Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads): A Complete Guide for Marketers

Meta

• **Target Keyword:** advertise on bing / microsoft advertising
• **Search Volume:** 27,100/mo
• **Keyword Difficulty:** 26%
• **Intent:** Commercial
• **Suggested Word Count:** 2,500 words
• **WebFX Reference:** https://www.webfx.com/blog/ppc/microsoft-advertising/

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I spent $2,400 on Google Ads last quarter for a client’s B2B software campaign. The average cost per click was $4.80. Then I ran the same campaign on Microsoft Advertising with the same keywords and ad copy. The average CPC dropped to $1.90. Conversions actually went up because Bing’s audience skews older, wealthier, and more likely to make purchasing decisions at work. That single experiment convinced me to allocate 20-30% of every client’s paid search budget to Microsoft Advertising.

Most marketers ignore Bing Ads entirely. They assume Google owns search and everything else is irrelevant. That assumption leaves money on the table. Microsoft Advertising reaches over 1 billion monthly users across Bing, Yahoo, AOL, DuckDuckGo, and the entire Microsoft ecosystem. The people using Bing aren’t there by accident. They’re professionals on work computers, Windows users who never changed their default search engine, and an audience that converts at rates that consistently surprise advertisers who try it.

Here’s how Microsoft Advertising works, why it deserves a spot in your marketing mix, and how to set up your first campaign the right way.

What is Microsoft Advertising?

Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) is Microsoft’s pay-per-click advertising platform. When you advertise on Bing through Microsoft Advertising, your ads appear across the Microsoft Search Network, which includes Bing, Yahoo, AOL, DuckDuckGo, and partner sites. Microsoft Advertising also serves ads in Microsoft Edge, Windows search, Outlook.com, and other properties within the Microsoft ecosystem.

The platform works on the same auction model as Google Ads. You bid on keywords, set a budget, and your ads appear when users search for those terms. The ad formats are nearly identical: text ads, shopping ads, responsive search ads, and audience ads. If you’ve used Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising will feel familiar immediately.

**Microsoft Advertising market share.** Bing holds roughly 9% of global search market share and about 14% of US desktop search. Those numbers sound small until you realize what they represent: over 12 billion monthly searches worldwide. In the US alone, Microsoft Search Network reaches 44% of desktop searchers. That’s not a niche platform. That’s a massive audience that most advertisers completely overlook when they advertise on Bing.

**The Microsoft ecosystem advantage.** What makes Microsoft Advertising unique isn’t just Bing search. It’s the ecosystem. Windows 10 and 11 have Bing baked into the taskbar search, Cortana, and Microsoft Edge (the default browser). Every corporate laptop running Windows feeds searches into the Microsoft Search Network. This is why Bing’s audience skews professional and high-income. These are people searching from work, often on company-issued devices where they can’t change the default search engine.

Bing Ads vs Google Ads: Key Differences

Understanding the differences between Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads helps you decide how to split your ad budget and what to expect from each platform.

Audience Demographics

The biggest difference between Bing Ads and Google Ads is who’s searching. Bing’s audience tends to be older (35+), has higher household incomes (over a third earn $100K+), and is more likely to be college-educated. Google’s audience is broader and younger. For B2B products, financial services, luxury goods, and anything targeting professionals with purchasing power, Microsoft Advertising often outperforms Google Ads on conversion rate alone.

Lower Cost Per Click

Microsoft Advertising is significantly cheaper than Google Ads for most keywords. Average CPCs on Bing are 30-50% lower than Google across nearly every industry. Some keywords I’ve tested cost 60-70% less on Bing. The reason is simple: less competition. Fewer advertisers means lower bids, which means your budget stretches further when you advertise on Bing.

Metric	Microsoft Advertising	Google Ads
Average CPC (Search)	$1.54	$2.69
Average CTR	2.83%	3.17%
Average Conversion Rate	2.94%	3.75%
Desktop Search Share (US)	~14%	~80%
Audience Income ($100K+)	~36%	~25%
LinkedIn Targeting	Yes	No

Less Competition

Most advertisers spend their entire PPC budget on Google and never consider Bing Ads. That’s an advantage for you. Less competition means higher ad positions at lower costs. Keywords that cost $8-10 on Google might cost $3-4 on Microsoft Advertising. In competitive niches like insurance, legal, and finance, the savings from advertising on Bing can be substantial.

Import Campaigns from Google Ads

Microsoft Advertising makes it dead simple to get started. You can import your entire Google Ads account, including campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads, directly into Microsoft Advertising with a few clicks. The import tool maps everything over. You don’t have to rebuild campaigns from scratch. This single feature removes the biggest barrier to trying Microsoft Advertising.

