Microsoft Advertising: the search budget beyond Google

For most media buyers, search means Google, and for most U.S. queries that is right. But it leaves out a real audience: people searching from Windows, the Edge browser, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Microsoft's own apps. Microsoft Advertising reaches them from one platform. The network is smaller, which is exactly why it is worth testing: fewer advertisers bid on many queries, so prices can differ meaningfully from Google's. Sometimes they are lower, sometimes not. The only way to know for your account is a clean test.

Where your ads actually appear

• Bing search, including searches started from Windows and the Edge browser.
• Yahoo and AOL search in the U.S., whose search ads come from Microsoft.
• DuckDuckGo and other syndicated search partners.
• Copilot and other Microsoft experiences, where ads are available.

You control distribution. An ad group can run on Microsoft's own sites only, or on its own sites plus syndicated partners, and you can exclude specific sites that do not perform.

Importing from Google Ads, properly

Microsoft's Google Import copies campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, assets and bids in minutes, and can repeat on a schedule. It is the right way to start. It is not the right way to finish.

What Microsoft offers that Google does not

LinkedIn profile targeting

Microsoft can apply LinkedIn profile data (company, industry and job function) to search campaigns, as a bid adjustment or as targeting. For a B2B advertiser, a search for 'expense software' from someone in finance at a mid-sized company is worth more than the same search from a student, and Microsoft lets you price that difference.

Campaign-level time zones

Because each campaign carries its own time zone, an account that runs East Coast and West Coast schedules can set America/New_York on one campaign and America/Los_Angeles on another, and both ad schedules mean what they say.

A different audience mix

Microsoft's audience leans toward desktop and toward people searching from work computers. That often means longer sessions and more considered purchases, which is why B2B offers and higher-priced consumer purchases are usually the first things worth testing.

Keywords, match types and negatives

Microsoft supports exact, phrase and broad match, as Google does, but the two systems do not match queries identically. The same keyword list can pull in a different set of searches, so the search terms report deserves a weekly read for the first month.

• Start from your Google negative lists, then add what Microsoft's search terms report shows: job seekers, people looking for free tools, support questions about other products.
• Keep broad match on a short leash at first. Pair it with a bid strategy that optimizes for conversions, and review the queries it matches before widening it.
• Check brand campaigns separately. Brand search volume on Microsoft is smaller, and so is the budget it needs.

Ads and assets

Responsive search ads work the way you know them, with up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Assets such as sitelinks and callouts import from Google, but read them once: a sitelink that points to a page you have since removed fails review on Microsoft just as it would on Google. Microsoft also offers multimedia ads, image-led search ads that appear beside and within the results. Search on Google has no direct equivalent, and they are worth a test for any offer that sells better when people can see it.

How to run a fair test

1. 1Import your strongest Google search campaigns, not all of them.
2. 2Install UET, set up the same conversion goals, and confirm they record.
3. 3Fix time zones, size budgets for Microsoft's volume, and add exclusions.
4. 4Run four weeks without major edits. Smaller volume needs longer to read.
5. 5Compare cost per result and lead or order quality, not volume. Microsoft will be smaller; the question is whether it is profitable at its size.

Billing and access

Microsoft Advertising accounts can be managed under an agency's manager account, with you invited as a user under your own login. At Krög, Microsoft Advertising sits beside Google Ads on the same prepaid balance and monthly statement, so you can test a second search engine without setting up a second billing relationship.

Microsoft will not replace Google in most accounts. It does not have to. It only has to be profitable at its own size.