Introduction
As PPC Advertising continues to evolve, businesses are constantly seeking new ways to reach their target audiences and optimize their advertising budgets. While Google Ads has long been the dominant player in the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising space, savvy marketers are beginning to explore alternative platforms that offer unique advantages. One such platform that has been gaining traction is Microsoft Ads.
While Google Ads continues to dominate PPC advertising, diversifying your PPC strategy is more critical than ever. Relying solely on one platform can limit your reach and expose your business to unnecessary risks, such as fluctuating costs or changing algorithms.
Having a backup strategy is where Microsoft Ads comes into play. Microsoft Ads offers a robust alternative to Google Ads, which allows businesses to tap into a different online audience segment, often at a lower cost.
Microsoft Ads is not just a secondary option; it’s a platform that has steadily increased its market share. This growth is driven by the integration of the ads platform with Bing, one of the world’s largest search engines, and LinkedIn, a leading professional networking site.
The expanding Microsoft ecosystem, which includes services like Microsoft Audience Network, LinkedIn, and Yahoo, allows advertisers to connect with a diverse and often underserved audience.
By leveraging Microsoft Ads, businesses can enhance their advertising strategies, reach new customers, and achieve better ROI than Google. Whether you’re looking to diversify your PPC efforts or explore new advertising opportunities, Microsoft Ads is a viable and increasingly essential digital marketing toolkit.
Why Some Businesses Stick to Google Ads
There are several understandable reasons why a business might decide to focus exclusively on Google Ads and forgo Microsoft Ads, at least initially:
- Limited Budgets: For startups or companies with tight marketing budgets, concentrating spend on one proven channel often feels like the safest bet. Spreading resources across multiple platforms might dilute results or stretch teams too thin.
- Familiarity and Experience: Many marketers have years of experience running campaigns on Google Ads, making it a comfortable and familiar choice. This expertise can lead to faster setup, better optimization, and more predictable outcomes.
- Simplicity for Beginners: If you’re just starting out with PPC advertising, managing multiple platforms can be overwhelming. Focusing on Google Ads allows newcomers to master one system before branching out.
- Specific Business Needs: Sometimes, a company’s target market is more active on Google’s network, or certain features critical to a campaign are only available via Google Ads.
- Time Constraints: Smaller teams or agencies may lack the manpower to effectively monitor, analyze, and optimize campaigns across several platforms.
While these factors can make sticking with Google Ads a logical short-term strategy, it’s still wise to regularly reassess your options as your business and goals evolve.
The Benefits of Using Microsoft Ads
Lower Competition
One key advantage of Microsoft Ads is the lower competition compared to Google Ads. With fewer advertisers bidding on keywords, especially in certain niches, businesses can often enjoy a lower cost-per-click (CPC).
The lower competition can translate into more efficient PPC campaigns, allowing businesses to stretch their advertising budget further and potentially achieve a higher return on investment (ROI). Additionally, the less crowded auction environment on Microsoft Ads provides more opportunities for ads to stand out, making it an attractive option for businesses seeking visibility at a lower cost.
Audience Demographics
Microsoft Ads serves a unique audience, particularly on platforms like Bing and Yahoo. The user base on these search engines tends to be older and have higher incomes. The higher income and age factors make them an ideal target for businesses selling premium products or services.
These demographics are often overlooked by advertisers focused solely on Google. I know what you’re thinking: doesn’t Google have an older demographic you can target too? They do, but not everyone in the 55 – 65+ age range uses Google Chrome.
Many of these people use PCs preloaded with Microsoft Edge, which leverages Bing as its default browser.
Since many of these people don’t know how to change their browser options to make Google Chrome their default browser, they happily use Bing to find products and services just like they would on Google.
By leveraging Microsoft Ads, businesses can tap into this niche market segment, potentially increasing conversion rates and driving more qualified leads with higher incomes.
