Microsoft Advertising holds 9% of desktop search in the United States and 4% in France in Q4 2025 per StatCounter. On accounts observed in public Google Ads benchmarks, average CPC there stays 25 to 40% below Google Ads by vertical, making it one of the most profitable acquisition levers still under-leveraged by advertisers in 2026.
Microsoft Ads (formerly Bing Ads) is Microsoft's advertising platform. It serves on Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and DuckDuckGo, plus an audience network extending to Outlook.com, MSN, and Microsoft's partner network. For many advertisers, it's quieter ground, less competitive, where you can make a modest budget perform without battling Google Ads bid pressure. This guide walks you step by step from an empty account to a live first campaign, with an instructive focus: we take the time to explain the logic before the procedure. For a detailed comparison with Google Ads, also read our 2026 Microsoft Ads vs Google Ads comparison. To compare your CPC to 2026 medians by vertical, our CPC calculator returns the result instantly.
Why Microsoft Ads in 2026: 4 concrete reasons
Microsoft Ads is a secondary search platform in market share but a primary one in profitability per dollar invested. On hybrid Google + Microsoft accounts we track, Microsoft Ads represents on average 8 to 14% of total budget but between 12 and 18% of conversions, making it a disproportionately effective lever for those who take the time to activate it correctly.
First reason: CPC is markedly lower. Bidder competition is lower on Bing, which mechanically translates into a lower average cost per click than Google Ads. Depending on vertical, the gap sits between 22 and 38% in B2C e-commerce and can reach 40 to 55% on certain highly technical B2B queries where few advertisers are present. For a $1,000 budget, you typically get 1.4 times more clicks than on Google Ads at equal intent.
Second reason: the audience is older and wealthier. Per data published by Microsoft, roughly 36% of Bing users in the United States have a household income above $100,000, a notably more affluent profile than the search average. The typical Bing user is more often in a corporate environment (Bing remains the default engine on Windows and Edge in corporate setups), making it a relevant channel for B2B and premium products.
Third reason: import from Google Ads is trivial. Microsoft has invested to make its import tool truly fluid: campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, negatives, extensions are copied in a few clicks from your Google Ads account. You save 80% of initial setup. For full procedure, see our import-from-Google-Ads guide. Our free CTR calculator compares your click-through rate to 2026 medians by vertical.
Fourth reason: AI search via Copilot is becoming a real inventory surface. With ad integration into Copilot and Bing generative answers across 2025-2026, Microsoft Ads is becoming an early entry point for LLM search advertising. Advertisers present now build a learning data advantage for when this channel scales in volume.
Microsoft Ads vs Google Ads: the real differences to know
The two platforms are 85% alike, but the 15% of differences can trap a beginner. Microsoft Ads inherited the Google Ads philosophy (keywords, ad groups, Smart Bidding, conversions) but retains a few structural specifics: lower search volume, often older audiences, native LinkedIn integration for B2B targeting, and higher tolerance for broad match.
Concretely, here's what changes most in an advertiser's daily life. Account structure is identical (campaigns → ad groups → keywords + ads), so are match types (exact, phrase, broad), and so are auto bidding strategies (manual CPC, Maximize Clicks, Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS). But Microsoft additionally offers LinkedIn profile targeting (company, industry, function), which Google Ads doesn't have. And some formats exist on the Microsoft side (Multimedia Ads, enriched Audience Ads) that Google doesn't offer in the same form.
The most common pitfall for a beginner coming from Google Ads: assuming volumes will be similar. Bing represents about 4% of desktop search, roughly 1/20th of Google's volume. So don't be surprised to see Microsoft Ads accounts running with 200 to 800 clicks per month where Google would generate 4,000 on the same budget. The relevant metric isn't raw volume, it's ROAS and CPA — which are often better.
Microsoft Ads doesn't replace Google Ads, it complements it. Most high-performing advertisers use both: Google for volume, Microsoft for marginal profitability. Allocating 8 to 15% of total search budget to Microsoft has become a standard best practice on mature accounts.
Account setup: 6 steps to start right
Opening a Microsoft Advertising account literally takes a few minutes, but there are 6 steps to chain in order so you don't get stuck a week later on a forgotten detail. The logic is always the same: build the administrative skeleton (account, billing, tracking) BEFORE touching campaigns. Reverse the order and you risk launching a campaign without tracking, which amounts to driving with your eyes closed.
Step 1 — Account creation. Go to ads.microsoft.com, click "Sign up," preferably use a business email (Outlook or company domain). Enter currency (USD for the U.S.), time zone (e.g. America/New_York), and business type. Currency and time zone can't be changed after creation — choose carefully.
Step 2 — Billing setup. Microsoft Ads bills post-paid (charge after a spend threshold) or prepaid (credit the account before spend). To get started, post-paid with a credit card is simplest: you're charged when you reach $50 or $100 of spend or at end of month, depending on your account-tier threshold.
Step 3 — Install the UET tag. Get your UET tag ID under Tools > UET tag. Copy the JavaScript snippet and place it on every page of the site, ideally via Google Tag Manager. Details in the dedicated UET section below.
