Is Microsoft Advertising Worth It In 2026?

At least once a month a founder asks me the same question on a call: “Should we bother with Bing?” My answer is nearly always yes, with conditions. Microsoft Advertising is worth it in 2026 for most advertisers already profitable on Google Search, especially B2B and higher-value lead gen, because the search intent is the same, the competition is thinner, and it now carries LinkedIn profile data and Copilot placements that Google can’t offer. It is not worth it if your Google account is broken, because importing a broken account just gives you two of them.

This post covers where Microsoft Ads genuinely pays off, who should skip it for now, how to import from Google without dragging the bad habits across, and the 90-day test I use to decide whether it stays in the plan.

Where does Microsoft Advertising actually pay off?

Most people treat Microsoft as “Google, but smaller”. That undersells it. The volume is smaller, yes. The audience and the targeting are different enough to change the maths.

Thinner auctions

Fewer advertisers bid on Microsoft, and many who do are running a lazy copy of their Google account with no one watching it. That’s your opening. When the auction is less crowded and half your competitors are on autopilot, a properly managed account tends to buy clicks more cheaply than it can on Google. I won’t quote you a universal CPC discount, because it varies wildly by sector, but on the same keywords Microsoft usually comes in cheaper than Google.

A desktop and work-device audience

Bing is the default search engine in Windows and Edge, and a lot of searches happen on work machines during office hours. That skews the audience towards people at a desk, with a card or a purchase order nearby. For B2B, professional services, finance and considered purchases, that’s exactly who you want.

LinkedIn profile targeting

This is the feature that wins the argument for B2B. Microsoft is the only ad platform other than LinkedIn itself that lets you use LinkedIn profile data. You can layer company, industry and job function onto Search, Dynamic Search, Shopping, Audience and Performance Max campaigns.

Know how it works before you rely on it. On search campaigns it is bid only, not a filter. Targeting “finance” as a job function doesn’t stop anyone else seeing the ad. It lets you push bids up for the people you want and pull them down for the ones you don’t. That’s a precise lever on a search click, and nothing in Google gets close. I wrote more about using it for pipeline in our guide to Bing Ads for B2B lead generation.

Copilot placements

Microsoft now serves ads inside Copilot answers. Eligible campaigns are opted in automatically, using your existing assets, and you can’t opt out. Search ads need logo assets to qualify, alongside Shopping, Performance Max and multimedia formats.

So add a logo. It costs you nothing, and an account without one simply can’t show in the newest placement Microsoft has. I’d treat Copilot as a bonus on top of a sound search account rather than a reason to launch on its own, but it’s a real one.

Who should skip Microsoft Ads for now?

Not everyone should launch this quarter. Hold off if:

• Your Google account isn’t profitable yet. Fix the source first. Microsoft amplifies whatever you feed it.
• Your budget is already too thin on Google. If Google campaigns are limited by budget on your core terms, the next pound belongs there. Our guide on how to set a PPC budget walks through that call.
• Your conversion tracking is shaky. No Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag, no offline conversions, no clean goal? You’ll have nothing to judge the test on.
• Your audience is mostly young and mobile-first. A pure Gen Z consumer brand will usually get more from TikTok or Meta.

Everyone else should run the test. The downside is small and capped. The upside is a second search channel that often converts at a lower cost than the first.

How to import from Google without copying the mistakes

Microsoft’s Google Import is genuinely good. It brings across Search, Performance Max, Shopping feeds and more in a few clicks. That speed is also the trap. It copies everything, including the decisions you’d never make again.

Work through this before you hit import.

1. Audit the Google account first. Strip out wasted search terms, dead ad groups and stale ads. If you need a checklist, use our Google Ads audit checklist.
2. Import selected campaigns, not the whole account. Start with your best-performing Search campaigns on proven, high-intent terms. Leave the experiments behind.
3. Clear the audience bid adjustments. Remarketing and customer list adjustments come across pointing at lists that are empty on Microsoft. Those modifiers were built on Google data and mean nothing here.
4. Reset bids and budgets deliberately. Don’t let Google’s numbers decide Microsoft’s. Set a test budget you’ve chosen on purpose.
5. Install UET and import conversions properly. Set up UET with conversion goals that match what you optimise to on Google, so the comparison is fair.
6. Add logo assets. Required for Copilot eligibility on search ads, as above.