Enhanced Targeting Options within the Microsoft Ecosystem
Another significant benefit of using Microsoft Ads is its enhanced targeting capabilities, primarily through LinkedIn profile targeting. This feature allows advertisers to target users based on their professional profiles, including job titles, industries, and company sizes.
For B2B marketers, this precise targeting can be incredibly powerful, enabling campaigns to reach decision-makers and influencers within specific organizations. By combining LinkedIn’s professional data with Microsoft Ads’ robust platform, businesses can create highly targeted campaigns that resonate with professional audiences.
Additionally, targeting LinkedIn audiences through Microsoft Ads is often more cost-effective than running LinkedIn Ads themselves because anyone who has ever run or managed ads on LinkedIn knows that CPCs are higher on the platform and often lead to lower ROIs.
Use Cases for Microsoft Ads
B2B Advertising
The most compelling use case for Microsoft Ads has to be B2B advertising. While it can also work for B2C marketing, we noticed the sweet spot is B2B advertising. During past campaigns, we noticed that older decision-makers usually convert through various Microsoft audiences.
While Google traffic often leads to key decision-makers submitting quote requests or contact forms to obtain additional information, we noticed that Google Ads tend to have younger “gatekeepers” submitting forms or requesting information on behalf of an employer or key decision-maker.
As mentioned before, Microsoft Ads have much lower CPCs and lead conversion costs (CPAs), which lead to better ROIs for businesses looking to provide services to other businesses.
This is not always the case, but on more than one occasion, we noticed our Microsoft campaigns had shorter sales cycles than our Google campaigns while also having lower lead acquisition costs.
While we don’t have exact data on why this happened, we assumed that since we were connecting with a key decision maker ready to move forward with a purchase, it reduced the back-and-forth quotes and proposal negotiations, ultimately saving the advertiser time and money.
Niche Markets
Another significant use case for Microsoft Ads is its effectiveness in reaching niche markets, particularly those that use Bing and Yahoo as their primary search engines.
In some situations, businesses that fall into more niche categories can take advantage of traffic volume on these platforms vs those found on Google.
If you have previously advertised on Google, you might have noticed that your industry had access to very few keywords because users on Google are not actively searching for these topics.
Since Google Ads uses an auction-based system, keywords with little traffic and virtually no competition will often never serve ads because you would otherwise win the auction every time.
In these instances, you will often see a warning message next to the keyword, letting you know the keyword and the ad did not “serve” because there was insufficient search volume for that keyword on that given day, week, or month.
In rare cases, you find that search volume for a particular keyword is higher in Microsoft Ads, meaning your ads will be seen by more people across the Microsoft ecosystem than the Google ecosystem.
Some other considerations for using Microsoft Ads include e-commerce marketing for B2B and B2C brands. Microsoft advertising includes taking advantage of Microsoft’s Display Network and video advertising. Microsoft video ads may not have the reach of YouTube advertising on Google, but the massive cost difference makes it a viable option for businesses debating video advertising.
Industries That Perform Well with Microsoft Ads
While many of these industries are not niche industries, below are a few industries we’ve seen perform well with Microsoft Advertising.
- Finance
- Healthcare
- Legal Services
- Manufacturing
- Professional Services
- Transportation
- E-commerce
Supplementing Google Ads
For businesses already running Google Ads campaigns, Microsoft Ads offers an excellent opportunity to broaden their reach. Microsoft Ads can effectively supplement your existing PPC strategy by targeting an audience that may not be as active on Google but is still highly valuable.
By using both platforms, businesses can ensure they are not missing out on potential customers who prefer Bing or other search engines within the Microsoft ecosystem.
KnewChoice will often recommend that businesses expand their marketing efforts to Microsoft Ads before considering social media advertising.
We recommend this because not all businesses have the necessary resources or brand voice to expand into social media effectively. For businesses that fall into this category, we recommend leveraging an often-overlooked PPC platform, such as Microsoft, as you only pay when someone clicks your ads. This differs from social media, where you pay for clicks and impressions.
We recommend this approach because Microsoft Ads and Google Ads are virtually identical.
