Microsoft Ads or Google Ads, or both

The short answer

Google Ads reaches far more searchers, so it is the first search ad platform for almost every business. Microsoft Advertising shows ads on Bing and its partner sites, including Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia, to a smaller audience with usually fewer competing advertisers. It also offers something Google does not: targeting search ads by LinkedIn profile, such as company, industry and job function.

For most small and mid-sized businesses, the practical answer is not either-or. Get Google Ads working with proper conversion tracking, then import the campaigns into Microsoft Advertising to pick up extra leads with little extra setup. The rest of this guide covers how the two differ and how to run Microsoft alongside Google without doubling your workload.

How the two platforms compare

Both platforms use a similar auction: your bid, ad quality and the expected relevance of your ad and landing page decide where you appear and what you pay. Skills and structure carry over almost entirely.

Where Microsoft Advertising tends to work well

• B2B services. Many office computers run Windows with Edge and Bing as defaults, so work-hours searches can lean toward Microsoft. LinkedIn profile targeting lets you raise bids for searchers in the industries or job functions you sell to.
• Accounts limited by Google budget or competition. If your Google campaigns already capture most of the relevant searches, Microsoft is a way to find more volume.
• Local services with clear search demand. The same high-intent keywords that work on Google usually work on Bing, at lower volume.
• Audience layering. Microsoft reports that using any type of audience targeting gave a 50% higher conversion rate on average, based on its own September 2022 search data. Treat vendor figures as a reason to test, not a promise.

Where Google is the better choice

• Small budgets. If you can only fund one platform properly, choose Google for the volume.
• Campaign types beyond search. YouTube, Google Maps and Local Services Ads are only available through Google.
• Data-hungry automated bidding. Smart Bidding needs a steady flow of conversions. Small Microsoft campaigns may not generate enough on their own.
• Very niche keywords. On Microsoft some terms may get too few searches to be worth managing separately.

Costs: what to expect

Neither platform has a set price. You pay per click at whatever the auction sets, and you control the daily budget. Microsoft clicks are often cheaper for the same keyword because fewer advertisers compete, but volume is lower too. The fair comparison is cost per lead and cost per customer, measured with the same conversion tracking on both.

A common starting point is to give Microsoft a modest share of your Google budget, run it for a month or two, and move money toward whichever platform delivers leads at the lower cost. Watch volume as well as price. A Microsoft campaign with a lower cost per lead but only a handful of leads a month is still worth running, because those leads come on top of Google rather than instead of it. Report the two platforms side by side each month, with spend, leads, cost per lead and customers won, so budget decisions rest on your own numbers. For a deeper look at search ad budgets, see what Google Ads costs per month.

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How to import Google Ads campaigns into Microsoft

Microsoft Advertising’s Google import copies campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, extensions and most settings. Steps:

1. Sign in to Microsoft Advertising and start an import from Google Ads.
2. Connect your Google account and pick the Google Ads account and campaigns to bring over.
3. Choose options: which items to import, whether to adjust budgets and bids (for example, set budgets lower than on Google), and whether to delete items removed in Google.
4. Pick a schedule: once, daily, weekly, monthly, or Auto, where Microsoft chooses the timing.
5. Review the import results and add anything that did not come across. Microsoft says not all information is imported, so check every campaign before it spends.

Decide which platform is the source of truth. If you keep a recurring import, changes you make inside Microsoft, such as bids, budgets or status, can be overwritten the next time it runs. Either make changes in Google and let the import carry them, or stop the recurring import once Microsoft campaigns start to diverge.

What to fix after importing

• Conversion tracking. Install Microsoft’s UET tag on your site and set up conversion goals. Google conversion actions do not transfer as working tracking.
• Call tracking. Make sure calls from Microsoft ads are measured separately so you can compare platforms.
• Budgets. Imported budgets copy Google’s numbers; set them to what you actually want to spend on Microsoft.
• Location and schedule. Confirm they match where and when you can serve customers.
• Search terms. Review Microsoft’s search terms report weekly and add negative keywords; irrelevant matches differ from Google’s.
• Audience targeting. Add LinkedIn profile targeting or remarketing lists where they fit.

How JLB USA can help

JLB USA has run marketing for growing businesses for more than 15 years, with 500+ clients and 1,000+ projects. Our PPC management is adjusted weekly, more often early in a campaign. If you are in South Florida, see our Fort Lauderdale PPC page.

Keep reading

• Google Ads audit checklist: what to check, in the order that matters
• Google Ads for contractors: keywords, Local Services Ads and call tracking
• LinkedIn ads cost: budgets, minimums and when B2B companies should use them
• Landing page vs homepage: where should your ads send people?

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