Microsoft (Bing) Ads Agency

Microsoft Ads operates a similar model to Google Ads – a pay-per-click (PPC) model, targeting users where they are searching for your products or services. Ads appear on a wide network, including Bing, Yahoo!, Duck Duck Go, and the Microsoft Audience Network.

There are several key differences between Microsoft Ads vs Google Ads:

• Less competition and less search volume
• Slightly lower CPCs (usually)
• LinkedIn audience targeting
• A generally older, more wealthy audience that’s more geared towards businesses
• 3-10% market share (vs Google’s 90%)
• More liberal match types (broad match on MS Ads can tend to bring in low-quality traffic as it’s so broad)

That said, Microsoft Ads does share some features with Google Ads (they are both on a pay-per-click model (primarily), they offer a similar variety of ad formats and the general principles are the same – meeting users where they’re searching for your products or services.

This makes sense, because Microsoft modelled their service on Google’s – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and Google’s model works. What’s more, it’s easy to import your Google Ad campaigns and your data feed, so you can replicate your account structure on Microsoft’s platform.

There are several different ad formats within Microsoft Ads, similar to what Google Ads offers. These are:

• Search ads (also known as Responsive Search Ads (RSA))
• Shopping ads
• Multimedia ads
• Microsoft Audience ads (the Microsoft equivalent of Display ads)
• Video and Connected TV (CTV) ads
• Vertical ads

The format you choose will depend on what you want to achieve and what you are promoting. If you’re building brand awareness, Microsoft Audience Ads are a great way to do this. If you’re promoting a new product, a video ad showcasing it, combined with Search Ads, will work well. We determine the best ad formats to meet your goals.

As with everything, it depends! As a general rule, we would recommend allocating around 5% of your Google budget, as that is typically the amount of traffic/conversions you can expect, relative to Google. 

As a starting figure, we would suggest a minimum of £500 per month, otherwise you will struggle to get the clicks you need.

Microsoft Ads is actually the perfect fit for B2B businesses for a few reasons:

• MS Ads owns LinkedIn, which enables brands to benefit from LinkedIn’s precise business audience targeting options.
• Many businesses use Windows computers, which default to Bing as a search engine, and a lot of users never bother to change this, which means if you’re on Microsoft Ads, you’re getting in front of a ready-made, high-intent user base.
• Competition is lower, so although there’s less traffic available, you’re not competing so heavily with other brands, and CPCs tend to be lower.

Absolutely. We manage both types of ads for several of our clients. And it’s very easy to import campaigns from Google to Bing Ads. You can set up a schedule to import changes from Google Ads every week, so you can ensure any improvements to your Google Ads account are carried over to your Microsoft account.

If you want to keep them separate, we can do that, too. Google will always bring in the bulk of your leads or sales, but Microsoft Ads is a fantastic way to supplement this. You’ll get lower numbers of sales or leads, but they will generally be of better quality, and at a lower cost per conversion. As a specialist Microsoft Ads agency, we’ll help you get the best out of both accounts.

You will start to see impressions and clicks coming through immediately, once your campaigns are live. You should start to see conversions coming through soon afterwards, usually within the same week. We find it takes between 1-3 months to reach peak performance, and after 3 months, you should be seeing a positive ROI.