Microsoft Ads
The tenth of the market everyone forgets.
Roughly one United States search in ten happens somewhere other than Google. Microsoft Ads covers most of that, it usually costs less per click, and a working Google campaign can be imported into it in an afternoon. It is the most consistently overlooked easy win in paid search.
Is it worth running Microsoft Ads alongside Google Ads?
Usually yes, once Google is working. Statcounter's measurement of United States search referrals in August 2026 put Bing at 8.92% and Yahoo at 2.74%, which together is a meaningful share of search that a Google-only strategy never reaches. Competition is lower, so clicks are frequently cheaper.
The practical argument is effort rather than opportunity size. Microsoft Ads imports campaigns directly from Google Ads, so the setup cost of testing it is small, and if it does not perform you have lost very little.
It is not worth it if your Google campaigns are not yet working, or if your budget is small enough that splitting it would leave neither channel with enough data.
Written and maintained by the VIS Mountain team. Last reviewed . The sources behind it are listed below.
What Microsoft Ads actually reaches
Microsoft Ads places ads on Bing, on Yahoo, inside Microsoft Edge, and across a syndicated partner network. In practical terms it reaches people using the search engine built into Windows and Edge, which is a substantial group who never deliberately chose it.
That demographic skew is the interesting part. The audience tends toward desktop use and office environments, which matters more for some categories than others. A business to business service and a home services company will get different value from the same channel.
The syndicated network is worth understanding, because it is also where the quality problems are. Partner placements can deliver cheap clicks of variable quality, and the control to limit them exists but has to be used deliberately.
How a test actually runs
The entire argument for this channel is that the cost of finding out is small. The process reflects that.
Import, do not rebuild
Microsoft Ads imports campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads and negative lists directly from Google Ads, and can keep them synchronised on a schedule. Rebuilding from scratch wastes the main advantage of the channel.
Fix what does not transfer cleanly
Some settings do not map across. Bid strategies, audience targeting, some ad formats and the syndicated partner settings need reviewing after import rather than being left at whatever the import produced.
- Review search partner and audience network settings before spending
- Check location targeting, because the defaults differ
- Confirm conversion tracking is installed and firing independently
Install tracking separately
The Microsoft tracking tag is its own installation. Importing campaigns does not import measurement, and an imported campaign running without conversion tracking is the most common way this channel gets written off unfairly.
See the remaining steps: How a test actually runsHide the remaining steps: How a test actually runs
Set a small budget and wait
Volumes are lower, so a fair read takes longer than on Google. Four to eight weeks at a budget large enough to produce a meaningful number of conversions, rather than two weeks at a trickle.
Decide honestly
If the cost per qualified lead is competitive, keep it and stop synchronising blindly, because the channel will start to want its own negative lists and bid decisions. If it is not, turn it off and say so.
The whole point is that this decision should cost very little to make. An agency that proposes a large separate build for Microsoft Ads is inflating the work.
Where Microsoft Ads fits in the flow
The drawing is labelled for Google and Meta because that is where most budgets start. Microsoft Advertising is a third lane of exactly the same shape.
What differs from Google Ads
Similar mechanics, different scale and a few genuine differences worth knowing.
| Item | Google Ads | Microsoft Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | High | Substantially lower |
| Cost per click | Higher, more competition | Often lower |
| Audience skew | Broad | More desktop, more workplace |
| Setup cost | Full build | Import from Google |
| Time to a fair read | 2 to 4 weeks | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Main risk | Irrelevant search terms | Partner network click quality |
The partner network is the difference that catches people out. It can deliver volume at a low apparent cost while producing fewer real enquiries, which is why it should be reviewed rather than left on by default.
When this is not worth doing
This is a second or third channel. Several situations make it a distraction.
- Your Google campaigns are not yet producing qualified leads. Fix the larger channel first.
- Your total budget is small enough that splitting it leaves neither channel with enough conversion data to learn from.
- Your audience is heavily mobile and consumer, where the share of relevant searches on this network is smaller.
- Nobody has installed conversion tracking on it, in which case the test cannot tell you anything.
- You are running it on imported settings nobody has reviewed, particularly the partner network.
- You are being charged a full management fee for a channel that was imported and left alone.
- The volume is so low that the reported cost per lead is based on three conversions, which is not a result, it is noise.
The fee question is worth asking directly. A channel that takes a fraction of the work should not cost the same as one that takes all of it.
How to judge it
Cost per qualified lead compared against your Google campaigns, using the same definition of qualified on both. If the definitions differ the comparison is meaningless, and in imported accounts they often do differ because tracking was set up separately.
