When planning a digital ad strategy, Google Ads often dominates the conversation. But Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) is a powerful platform worth considering, especially for marketers looking to diversify reach, control costs, and take advantage of unique integrations. Let’s break down the pros and cons, highlight feature overlaps and differences with Google Ads, and explore what makes Microsoft Advertising stand out.

Why Advertisers Love Microsoft Advertising

  • Cheaper clicks: Less competition = lower CPCs in many industries.
  • Valuable audience: Bing users tend to skew older, more affluent, and more likely to spend.
  • Easy setup: You can literally import your Google Ads campaigns in a few clicks.
  • LinkedIn integration: Target people by company, industry, or job roles, something Google doesn’t offer.
  • Extra reach: Ads don’t just show on Bing. You also get Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft’s partner network.
  • Strong for ecommerce: Shopping campaigns integrate seamlessly with product feeds.

Where It Falls Short

  • Smaller audience: With around 7–9% U.S. market share, you won’t get the same volume as Google.
  • Lower scale = lower potential: Great for incremental growth, but not a single-channel solution.
  • Partner network can be hit-or-miss: Some placements drive excellent traffic, others not so much.
  • Behind on automation: Google’s AI-driven campaign still lead the charge, but Microsoft is close behind with similar Performance Max capabilities, for example.

Similarities With Google Ads

If you know Google Ads, you’ll feel right at home. Microsoft Advertising offers:

  • Search and shopping campaigns
  • Responsive search ads and extensions
  • Remarketing, in-market, and custom audiences
  • Automated bidding strategies
  • Tracking via UET (similar to Google’s gtag conversion pixel)
  • Customer Match

Where Microsoft Stands Out

Here’s where things get interesting:

  • LinkedIn profile targeting (exclusive to Microsoft)
  • Direct imports from Google Ads, Meta, and Pinterest (huge time saver)
  • Impression-based remarketing to reach and engage users without requiring a click to do so
  • More flexible ad customizers for dynamic messaging
  • Extra partner traffic (Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Outlook.com, Edge)
  • Audience controls like similar audiences (deprecated for the most part in Google Ads) and predictive targeting

While Google Ads remains the heavyweight in search marketing, Microsoft Advertising offers compelling reasons to diversify ad spend. Lower CPCs, a high-value audience, and exclusive LinkedIn targeting make it particularly strong for B2B and ecommerce advertisers. The smaller scale may be a drawback, but for many brands, Microsoft Advertising delivers cost-efficient, incremental results that complement Google Ads. To get started on your paid advertising strategy, contact us today.