When Does Expanding to Microsoft Ads Make Sense?
While Google Ads is usually the first stop for most businesses, there are clear scenarios where expanding to Microsoft Ads is a smart move:
- Industry Fit: Microsoft Ads can be especially effective for B2B verticals such as SaaS, manufacturing, finance, legal, and industries that target older consumers—many of whom default to Bing or other Microsoft-powered search engines because their devices came preloaded with them. This segment often includes homeowners and decision-makers with significant purchasing power.
- Market Saturation: If you’re starting to max out or saturate your market on Google—especially with Local campaigns or if your industry has low search volume—it’s a good time to layer on Microsoft Ads to capture additional incremental traffic.
- Lower Competition, Lower Costs: Microsoft Ads generally has less competition since many advertisers focus primarily on Google. This often translates into lower cost-per-click (CPC), making it a cost-effective channel to test, particularly in industries where Google CPCs are high.
- Search Volume Differences: While Microsoft Ads claims to cover a significant share of search traffic (about 25% in the U.S.), in practice, ad budgets often spend about 10% of what you might spend on Google due to actual search volume. However, in certain niches, search volume on Microsoft can be higher than expected, presenting unique opportunities.
Additionally, Microsoft offers campaign types beyond traditional Search, including Shopping campaigns and newly launched campaign formats that mirror what’s available on Google. This allows brands to test and diversify without reinventing the wheel.
By supplementing your Google Ads efforts with Microsoft Ads, you can build a more comprehensive PPC strategy—capturing audiences across multiple search engines and ensuring you’re reaching as many potential customers as possible, all while keeping costs in check.
Similarities to Google Ads
Similar Campaign Structures
When comparing Microsoft Ads vs Google Ads, one of the most noticeable similarities is the campaign structure. Both platforms offer a familiar framework that includes campaigns, ad groups, and individual ads.
This uniformity makes it easier for advertisers to manage both platforms simultaneously, streamlining PPC platform management. Whether you’re setting up a new campaign or optimizing an existing one, the navigation and organization of your ads will feel intuitive if you’re already accustomed to Google Ads.
The similarity is particularly beneficial for businesses looking to diversify their PPC strategy without learning an entirely new system from scratch.
Shared Features
Another significant aspect of comparing Microsoft Ads and Google Ads is the features that are shared between the two platforms. Both offer robust keyword bidding systems, allowing advertisers to bid on specific keywords relevant to their target audience. Keyword match types include Broad, Phrase, and Exact, and you can also create negative keyword lists just like Google does.
The similarities include ad extensions—such as site link extensions, callout extensions, and structured snippets—available on both platforms, enabling advertisers to enhance their ads with additional information and links.
Audience targeting is another shared feature, with both platforms offering demographic targeting, location targeting, and retargeting options. These standard features allow advertisers to apply similar strategies across both PPC platforms without compromising the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Differences in Keyword Match Type Behavior
It’s worth noting that, while Microsoft Ads and Google Ads share keyword match types—including Broad, Phrase, and Exact—the way these match types function isn’t always identical across the platforms. In practice, Broad Match keywords on Microsoft Ads tend to cast a much wider net than you might expect, frequently triggering your ads for less relevant searches compared to Google Ads. This broader interpretation can lead to an influx of lower-quality traffic if not closely monitored.
As a result, advertisers who are used to relying on Broad Match in Google Ads may find themselves leaning more heavily on Phrase or Exact Match when managing campaigns in Microsoft Ads. This helps maintain relevancy and control over ad spend, ensuring your ads appear for the search queries most closely aligned with your objectives. Careful management of negative keyword lists is also especially important on Microsoft’s network to filter out mismatched queries.
Ad Formats and Reporting
Both Microsoft Ads and Google Ads offer a variety of ad formats to suit different advertising goals. Search ads are the most common format on both platforms, appearing alongside search results on Bing and Google, respectively.
Shopping ads are also available on both platforms, allowing e-commerce businesses to showcase their products directly in search results with images, prices, and product descriptions.