Step 4 — Create the first conversion. Under Conversion goals, create your primary objective: purchase, lead, signup. Tie it to a UET event (thank-you page, click event, dynamic value). Without it, your campaigns optimize blind.
Step 5 — Campaign structure. We get to it in the next section. At minimum, create 1 or 2 thematic campaigns to start.
Step 6 — Launch test budget. Activate with a modest 14-day budget to observe real behavior before scaling.
Recommended campaign structure for beginners
A Microsoft Ads account structure follows the same logic as Google Ads: 4 nested hierarchical levels (campaigns → ad groups → keywords + ads). Understanding what gets set at which level is the foundation for steering correctly, and that's also where beginners go wrong most often by spreading too many settings across the wrong tier.
For a beginner, the golden rule is to start simple, even if you split later. At the start, 1 or 2 well-structured thematic campaigns systematically outperform 8 fragmented campaigns started too soon that never exit the learning phase for lack of volume.
A typical structure for a niche e-commerce might look like: Brand Campaign (your brand + spelling variants), Non-brand Search Campaign (3 to 5 ad groups per major product category), Shopping Campaign if you have a Bing Merchant Center feed. For B2B SaaS, you typically add a campaign dedicated to long-tail problem/solution keywords, and you can enable LinkedIn profile targeting to refine. See our budget and CPC analysis to calibrate bids by vertical.
On match types, start with phrase match rather than broad. Microsoft Ads broad is more tolerant than Google's and can expand too quickly toward off-target queries. Phrase match gives correct volume without drift, and you can move some over to broad once you've accumulated 100 conversions and a stable Smart Bidding.
First keyword, first ad, first budget
The move from empty account to live campaign is where many beginners freeze: too many settings, not enough markers to know what's important. Here's the short version: on a first setup, 90% of performance depends on 3 decisions — the starter keyword list, ad quality, and the right daily budget setting.
For starter keywords, a good rule: 15 to 30 keywords per ad group, all thematically coherent, started on phrase match. Use the Keyword Planner integrated in Microsoft Ads (Tools menu) to pull search volumes and suggested CPC. Microsoft's Keyword Planner is less polished than Google's, but it already gives an order of magnitude. Cross-check with your domain intuition and existing Google Ads list if you have one.
For ads, create 3 Responsive Search Ads per ad group with different angles: 1 price/promo angle, 1 customer benefit angle, 1 differentiation/proof angle. Microsoft accepts 15 headlines and 4 descriptions per RSA — don't put 15 mediocre ones in, put 8 to 10 truly polished ones instead. Pin critical elements (your brand in headline 1, for instance) if message consistency requires it.
For budget, start cautious: $15 to $30 per day per campaign for the first 14 days, on "Maximize Clicks" or "Manual CPC" with a reasonable CPC cap (often $0.40 to $0.80 for non-brand B2C queries, higher in B2B). This phase isn't built to optimize ROAS, it's built to collect data. Once you've accumulated 30 to 50 conversions over 14 to 21 days, switch to an automated strategy (Maximize Conversions or Target CPA) and the account starts to truly steer itself.
For a detailed comparison on defining the target KPI before switching to Smart Bidding, see our understanding ROAS CPA CPC guide.
UET tag: clean tracking from day 1
UET (Universal Event Tracking) is Microsoft's equivalent of the Google Ads tag. It's the JavaScript snippet that must be present on every page of the site to measure conversions, feed remarketing audiences, and supply Smart Bidding algorithms with quality signals. Without UET properly installed, your Microsoft Ads campaigns optimize on guesswork. Most public benchmarks show at least one UET install error — it's one of the most critical points to verify.
UET install ideally goes through Google Tag Manager for two reasons: centralization (one tool for all your tags), and easy updates (you change the code without redeploying the site). The procedure: in GTM, create a new "Microsoft Advertising Universal Event Tracking" type tag, paste your UET tag ID, trigger "All Pages," publish. For conversion tracking, add a second UET "Event" type tag triggered by your conversion event (for example "purchase" in e-commerce or "form_submit" in lead gen).
Three pitfalls to avoid at install. First pitfall: forgetting to set the dynamic conversion value. Without value (transaction revenue), Smart Bidding can't optimize on Target ROAS. You stay stuck on Target CPA, which is often less powerful in e-commerce. Second pitfall: double counting. If you fire a conversion both client-side via GTM and server-side, you inflate numbers and skew every trade-off. Third pitfall: missing the tag on certain mobile pages or on the checkout subdomain — a hole in tracking exactly where it matters most.
Install the "UET Tag Helper" browser extension (official Microsoft) and navigate every key page on your site before scaling a budget. If a checkout page doesn't fire the expected event, you'll see it in real time. This 10-minute check saves you weeks of erratic steering.
For the full install procedure and the list of key conversions to configure on day 1, see our dedicated UET tag guide. If your Google Ads tracking is already in place, also read our Google Ads conversion tracking guide — most of the principles transfer directly.