Incremental enquiries rather than total. The relevant question is whether this channel produced business you would not otherwise have had, not whether it produced business.
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Volume adequacy, which matters more here than on Google. A cost per lead calculated from a handful of conversions is not stable enough to act on, and drawing conclusions from it is the most common analytical error on this channel.
Partner network performance separated from core search, because they frequently behave very differently.
Day and hour reporting is more useful on this channel than on Google, because the audience skew toward workplace devices produces a genuinely different pattern through the week. Where that pattern is clear, restricting delivery to the hours that convert is one of the few optimisations available at low volume.
One caution about reporting cadence. At the volumes most local businesses see here, monthly reporting is the shortest useful window and weekly numbers will bounce around enough to prompt decisions that should not be made. We report this channel monthly and resist acting on a bad fortnight.
We do not publish a price for this piece of work on its own, because the right scope depends on what already exists. What is published is the bundle pricing: 2,400, 3,600 or 4,800 dollars a month depending on which channels are running. You can read the full breakdown on the pricing page, and you will get an exact number in writing before anything starts.
Where it works best
Business to business services tend to do well, because the audience skews toward people using work computers with Edge and Bing as the default.
Categories with older customers often perform better than the raw share would suggest, for the same reason: default search engines on devices that were set up once and never changed.
Read the full breakdown: Where it works bestHide the full breakdown: Where it works best
Professional services and healthcare frequently see competitive cost per lead, because the competitive pressure that inflates click prices on Google is lower here.
Categories that are overwhelmingly mobile and consumer, such as food, entertainment and impulse purchases, see the least. That is worth knowing before you test rather than after.
In all cases the honest framing is incremental volume at a lower price, not a replacement for Google.
Geography matters less than category here, with one exception. Markets with a heavy concentration of large employers running managed Windows fleets tend to show a stronger daytime desktop pattern, which shows up as better performance during working hours for business to business advertisers. It is a small effect and it is worth checking in your own data rather than assuming it.
How this connects to the rest
This belongs after Google Ads is working, not before, and the paid advertising hub is where the channel choice conversation should start if you are not sure.
It shares conversion tracking requirements with every other paid channel, and the tag has to be installed separately even when the campaigns are imported.
Landing page work benefits both channels at once, since the same pages receive the traffic.
Because volumes are lower, this channel is more sensitive than most to whether your enquiries are followed up properly, since there are fewer of them to waste.
Test it for the cost of an afternoon.
If your Google campaigns are working, importing them is a small piece of work with a clear answer at the end of it. If they are not, we will tell you to fix that first.
Straight answers.
Is Microsoft Ads the same as Bing Ads?
Yes. It was renamed from Bing Ads to Microsoft Advertising, and the platform now covers Bing, Yahoo, Edge and a syndicated partner network rather than Bing alone.
Are clicks really cheaper?
Frequently, because there is less competition in most categories. Cheaper clicks are not automatically better value, though, so the comparison that matters is cost per qualified lead rather than cost per click.
Can I just import my Google campaigns and leave them?
You can import them, and leaving them unreviewed is where this channel usually disappoints. Some settings do not map cleanly, the partner network needs a decision, and conversion tracking has to be installed separately.
Import then review is the correct sequence. Import and forget is how a channel gets unfairly written off.
What does not transfer cleanly when we import from Google Ads?
Conversion tracking does not come across at all. The Microsoft tag is a separate installation, and an imported campaign running without it is the most common reason this channel gets written off unfairly.
Beyond that: bid strategies do not always map to an equivalent, audience targeting and remarketing lists have to be rebuilt against Microsoft's own audiences, some ad formats and asset types have no counterpart, and the search partner and audience network settings arrive at defaults nobody chose.
Import then review is the correct sequence, and the review is an hour rather than a project.
How long before I know if it works?
Four to eight weeks, longer than Google, because the volume is lower and it takes longer to accumulate enough conversions to draw a conclusion from.
If you are only getting a handful of conversions a month, be honest that the cost per lead figure is noise rather than a result.
Should I run it if my budget is small?
Probably not. Splitting a small budget across two channels leaves both with too little data to optimise, and the larger channel will suffer more than the smaller one gains.
Get Google working and profitable first, then add this with additional budget rather than by dividing what you have.
Where this comes from.
Primary documentation and published research behind the guidance on this page.
Talk to the team
A short call, a look at how the business currently shows up, and a straight answer on what we would do first.