In addition to Search and Shopping campaigns, Microsoft Ads recently introduced Performance Max campaigns—providing advertisers with even more options to reach their target audience across multiple channels. This expansion mirrors the continual evolution of Google Ads’ own campaign types, making it easier for advertisers to diversify their strategies without leaving the familiar territory of either platform.
Additional ad formats available on both platforms include:
- Responsive Search Ads
- Display & Native Ads
- Shopping Ads
- App Install Ads
- Video Ads
- Call-Only Ads
With this wide range of campaign types and ad formats, both Microsoft Ads and Google Ads ensure advertisers have the flexibility and tools needed to achieve a variety of marketing objectives, whether that’s driving website visits, increasing app downloads, or boosting online sales.
- Click-Through Rates (CTR)
- Conversion Rates
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
- Purchases (e-commerce)
Like Google, Microsoft campaign data can be added to custom reporting platforms like Looker Studio to monitor campaign and ad performance as needed. The reporting simplification makes it easy to keep a pulse on both traffic channels so that changes can be made quickly.
The section below focuses on how Microsoft Ads has made importing an entire campaign’s structures easy from platforms like Google, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Conversion Tracking: Microsoft Ads vs. Google Ads
One notable difference between Microsoft Ads and Google Ads lies in how they handle conversion tracking, particularly for ecommerce and lead generation.
For lead generation campaigns, Google Ads offers a built-in, free call tracking function that allows you to track phone call conversions by embedding a snippet of code directly on your site. In contrast, Microsoft Ads doesn’t provide an out-of-the-box phone call tracking option, so you’ll typically want to use a third-party solution like CallRail. Tools like CallRail let you monitor phone calls and integrate those conversion events back into your Microsoft Ads account, ensuring that important offline actions are captured just as effectively as clicks and form fills.
On the ecommerce side, if your store operates on Shopify, Microsoft Ads has a dedicated app—much like Google’s offering—that streamlines the process of tracking purchases and other key actions. Simply install the Microsoft Ads app within Shopify, connect your relevant accounts, and the integration will automatically sync your ecommerce data for accurate conversion measurement.
Overall, while the fundamentals of conversion tracking are similar between the two platforms and most standard web conversions can be tracked similarly, you’ll want to plan for these slight differences—particularly around phone call tracking and platform integrations—when setting up campaigns across both Microsoft and Google Ads.
Key Considerations for Updating Tracking and UTM Tags
When transitioning your PPC campaigns from Google Ads to Microsoft Ads, it’s essential to update your tracking and UTM tags so that your analytics reflect the correct traffic sources. Here are some important steps and best practices to keep in mind:
- Update UTM Source Tags: Be sure to switch any UTM parameters referencing “google” as the source over to “microsoft” (or a preferred naming convention) to ensure accurate channel attribution in your analytics platforms.
- Set Budgets Appropriately: Instead of importing your existing Google Ads budget directly, evaluate and adjust it based on expected performance in Microsoft Ads. Many advertisers find that spend on Microsoft Ads is often significantly lower, so setting an identical budget may either leave budget unused or lead to less efficient results.
- Adjust Bids to Platform Norms: Don’t simply mirror your Google Ads bids. With typically less competition, Microsoft Ads often requires lower bids. Start by decreasing your initial bids—sometimes up to 50-70% lower—then monitor and refine based on performance.
- Ecommerce Conversion Tracking: For ecommerce campaigns, Microsoft Ads has an app similar to what you may have used for Google, allowing easy connection with major platforms like Shopify. Set this up early to capture conversion data without extra manual steps.
- Lead Generation Tracking: If you rely on phone call tracking, remember that unlike Google, Microsoft doesn’t offer native call conversion tracking. In this scenario, a third-party solution like CallRail is effective for bridging this gap, allowing you to pass lead events back into Microsoft Ads for comprehensive reporting.
By paying close attention to these tracking and attribution details during your migration, you’ll preserve campaign insights and ensure consistent performance measurement across both platforms.
