Microsoft Ads (formerly Bing Ads) serves the Microsoft Search Network: Bing, plus syndicated partners including Yahoo and DuckDuckGo's paid results, plus — critically — search traffic from devices where Microsoft is the default search engine, most notably Windows PCs that haven't had their default changed, and any device using Microsoft Edge. That default-device distribution is the real driver of its audience skew: desktop and work-computer usage is overrepresented relative to Google's more mobile-heavy traffic mix, which correlates with an audience that is on average somewhat older and, in several markets, skews toward higher household income — a byproduct of who still uses a company-issued or default-configuration Windows laptop for search rather than a demographic targeting feature of the platform itself.

The practical implication: Microsoft Ads traffic behaves less like 'Google's little sibling' and more like a parallel but meaningfully different population, with different device mix, different time-of-day patterns (more weekday/work-hours search), and often different conversion rates for the same keyword — sometimes better for B2B and higher-ticket consumer categories, sometimes worse for anything mobile-first or impulse-driven.

The import-from-Google-Ads workflow

Microsoft Ads' single biggest practical advantage for adoption is the native Google Ads import tool: it reads an existing, already-optimized Google Ads account — campaigns, ad groups, keywords, match types, ad copy, extensions, even some bidding settings — and recreates that structure inside Microsoft Ads in a few clicks, rather than requiring a rebuild from scratch. This collapses what would otherwise be weeks of account-building work into an afternoon, and it means the decision to test Microsoft Ads carries almost no setup cost beyond the recurring management time.

Import is a starting point, not a finish line. Keyword-level performance between the two engines won't match — some keywords that convert well on Google underperform on Microsoft Ads and vice versa — so the imported account needs its own optimization pass within a few weeks: pausing underperformers, adjusting bids independently, and not assuming identical match-type behavior, since Microsoft Ads' broad match and phrase match keyword expansion logic doesn't track Google's one-for-one.

Google Ads vs. Microsoft Ads at a glance

Dimension	Google Ads	Microsoft Ads
Search volume / reach	Far larger — dominant global search share	Smaller, but non-trivial (double-digit % share in US desktop search)
Typical CPC	Higher in most competitive categories	Often 20-50% lower for the same keyword
Device mix	Mobile-heavy	Desktop-heavy (Windows default, work computers)
Audience skew	Broad, mirrors general population	Skews slightly older, higher income in some markets, more B2B/work context
Account setup	Build native	One-click import from an existing Google Ads account

bing_import_checklist.txt

text

1. Import Google Ads account into Microsoft Ads (native import tool)
2. Re-verify conversion tracking fires correctly (UET tag, not just assume parity)
3. Check keyword match-type expansion — Microsoft's broad/phrase logic ≠ Google's
4. Set independent bids — do not assume Google CPC-derived bids are optimal here
5. Exclude or separately manage LinkedIn Profile Targeting if B2B-relevant
6. Let 2-4 weeks of data accumulate before judging per-keyword performance
7. Prune imported keywords with zero Microsoft-specific volume or poor CTR

LinkedIn Profile Targeting: a B2B-specific edge

Microsoft Ads has one targeting capability Google Ads simply doesn't offer: LinkedIn Profile Targeting, which layers LinkedIn's professional firmographic data (company, industry, job function) on top of Microsoft Search Network keyword targeting, because Microsoft owns LinkedIn. This lets a B2B search campaign narrow its audience to, for example, searchers at companies in a specific industry or seniority band — combining search intent with firmographic precision in a way that's structurally unavailable on Google Search ads. For B2B advertisers already running LinkedIn Ads campaigns, this is a natural extension that reuses the same targeting logic in a different (lower-cost, intent-driven) placement.

The lower-CPC case has to be made per-category, not assumed

Lower CPCs on Microsoft Ads are real on average but not universal — some highly competitive consumer categories see Microsoft CPCs converge close to Google's as more advertisers notice the opportunity and bid it up. The decision to add Microsoft Ads as a channel should be justified by a test: import, run for a few weeks, and compare blended CPA against Google Ads for the same keyword set, rather than assumed from general industry benchmarks.

Smaller volume means slower learning and noisier automated bidding

Microsoft Ads' smaller traffic volume means automated bidding strategies (Target CPA, Target ROAS) take longer to accumulate enough conversion data to perform reliably, and performance will look noisier week to week purely from smaller sample sizes — not necessarily from real performance swings. Give Microsoft Ads campaigns a longer evaluation window than you would on Google before concluding a bidding strategy isn't working.

What's next

For organizations running paid search on both engines at real scale, managing bidding and reporting separately per engine eventually becomes the bottleneck — Search Ads 360 Basics covers the cross-engine management layer built specifically for that problem.

Next: Search Ads 360 Basics →

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