LinkedIn Profile Targeting

This is Microsoft Advertising’s killer feature that Google can’t match. Because Microsoft owns LinkedIn, you can target ads based on LinkedIn profile data: company, industry, and job function. You can show ads only to people who work at companies with 500+ employees, or only to marketing directors, or only to people in the financial services industry. For B2B advertisers, LinkedIn profile targeting on Bing Ads is a genuine competitive advantage that [Google Ads can’t replicate](https://gauravtiwari.org/google-ads-facebook-ads/).

Why Consider Microsoft Advertising

If you’re only running Google Ads, you’re leaving conversions and revenue on the table. Here’s why you should advertise on Bing as part of your paid search strategy.

**Untapped audience reach.** Microsoft Advertising reaches people you’re missing on Google. About 36% of Bing searches happen on Bing exclusively, meaning those users don’t search on Google for those queries. If you’re not running Bing Ads, you’re invisible to that segment.

**Better ROI for many industries.** Lower CPCs with comparable conversion rates means better return on ad spend. I’ve seen Microsoft Advertising deliver 40-60% better ROAS than Google Ads for B2B SaaS, financial services, and professional services clients. The audience is primed to buy, and you’re paying less to reach them.

**Desktop-heavy audience.** About 60% of Bing searches happen on desktop, compared to roughly 40% for Google. Desktop users tend to have higher conversion rates and larger order values. If your product or service converts better on desktop (most B2B products do), Microsoft Advertising gives you more of the traffic that actually converts.

**Easy diversification.** Relying entirely on Google Ads is risky. Algorithm changes, policy updates, or sudden CPC spikes can tank your campaigns overnight. Running Microsoft Advertising alongside Google gives you a safety net. If your Google campaigns hit a rough patch, Bing Ads keep generating leads and sales.

**LinkedIn data integration.** No other search advertising platform lets you layer LinkedIn targeting onto search intent. Someone searching “project management software” who also happens to be a VP of Operations at a mid-size company? You can target them specifically with Microsoft Advertising. That precision is worth testing for any B2B advertiser.

Setting Up Your First Microsoft Advertising Campaign

Getting started with Microsoft Advertising is straightforward, especially if you already run Google Ads.

Step 1: Create Your Microsoft Advertising Account

Go to ads.microsoft.com and sign up with your Microsoft account. If you don’t have one, create one with your business email. The setup wizard walks you through entering your business information, billing details, and time zone. Microsoft often offers promotional credits ($100-$250 in free ad spend) for new advertisers, so check for current offers before signing up.

Step 2: Import from Google Ads (The Easy Way)

If you’re already running Google Ads, use the import feature. Go to Import > Import from Google Ads, sign in to your Google account, and select the campaigns you want to bring over. Microsoft Advertising imports your campaign structure, keywords, ad copy, extensions, and targeting settings. Review the import carefully. Some settings don’t translate perfectly, and you’ll want to adjust bids (usually lower them since Bing CPCs are cheaper).

Don’t just import and forget. The import is a starting point, not a finished strategy for Microsoft Advertising.

Step 3: Campaign Structure and Settings

If you’re building from scratch, structure your Microsoft Advertising campaigns the same way you’d structure Google Ads: organized by theme, with tightly grouped keywords in each ad group.

**Key settings to configure:**

• **Location targeting.** Microsoft Advertising defaults to “People in, searching for, or viewing pages about your targeted location.” Change this to “People in your targeted location” for more precise targeting.
• **Language.** Set to match your target audience.
• **Ad schedule.** Bing’s audience is heavily desktop and business-hours. Consider bidding higher during work hours (9 AM to 5 PM) when the professional audience is most active.
• **Device targeting.** You can set bid adjustments by device. Since Bing is desktop-heavy, you might increase desktop bids and decrease mobile bids initially.
• **Search partners.** Microsoft Advertising includes search partners (Yahoo, AOL, DuckDuckGo) by default. Monitor these separately and opt out if performance is poor.

Step 4: Set Your Budget

Start with 20-30% of your Google Ads budget when you first advertise on Bing. If your Google Ads monthly budget is $3,000, allocate $600-$900 to Microsoft Advertising initially. Since CPCs are lower, that budget will get you a proportionally larger number of clicks. After 2-4 weeks of data, adjust based on actual performance.

Step 5: Conversion Tracking

Install the UET (Universal Event Tracking) tag on your website. This is Microsoft Advertising’s equivalent of the Google Ads conversion tag. The UET tag tracks conversions, enables remarketing, and provides audience insights. You can install it via [Google Tag Manager](https://gauravtiwari.org/go/monsterinsights/) or directly in your site’s header. Set up conversion goals for form submissions, purchases, signups, or whatever actions matter to your business.

Best Practices for Microsoft Advertising

Running successful Bing Ads campaigns requires more than just importing Google campaigns and walking away. These practices will help you get better results from Microsoft Advertising.