How to Import Campaigns from Other Platforms
Google Ads to Microsoft Ads
One of the most seamless transitions you can make in PPC campaign migration is moving your campaigns from Google Ads to Microsoft Ads. Microsoft Ads offers a straightforward import tool that simplifies this process. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you navigate this migration:
Please keep in mind that this process has changed slightly over the years. Microsoft occasionally moves or changes the names of the tabs where you can access these features.
Access the Import Tool:
Log in to your Microsoft Ads account and navigate to the “Import Campaigns” tab. Select the option to import directly from Google Ads.
- Sign in to Google Ads: You’ll be prompted to sign in to your Google Ads account to allow Microsoft Ads to access your campaign data.
- Choose Campaigns to Import: Select the specific campaigns, ad groups, and ads you wish to import. You can also import other settings, such as budgets, bids, and targeting options.
- Review and Adjust Settings: Before finalizing the import, review the campaign settings. Pay close attention to bid adjustments, location targeting, and budget settings, as these may need to be tweaked to align with Microsoft Ads’ platform-specific nuances.
- Start the Import: Once everything looks good, initiate the import. The process typically takes a few minutes, depending on the size of your campaign.
- Post-Import Review: After importing, it’s crucial to review your campaigns within Microsoft Ads. Look out for discrepancies in keyword bids, match types, ad extensions, and monthly budgets to ensure everything aligns with your PPC strategy on this new platform.
*Additional Notes: If you want to simplify your life further, you can manage all of your campaigns inside Google and then set up your Microsoft account to auto-import your Google campaigns daily, weekly, or monthly.
However, this strategy should only be used if you plan to use the same monthly budget on both platforms and target the exact keywords and audiences.
If you plan to have different budgets or only want to target specific keywords, ensure you have not selected or set up auto imports in your Microsoft Ads account; otherwise, your current settings will be overwritten in favor of the most recent Google import settings.
Importing from Facebook and Pinterest
Expanding your PPC campaigns beyond search engines is increasingly common, and Microsoft Ads facilitates this by allowing imports from platforms like Facebook and Pinterest. While these platforms differ from search-based advertising, the import process can still be quite effective:
- Prepare Your Campaign Data: Export your campaign data from Facebook or Pinterest. Ensure that your ad creatives, targeting settings, and budgets are well-documented.
- Access the Import Tool: Like with Google Ads, you can start by navigating to the “Import Campaigns” tab in Microsoft Ads. Here, you can upload a file containing your campaign data from Facebook or Pinterest.
- Adjust Targeting: Since Facebook and Pinterest ads are primarily audience-based rather than keyword-based, you must adjust the targeting settings to fit the Microsoft Ads format. Adjusting your targeting might require defining new keywords or selecting appropriate demographics that align with your imported audience data.
- Modify Budget Settings: The budget structure in Facebook and Pinterest ads also differs from Microsoft Ads. Review and adjust your daily or campaign budgets to fit Microsoft Ads’ spending patterns.
Review and Launch: Once your campaigns are imported, carefully review the ad copy, targeting, and budget settings. Make any necessary adjustments to optimize for the Microsoft Ads platform before launching.
Key Differences and Considerations When Importing to Microsoft Ads
Although importing campaigns from other platforms streamlines cross-channel management, it’s important to recognize that Microsoft Ads isn’t simply a clone of Google, Facebook, or Pinterest. Here are some distinct factors to account for during the import and optimization process:
- Lower Competition, Lower Volume: Microsoft Ads typically sees less competition than Google, which can result in lower costs per click (CPC). However, expect lower search volume, so you may not achieve the same scale as on other platforms. That said, this often translates to a more profitable return on ad spend for the right campaigns.
- Match Types and Traffic Quality: Microsoft Ads is more liberal with its Broad Match keywords, often bringing in a higher proportion of low-quality traffic than Google. To maintain quality, consider favoring Phrase and Exact Match types when importing campaigns that use Broad Match elsewhere.
