Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads) Guide: Is It Worth Adding?

Microsoft Advertising, still widely called Bing Ads, lets you place search ads on Bing and partner networks. It is smaller than Google in most markets, so many advertisers ignore it. That can be a mistake or a sensible choice, depending on your audience and budget. This guide helps you decide.

Reach, audience mix and features differ by country and change over time, so check the current picture for your target market before committing.

Who might benefit

• Businesses already getting steady results from Google Search who want extra volume.
• B2B or desktop-heavy audiences, such as office users, which may skew towards certain browsers and devices. Verify this with your own data rather than assuming.
• Advertisers whose Google keywords have become very expensive.
• Brands that want to protect their name on more than one search engine.

Who should wait

If your Google account is still unstable, fix that first. Spreading a tiny budget across two platforms usually helps neither. Start with the basics in Google Ads for beginners.

Importing from Google Ads

Microsoft offers an import tool that copies campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads from your Google account. This saves time, but do not treat the import as finished work.

After importing:

1. Review budgets and bids. Volume is usually lower, so budgets can start smaller.
2. Check match types and negative keywords carried over correctly.
3. Confirm location and language settings.
4. Set up conversion tracking with the Microsoft tag. It does not inherit from Google. See the conversion tracking setup guide.
5. Review ad text for length and policy differences.

Things that differ

• Audience and device mix may differ from your Google traffic.
• Costs per click are sometimes lower, but that is not guaranteed, and lower volume can offset it.
• Reporting interfaces and available features differ.
• Search partner placements may need separate review.

Running it as a test

Give Microsoft Advertising a limited budget for a defined period. Compare cost per conversion and lead quality against Google, using the same conversion definition. Keep UTM tagging consistent using the UTM parameters guide so analytics can separate sources cleanly.

Hypothetical example

Imagine an accounting software reseller in Mumbai with a steady Google Search campaign. It imports its top-performing campaigns, trims the budget to a small share of the Google spend, sets up separate conversion tracking and checks lead quality after a month. If the cost per qualified lead is acceptable, it considers increasing the budget gradually. This is a hypothetical illustration.