What Microsoft Advertising actually reaches
Microsoft Advertising places search ads on Bing, Yahoo and AOL results, on searches made from the Windows taskbar, Edge and Outlook.com, and in Microsoft’s Copilot experiences. It also runs an audience network of native placements across MSN and partner sites. The interface will look familiar to anyone who knows Google Ads, because the campaign, ad group, keyword and match type structure is deliberately similar.
In the accounts I have seen it earns its place on B2B, finance, insurance, professional services, home services and other considered purchases, where a smaller volume of cheaper clicks still produces enquiries. It is worth testing on a small budget rather than assuming either way.
Who it is worth running for
- Businesses selling in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, where Microsoft holds a meaningful share of desktop search and the cost per click is usually lower than Google’s for the same keyword.
- B2B and professional services, because a large share of the audience is searching from a work computer.
- Advertisers already at their limit on Google, who have taken all the profitable volume available there and need incremental leads rather than a cheaper source of the same ones.
- Accounts in expensive categories such as legal, finance and insurance, where a lower cost per click makes a marginal campaign viable.
It is usually not worth it as a first channel for a business selling only in Nepal, where search share is concentrated on Google, or for a small budget that is not yet fully invested in Google search ads. If your Google account is not yet profitable, fix that first; a free Google Ads audit will show whether it is.
Importing from Google Ads, and why a straight import underperforms
Microsoft offers a one-click import from Google Ads, and most agencies stop there. The import copies your campaigns; it does not adapt them. What I change after every import:
- Budgets and bids. Search volume is lower, so Google’s budgets and target CPAs are wrong on day one and automated bidding has less data to learn from.
- Keyword pruning. Long-tail terms that get impressions on Google may get none here. Carrying thousands of dead keywords hides the ones that work.
- Conversion tracking. Google’s conversion actions do not come across. The UET tag has to be installed and every conversion goal rebuilt and tested, or the account is optimizing blind.
- Campaign types. Not everything in a Google account has a like-for-like equivalent, and imported settings such as network targeting and audience expansion often default to something you would not choose.
- Ad copy. Copy written for a Google audience is a starting draft, not a finished ad, and Microsoft’s editorial rules differ in places.
After the first month the two accounts are managed separately. Re-importing on a schedule to “keep them in sync” quietly overwrites the optimizations that made the Microsoft account work.
Features Google does not have
Two are worth planning around. Microsoft owns LinkedIn, so campaigns can target or adjust bids by company, industry and job function from LinkedIn profile data, which is unusual in search and useful for B2B. And Microsoft’s shopping and feed tools accept a Google Merchant Center feed, so retail accounts can be extended without rebuilding product data. Where a client wants deeper professional targeting than search allows, LinkedIn Ads management is the companion channel.
Campaign types I run
| Type | Use |
|---|---|
| Search | The core of almost every account: high-intent keywords, tight ad groups, negatives maintained weekly |
| Shopping | Retail catalogues fed from an existing Merchant Center feed, mirroring Google Shopping |
| Performance Max | Where the account has enough conversion data to justify automation, run the same way as Performance Max on Google |
| Audience network | Native placements for retargeting and upper funnel, kept separate from search so it cannot eat the search budget |
| Remarketing | Lists built from the UET tag, aligned with the Google remarketing strategy |
Tracking before spending
The UET tag goes on the site through Google Tag Manager, alongside the tags you already have, and every conversion goal is fired as a test before the first campaign is enabled. Reporting is combined with your other channels in one Looker Studio dashboard so Microsoft is judged on the same cost per lead as everything else, not in its own interface where it always looks good. The wider setup is analytics and tracking, and the Google equivalent is Google Ads conversion tracking.
Markets and account access
Most of my Microsoft Advertising work is for businesses selling in Australia, the UK and the USA, alongside their Google accounts: see Google Ads for Australian businesses, Google Ads for UK businesses and Google Ads for US businesses. I work inside your own Microsoft Advertising account with the access you grant, and ad spend is billed by Microsoft to your payment method, so you keep the account and the history if we stop working together. Microsoft Advertising has supported Nepal since its 2022 market expansion, so a Nepal-registered business can hold its own account; billing still needs a card Microsoft accepts, which is the usual practical constraint.
Working arrangements for overseas clients, including currencies, invoicing and access, are on working with international clients.
Fees
Management is quoted per scope after a call and is on request. Where Microsoft runs alongside Google it is usually added to the existing engagement rather than priced as a second retainer, because the strategic work is shared. Engagements are month to month. Published results on this site come from Google Ads, Meta Ads and SEO work; there is no Microsoft Advertising case study yet.
Find out whether it is worth a second account
Book a free 30-minute call and I will look at your Google account, your markets and your margins, and tell you whether Microsoft would add profitable volume or just add admin. I reply within 4 business hours on business days.