- Adjust Budgets and Bids Appropriately: Don’t simply copy budgets and bids from your existing campaigns. Budgets set too high may go unspent or, worse, be exhausted inefficiently. Many advertisers find they spend about 10% of what they do on Google. Similarly, because competition is lighter, reduce your bids—often by 50–70%—to align with Microsoft’s marketplace.
- UTM Tag Updates: If you’re using UTM tracking (highly recommended), be sure to update tags to reflect Microsoft as the source, rather than leaving Google or Facebook tags in place.
- Unique Targeting Features: Microsoft Ads offers the added benefit of LinkedIn profile targeting, letting you segment audiences based on company, job function, or industry—ideal for B2B campaigns.
- Conversion Tracking Nuances: If you’re running ecommerce campaigns on Shopify, Microsoft offers an app similar to Google’s for seamless conversion tracking. For lead generation, note that Microsoft does not have a built-in call tracking solution like Google. Tools like CallRail can help bridge this gap, ensuring phone call conversions are accurately tracked and pushed back into Microsoft Ads.
Best Practices for Campaign Importing
When moving your campaigns to a new platform like Microsoft Ads, following best practices can ensure a smoother transition and better performance:
- Tailor to Platform-Specific Features: After importing, customize your campaigns to leverage Microsoft Ads’ unique features. For example, use LinkedIn profile targeting, which isn’t available on other platforms.
- Refine Audience Targeting: Adjust your targeting settings to match the unique demographics of the Microsoft Ads audience, which tends to skew slightly older and more affluent compared to Google or Facebook.
- Test and Optimize: Test and Optimize: Post-import, monitoring your campaigns’ performance is vital. A/B test different ad variations, refine keyword lists, and adjust bids to see what works best in this new environment.
Be careful with Imported Budgets and Bids: One important detail—don’t just import your budget from Google and call it a day. In most cases, advertisers spend only about 10% of what they do on Google, so setting an overly high budget is either unnecessary or could even lead to wasted spend on low-quality traffic. Instead, start with a conservative budget and scale up as you see results.
Similarly, bids shouldn’t be directly copied over without a plan. Because competition is generally lower, there’s no need to bid as aggressively. Consider lowering your bids by 50–70% to better align with platform norms and avoid overspending right out of the gate.
Leverage AI Tools: Microsoft Ads offers AI-driven tools to help optimize your campaigns. Utilize features like automated bidding strategies and dynamic search ads to enhance performance when necessary.
Leverage AI Tools: Microsoft Ads offers AI-driven tools to help optimize your campaigns. Utilize features like automated bidding strategies and dynamic search ads to enhance performance when necessary.
By understanding these platform differences and following a thorough import and review process, you’ll be better positioned to maximize your results as you expand your PPC efforts across Microsoft Ads and beyond.
Conclusion
As search engines and their usage evolve, monitoring how those changes affect your business closely is essential. Over the years, Google and Microsoft changed how their platforms target potential customers, added new features, removed features to comply with privacy laws, and leveraged AI.
Many of these changes will continue to evolve, and while Google remains a powerhouse in PPC advertising, you shouldn’t overlook PPC platforms like Microsoft when engaging with potential customers.
KnewChoice highly recommends expanding PPC advertising to Microsoft because of several key benefits that can significantly impact your PPC advertising strategy. The platform’s lower competition means more cost-effective campaigns, allowing businesses to achieve a higher return on investment.
Additional benefits already addressed in this article include:
- Unique audience demographics, particularly the older, higher-income users on Bing and Yahoo
- Niche market targeting
- Enhanced targeting options
- LinkedIn profile targeting
- Campaign importing from other platforms
Whether you’re looking to supplement your existing campaigns or explore new advertising opportunities, Microsoft Ads provides the tools and audience you need to achieve your marketing goals.
If you have any questions or need help building a marketing campaign on Microsoft Ads, KnewChoice is here to help. Please fill out the form below; a team member will be happy to offer you a free consultation.