Turn off scheduled imports, or control them

This is the mistake I see most often. Microsoft lets you schedule imports daily, weekly or monthly. With the bids and budgets update settings switched on, every scheduled import can overwrite the bids, bid strategies and campaign budgets you changed in Microsoft with whatever is in Google. If “updates to existing items” is on, paused or enabled status syncs too.

So you cut a bid on Monday, the weekly import runs on Tuesday, and your change is gone. Decide which platform is the source of truth. Once the Microsoft account is running, I either switch scheduled imports off completely or untick the bid, bid strategy and budget update settings so Microsoft is managed on its own data.

How to judge Microsoft Ads in 90 days

Give it a fair test with a hard finish line. Here’s the structure I use.

Phase	Weeks	What you do	What you judge
Launch	1 to 3	Import core Search campaigns, clean settings, add negatives from the search terms report	Is it spending? Are search terms relevant?
Learn	4 to 8	Add LinkedIn profile bid adjustments for B2B, trim waste, test ad copy	CPA and conversion rate trend vs Google
Decide	9 to 12	Shift budget to what works, cut what doesn’t	CPA or ROAS against your Google target

Three rules make the decision honest:

• Judge it on the same metric as Google. If Google is held to a £120 CPA, so is Microsoft. Don’t grade it on a curve because it’s smaller.
• Expect lower volume. Microsoft will deliver a fraction of Google’s clicks. That’s fine. You’re judging efficiency and incremental leads, not scale.
• Look at the leads, not just the count. For B2B, check what sales says about Microsoft leads. In my experience they’re often better quality than Google’s, which is the whole point.

If Microsoft hits your target CPA after 90 days, scale it until returns flatten. If it’s close, keep trimming for another month. If it’s nowhere near after a clean test, switch it off and put the budget back into Google. That’s a decision, not a failure.

What to do next

Start small and specific. Pick your two or three best Search campaigns, clean them on Google, import only those, kill the scheduled sync, add logos and UET, then put a date in the diary 90 days out. Most advertisers who run this properly keep the channel. The ones who give up usually imported everything, never looked at it again, and blamed Bing.

Want a second opinion before you launch?

We run Microsoft alongside Google for clients every day, and I’d rather you launch it properly than copy a broken account into a second platform. Start with a free PPC audit and we’ll tell you whether Microsoft is worth testing for your business and which campaigns to bring across. If you want us to run it, see how our Microsoft Ads management works.

FAQ

Is Microsoft Advertising cheaper than Google Ads? Usually, per click. Fewer advertisers compete in most Microsoft auctions, so CPCs on the same keywords often come in lower than on Google. The gap varies by sector, so judge it on cost per acquisition in your own account rather than an industry average.

Can I import my Google Ads campaigns into Microsoft Advertising? Yes. Google Import brings across Search, Performance Max, Shopping and other campaign types. Clean the Google account first, import selected campaigns, and switch off or restrict scheduled imports so they don’t overwrite changes you make in Microsoft.

Do Microsoft Ads show in Copilot? Yes. Eligible campaigns are opted in automatically and you can’t opt out, though placement isn’t guaranteed. Search ads need logo assets to qualify, so add a logo to every Microsoft account.

Is Microsoft Advertising good for B2B? It’s one of the strongest B2B search channels available. The audience skews towards work devices, and LinkedIn profile targeting lets you raise bids for specific companies, industries and job functions on search clicks.

How long should I test Microsoft Ads before deciding? Give it 90 days with the same CPA or ROAS target you use on Google. That’s long enough to clean search terms, adjust bids and see a true trend, and short enough to cut it cleanly if it doesn’t hit the number.