**Don’t just clone Google campaigns.** The import feature is convenient, but Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads have different audiences, CPCs, and conversion patterns. After importing, adjust your bids downward (start at 70% of your Google bids), review keyword match types, and monitor performance separately. What works on Google won’t always work the same way on Bing.

**Use LinkedIn profile targeting for B2B.** If you’re selling to businesses, layer LinkedIn targeting onto your search campaigns. Target by industry, job function, or company size. You can bid higher for [high-value prospects](https://gauravtiwari.org/create-effective-ads-for-paid-advertising/) while keeping lower bids for general searches. This targeting alone justifies testing Microsoft Advertising for any B2B company.

**Optimize for desktop.** Since Bing’s audience is desktop-heavy, design your ads and landing pages for desktop first. Make sure your landing pages load fast on desktop (use [FlyingPress](https://gauravtiwari.org/go/flyingpress/) or similar performance plugins if you’re on WordPress). Desktop users expect clean, professional pages with clear calls to action above the fold.

**Adjust bids for demographics.** Microsoft Advertising gives you demographic bid adjustments for age, gender, and household income. Use the data from your first few weeks to increase bids for demographics that convert well and decrease bids for those that don’t. Bing’s higher-income audience means you might find sweet spots in the 35-54 age range and $100K+ income bracket.

**Test ad extensions aggressively.** Microsoft Advertising supports sitelink extensions, callout extensions, structured snippets, price extensions, and more. Extensions improve ad visibility and click-through rates without increasing your cost per click. I add every relevant extension to every campaign. There’s no downside.

**Monitor search partner performance separately.** The Microsoft Search Network includes partner sites beyond Bing. Some partners send quality traffic. Others don’t. Check your campaign performance by network (Bing vs. search partners) and exclude search partners if they’re dragging down your ROI.

Best Industries for Microsoft Advertising

Microsoft Advertising isn’t equally effective for every business. Some industries see exceptional performance when they advertise on Bing because of the platform’s audience demographics.

Industry	Avg. CPC (Bing)	Why It Works on Bing
B2B Software/SaaS	$1.80 – $3.50	Professional audience searching from work computers
Financial Services	$2.50 – $5.00	Higher-income audience, desktop research behavior
Legal Services	$3.00 – $8.00	50-70% cheaper than Google for legal keywords
Education	$1.20 – $2.80	Professional development searches from work
Real Estate	$1.50 – $3.00	High-income audience actively searching on desktop
Healthcare	$1.80 – $4.00	Older demographic researching health topics thoroughly
Home Services	$1.00 – $3.50	Homeowners with higher budgets for repairs/upgrades
Travel	$0.80 – $2.00	Disposable income, desktop booking behavior

**Industries where Bing Ads underperform.** If your target audience is under 25, mobile-first, or primarily uses social media for discovery, Microsoft Advertising probably won’t be your best channel. Fashion, gaming, and social app companies tend to see weaker results on Bing because the audience doesn’t match.

Is Microsoft Advertising Worth It for Small Businesses?

Yes, but with conditions. Microsoft Advertising is worth testing for almost any small business that’s already running [paid advertising campaigns](https://gauravtiwari.org/improve-ppc-advertising/) on Google. The lower CPCs mean your budget goes further, and the import feature means you don’t need to invest hours setting up new campaigns.

**Minimum budget.** You can start with as little as $5/day on Microsoft Advertising. I recommend starting with $10-15/day for at least 30 days to get meaningful data. That’s $300-$450 for a proper test. At Bing’s lower CPCs, that budget generates enough clicks to evaluate whether the platform works for your business.

**When to add Bing Ads to your mix.** Add Microsoft Advertising when you’ve got your Google Ads campaigns performing profitably and you want to scale. If Google is already working, Bing will likely work too, at a lower cost. Don’t use Microsoft Advertising as a replacement for Google. Use it as a supplement that diversifies your traffic sources and reduces your dependence on a single [digital marketing channel](https://gauravtiwari.org/digital-marketing-channels/).

**ROI expectation.** Expect Microsoft Advertising to deliver 20-40% fewer total conversions than Google (smaller audience) but at 30-50% lower cost per conversion. The math usually works out favorably. A client I work with gets 35 leads per month from Google Ads at $28 per lead and 12 leads per month from Bing Ads at $16 per lead. Both channels are profitable, but Bing’s cost per lead is 43% cheaper.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Start Advertising on Bing Today

If you’re spending money on Google Ads and not running Microsoft Advertising alongside it, you’re overpaying for part of your audience. Import your top-performing Google campaigns into Bing Ads, lower your bids by 30%, and let them run for 30 days. The lower CPCs, wealthier audience, and LinkedIn targeting make Microsoft Advertising one of the best-kept secrets in [PPC advertising](https://gauravtiwari.org/emerging-technologies-that-will-reshape-ppc-advertising/). You don’t need a massive budget to test it. $300 and 30 days is enough to know whether Bing Ads belong in your marketing mix permanently.