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Microsoft Ads today is a real channel: lower CPCs than Google in most verticals, an older, higher-AOV audience, and LinkedIn Profile Targeting on Search and Audience Network that no other paid-search platform offers. We run Google and Microsoft as one cross-platform account, because for most B2B and considered-purchase accounts, ignoring Microsoft is leaving 10 to 15 percent of qualified pipeline on the table.
What it unlocks
Built for B2B and considered-purchase accounts where the buyer is older, the cycle is longer, the AOV is higher, and Microsoft Ads is too often dismissed as 'Bing only'.
Capabilities
Engagement rhythm
Free audit
Cross-platform foundations
Test, scale, prune
Quarterly strategic review
What we do
Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Display, YouTube, and Customer Match. The majority channel for most accounts. We have a dedicated Google Ads page if Google alone is what you need; this service exists because most accounts that take Google seriously should be testing Microsoft alongside, not after.
Microsoft Ads runs across Bing search plus the Microsoft Audience Network (native display across MSN, Outlook, and partner sites). The audience skews older and more B2B than Google's. CPCs are typically lower than Google for the same keyword, often meaningfully so, depending on category. Same Search and Shopping campaign types. SA Bing share is smaller than Google's, but the segment matters for B2B and considered-purchase accounts.
Unique to Microsoft Ads, and underused. Layer your Search and Audience Network campaigns with LinkedIn profile data: job title, company name, company size, industry, seniority. The only paid-search environment where you can bid higher (or only) on a CFO at a R500m-turnover manufacturing business searching for a specific term. For B2B, this is a tool with no Google equivalent.
Google's GA4 plus Enhanced Conversions and Microsoft's UET (Universal Event Tracking) wired in parallel so you can compare like-for-like CPA across platforms without arguing about which dashboard is right. CRM offline-import on both sides where you have a sales cycle, so closed-won leads feed Smart Bidding (and the Microsoft equivalent) on both platforms.
Customer Match on Google, Customer Lists on Microsoft, Remarketing on both, segmented by behaviour and lifecycle stage. Lookalike modelling on each platform's first-party data. The audience strategy carries across channels so a segment that pays back on Google gets tested on Microsoft (and vice versa) without rebuilding from scratch every time.
Same landing pages serve both channels but the traffic profile differs. Microsoft visitors are older, often more research-mode, and slightly more B2B. We test PDP and form variants to suit both audiences. Crucially we look at landing page performance per channel, not in aggregate, because aggregated 'paid traffic CRO' is the analytical equivalent of averaging a hot and a cold tap and calling it room temperature.
How an engagement runs
Audit of your existing PPC: Google account if there is one, any Microsoft account, conversion tracking, audience setup, attribution, and which of your competitors are running on Microsoft (most do not bother checking, so the auction is often softer). We tell you whether cross-platform is worth it for your account specifically.
Google account restructured against conversions. Microsoft account built or rebuilt mirroring the Google structure where relevant. UET deployed alongside GA4 plus Enhanced Conversions. LinkedIn Profile Targeting layers configured. Customer Match and Customer Lists synced. Baseline reporting tied to revenue or qualified leads per channel.
Controlled tests running in parallel on both platforms. Winners scale in the channel that is paying back. Losers come out. Cross-platform creative variants (Microsoft sometimes needs softer hooks because the audience is older). Weekly waste sweeps, monthly experiment cadence.
Every 90 days we look at channel mix, audience performance, where the next quarter's budget should sit, and whether to expand into adjacent paid-search platforms for any market-specific reason. Honest read on whether each channel is still worth the spend.
The lay of the land
Most agencies run Google. Some occasionally bolt on Microsoft as an afterthought, often by mirroring the Google campaign and walking away. Few set Microsoft up to win on its own terms: different audience, different bid landscape, different creative needs, and a feature set including LinkedIn Profile Targeting that has no Google equivalent. The result is a Microsoft account that runs at 5 percent of the Google budget, performs worse than Google in aggregate, and gets switched off after three months with the conclusion 'Bing does not work for our business'.
What actually happened is Microsoft Ads was set up to fail. Same audiences as Google but with no acknowledgement that Microsoft skews older. Same bids as Google but in a softer auction where you could have paid 30 to 50 percent less. No LinkedIn Profile Targeting layered in for any of the B2B accounts where it would have transformed conversion quality. Aggregated reporting that buried Microsoft's real performance under Google's volume.
Run properly, with LinkedIn Profile Targeting on the B2B accounts, with creative tested against an older audience, with bid landscape modelled per channel rather than copied from Google, Microsoft Ads turns into a real channel for the right account. Often 10 to 20 percent of total paid pipeline for B2B and high-AOV ecommerce, at a lower blended CPA than Google. Not every account benefits, and we tell you in the audit if yours does not, but most accounts that have written Bing off have written it off too soon.
FAQ
For B2B, considered-purchase, and high-AOV consumer accounts, often yes. The SA Bing audience is smaller than Google but skews older, more corporate, and notably higher in income; for accounts targeting CFOs, IT decision-makers, or buyers in their 40s to 60s, the channel earns its keep. For low-AOV impulse-purchase ecommerce targeting a 25-year-old audience, usually not. We will tell you which side your account is on during the audit.
Usually 10 to 20 percent of total paid budget for the accounts where Microsoft works. Lower for accounts where it does not, and we will be honest about which yours is. Some B2B accounts we run end up with 30 to 35 percent of paid pipeline on Microsoft because LinkedIn Profile Targeting transforms lead quality at that audience size.
Microsoft owns LinkedIn. So Microsoft Ads lets you layer LinkedIn profile data (job title, company name, company size, industry, seniority) onto Search and Audience Network campaigns as an audience boost or exclusion. You can bid 50 percent higher (or only) on a CFO at a company over 500 employees in financial services searching for your keyword. No other paid-search platform offers this. For B2B accounts where buyer role matters more than buyer query, it is genuinely transformative.
Meta Ads runs under our dedicated Facebook Ads Management service. TikTok and LinkedIn paid we can scope separately if there is fit. This page is about paid search specifically (Google plus Microsoft), where the optimisation model, attribution, and ad formats are fundamentally different from paid social and benefit from being managed as one cross-platform discipline rather than bolted onto a Meta retainer.
Around R15,000 per month in combined Google plus Microsoft media, weighted toward Google initially. Microsoft can absorb 20 to 30 percent of the budget once tested. Below R15k total media, you do not have enough budget for Google Smart Bidding to exit learning, let alone test cross-platform; better to start with a single-channel Google engagement first.
Take over Google. Most engagements inherit a Google account with months or years of conversion history (which Smart Bidding needs) and we restructure rather than rebuild. