Microsoft Advertising (Microsoft Ads)

Microsoft Advertising, renamed in 2019 from Bing Ads, is Microsoft's pay-per-click platform. Its core is search advertising: text ads that appear alongside results on the Bing search engine and on syndicated partners such as Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Beyond search, the Microsoft Audience Network places native ads across properties like MSN, Outlook, and the Edge browser, and the platform also offers shopping ads tied to a product feed. Advertisers import or build campaigns, bid in an auction on keywords, and pay only when someone clicks, the same pay-per-click model that runs paid search elsewhere. Because Microsoft owns LinkedIn, the platform can layer LinkedIn-based profile targeting such as company, industry, and job function onto search and audience campaigns, an option that is distinctive among search engines.

The reason advertisers add Microsoft Advertising is mostly about who and what it reaches that Google does not. Bing's share of search is far smaller than Google's, but the audience skews older and higher-income, and the platform sees meaningful use on work devices and in B2B contexts. Fewer advertisers compete in the auction than on Google, which can mean lower costs per click for similar intent. A common pattern is to import existing Google Ads campaigns, adjust bids and budgets, and treat Microsoft Advertising as incremental reach: clicks you were not capturing, often at a friendlier price, with the same keyword-and-bid mechanics your team already knows.

Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads share the same fundamentals: keyword auctions, quality-and-bid ranking, text and shopping ads, and a pay-per-click charge. The differences are reach, audience, and a few features. Google commands the lion's share of search, so it offers far more volume; Microsoft offers a smaller but distinct pool of searches across Bing and partners, frequently at lower competition and cost. Microsoft's LinkedIn-based targeting, layering company, industry, and job function, has no direct Google equivalent and is genuinely useful for B2B. Campaign import tools mean you rarely build Microsoft from scratch; you bring Google campaigns over and tune them. The honest framing is that Microsoft is usually an additive channel rather than a replacement for Google's volume.

Decide based on incrementality, not vanity reach. Run Microsoft Advertising when there is genuine search demand for your category and a meaningful slice of it sits with Bing's older, higher-income, or B2B-leaning users, or when Google costs are high enough that cheaper clicks materially help your blended economics. Watch performance separately rather than assuming Google benchmarks carry over, because conversion behavior and competition differ. Use the LinkedIn targeting where B2B precision pays off. And keep expectations grounded: the volume ceiling is lower, so Microsoft tends to complement a Google program and extend its efficiency rather than stand in for it.

Start by importing your best-performing Google Ads campaigns, then re-bid and re-budget for Microsoft's lower competition rather than copying Google's numbers blindly. Treat it as incremental search reach: measure it on its own conversions and cost, not on a hope that it mirrors Google. Lean into what is distinctive, the LinkedIn-based company, industry, and job-function targeting, when you sell to businesses, since that layer is hard to replicate elsewhere. Extend into the Microsoft Audience Network for native placements across MSN, Outlook, and Edge when you want reach beyond search, but keep search and audience performance separated so you can judge each fairly. Above all, size your expectations to the smaller share of search, and value Microsoft for the cheaper, distinct clicks it adds, not for matching Google's volume.

Microsoft Advertising, formerly Bing Ads, was renamed in 2019 and runs search and audience ads across Microsoft properties.

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