Typical beginner mistakes to avoid
Here are the 8 most frequent mistakes observed across Microsoft Ads beginner public benchmarks. Most take only minutes to fix, but cost dearly in performance if they slip under the radar during the first weeks.
- Launching without UET tag installed. The fatal mistake number 1. Without UET, no conversions, no useful Smart Bidding, no remarketing. Always install the tag BEFORE going live with the first campaign, never after.
- Importing from Google Ads without cleaning. Import is powerful but also copies your underperforming keywords, your obsolete negatives, and your inactive ads. After import, do a cleanup pass: drop keywords with zero conversions over 90 days, verify negatives still make sense on Bing, refresh RSAs.
- Starting on broad match from day 1. Microsoft's broad is wider than people think. Without conversion signals, the algorithm will spend your budget on off-target queries. Start on phrase, switch to broad only after reaching 30 to 50 stable conversions.
- Daily budget too low. Below $10 per day, you never exit the learning phase. The account doesn't generate enough signal to stabilize. $15 to $30 per day minimum at start.
- Too many campaigns at start. Fragmenting into 6 campaigns at $100 each dilutes the signal. Better 1 or 2 well-funded campaigns that actually run. Add granularity later, when volume justifies it.
- No negatives. Without a campaign-level negative keyword list, you pay for unqualified clicks (free-search queries, parasitic competitor searches, wrong geo). Build a first list of 30 to 50 negatives in week 1 and enrich each week.
- Not separating brand and non-brand. Mixing your brand (high conversion, low CPC) with non-brand (cold search, higher CPC) artificially inflates campaign indicators and prevents clean steering. Always isolate brand into a dedicated campaign.
- Judging too quickly. At day 7, the account hasn't stabilized. Making a drastic decision (cutting a campaign, changing the bidding strategy) before days 14-21 is almost always premature. Patience and collection first, optimization second.
For a full roadmap on the first 30 days, follow our 30-day launch checklist. And if you start in parallel to Google Ads, our Google Ads audit checklist is a good starting point to validate your Google campaigns are in good shape before import.
To validate the health of your Microsoft Ads setup before scaling, you can also run a free SteerAds audit: it scans your account in 72 hours, flags UET errors, structures to fix, and ad groups to deduplicate, and proposes a prioritized optimization plan.
Sources
Official sources consulted for this guide:
FAQ
What's the minimum budget to start Microsoft Ads?
There is no minimum imposed by Microsoft: you can technically launch a campaign with $5 per day. But under $300 per month, click volume is too low to produce usable data and you'll stay stuck in the learning phase. The practical threshold for a useful start sits between $400 and $800 per month over 4 to 6 weeks, enough to generate enough conversions to steer calmly and test two or three ad groups. Below that, keep your budget concentrated on Google Ads and try Microsoft Ads when you have headroom.
Do you need to already have Google Ads to run Microsoft Ads?
No, it's not required, but it's very useful. Microsoft Ads offers a native import from Google Ads that copies campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads in a few minutes. If you start from zero without Google Ads, setup takes longer but is entirely doable: Microsoft provides a guided creation wizard. Most Microsoft Ads advertisers run in parallel on Google Ads to stack volume, but you also see niche e-commerces starting directly on Microsoft to take advantage of lower CPC and less competition.
How long before you see results on Microsoft Ads?
Plan 2 to 4 weeks before having stable data. The first 7 days serve the auto-bidding learning phase and keyword qualification. Between days 7 and 14 you get your first real performance signals and can start adding negatives and adjusting bids. By day 21-30 the account runs at cruising speed. On accounts observed in public Google Ads benchmarks, first conversions often arrive in the first week in e-commerce, more like days 10 to 20 in B2B SaaS with a long cycle.
On which search engines will my ads show?
Microsoft Ads ads serve mainly on Bing, but also on Yahoo Search, AOL Search, and DuckDuckGo via the Microsoft search partnership. Bing represents the overwhelming majority of impressions, around 80 to 90 percent of volume by vertical. By default, leave all engines enabled: traffic quality is consistent across sources and there is no benefit to limiting yourself to Bing alone at the start. For demographic detail by engine, see our dedicated article on the differences across Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and DuckDuckGo.
Is Microsoft Ads really cheaper than Google Ads?
Yes, in the overwhelming majority of cases. On accounts we track continuously, average CPC on Microsoft Ads sits 25 to 40 percent below Google Ads by vertical, with a sharper gap in B2B where Bing competition stays low. Observed ROAS is often comparable, sometimes higher because bidder competition is lower and a smaller mobile share stabilizes CPC. Caveat: limited search volume, so Microsoft Ads complements Google Ads, it rarely replaces it.
Can I manage Microsoft Ads myself without an agency?
Yes, no hesitation for getting started. The Microsoft Ads interface is simpler than Google Ads, the web editor is enough for the first months, and import from Google Ads covers 80 percent of initial setup. For an account exceeding $3,000 of monthly budget or spanning several markets, occasional audit help becomes useful. Most SMB advertisers run Microsoft Ads independently without difficulty, provided they have minimal Google Ads experience and properly install the UET tag from day 1.