across all devices, and the share moves month to month, so we check the live number before recommending it. It is managed on the Growth tier at £399 a month, imported from the Google account and then run on its own numbers.
2nd
channel; never the first thing we fix
10 to 20%
of the Google budget to start, then the CPA decides
1 tag
the UET tag, installed before a penny is spent
0%
of spend as fee, the same as Google
Where the searches come from
Bing is the default that a lot of people never change
Nobody chooses Bing; they inherit it. A new Windows laptop searches Bing from the taskbar and from Edge, most corporate desktops are locked to it, and the Copilot answers inside Windows are Bing underneath. That is why the audience is older, more likely to be at work, and more likely to be on a desktop in office hours.
| Surface | Who is on it | What it means for the campaign |
|---|---|---|
| Bing on Edge and Windows search | Office workers on managed PCs, people who never changed the default | Office-hours ad schedule matters; B2B and professional services do well |
| Yahoo and AOL | An older audience, email users | Cheap clicks; check the search partner performance separately before keeping it |
| DuckDuckGo | Privacy-minded users, mixed devices | Fewer audience signals to bid on; keywords and copy carry the campaign |
| Copilot and Bing chat | People asking questions rather than typing keywords | Longer queries; phrase match and the Search Terms read find them |
What is different
Nearly the same as Google Ads, and the differences are the point
| Google Ads | Microsoft Ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Competition in the auction | Every advertiser in your sector | A fraction of them, so the same keyword often costs less |
| Audience data | Google signals, in-market and affinity audiences | LinkedIn profile targeting: company, industry, job function, as bid adjustments |
| Getting started | Built from scratch | Imported from Google in an afternoon, then re-synced on a schedule |
| Conversion tracking | Google tag or Tag Manager | The UET tag, separate, with its own goals; installed and tested before launch |
| Shopping | Merchant Center | Microsoft Merchant Center, fed from the same product feed |
| Match types and Search Terms | Close variants, weekly read | Close variants too, and a Search Terms report we read the same Monday |
How we run it
Import, then diverge
- 1.Install and test the UET tag and the conversion goals, so the first click counts.
- 2.Import the clean Google account: keywords, match types, ads, sitelinks, shared negatives. Never import an account we have not read first; it copies the waste too.
- 3.Set what the import does not carry: bid strategy, budgets at a tenth to a fifth of Google's, location by presence, the office-hours ad schedule where the data says so.
- 4.Add what Google cannot do: LinkedIn profile bid adjustments on B2B accounts, and a review of search partners after the first fortnight.
- 5.Read the Microsoft Search Terms report alongside Google's every week. The queries differ, and the negatives added on one side are added on the other.
- 6.Report it as its own line: spend, clicks, CPC, conversions and cost per lead next to Google's, so the second channel earns its budget or loses it.
Who it suits
Desktop buyers, office hours, and anyone Google has priced out
B2B firms, professional services, software, insurance, finance and anything bought from a desk during the working day do best, because that is where the Bing audience sits. So do sectors where Google's CPC has climbed past the margin: the same search on Bing has fewer bidders and the click costs less, and a lead is a lead whichever engine sent it.
Trades that live on emergency phone calls from mobiles do less well, because the Bing audience is on a desktop at three in the afternoon, not on a phone at eleven at night with a burst pipe. We say so rather than importing a campaign that will spend a little and prove nothing.
The order does not change. Google first, clean, with tracking proven. Microsoft second, from the cleaned account, with a small budget and its own line in the report. An account that is leaking on Google will leak on Bing, more cheaply.
Related
Where this connects
Questions about Microsoft Ads
Is Bing worth it for a UK business?
For a business already winning on Google with a Search campaign that is capped by impression share, usually yes: the same searches, fewer bidders, and an audience that skews to desktop, office hours and older buyers. For a business still fixing its Google account, no; the waste there is larger than anything Bing will add.
How much of my Google budget should go to Microsoft?
Start at a tenth to a fifth and let the cost per conversion decide. Search volume on Bing is a fraction of Google's, so the campaign will rarely spend a large budget; a limit set too high just sits unspent, which does no harm but tells you nothing.
Does the import copy everything?
Campaigns, ad groups, keywords, match types, ads, sitelinks and negatives come across, and can be scheduled to re-sync. Bid strategies, conversion goals, audiences and location settings need setting by hand, because the equivalents are not identical, and the UET tag has to be installed for any conversion to count.
Can you target by job title?
Microsoft Ads lets you adjust bids by LinkedIn company, industry and job function, which Google cannot do. It is a bid adjustment rather than a hard filter, useful for B2B accounts where a search from a facilities manager is worth more than the same search from a student.
Is Microsoft Ads included in the fee?
On the Growth tier at £399 a month and above, when the numbers justify it. Ad spend for Microsoft is paid to Microsoft on your card, the same as Google.
Winning on Google and capped by impression share? Bing is the next cheapest customer.
Send the Google account ID and the reply tells you whether the numbers justify a Microsoft import, and what it would cost to find out.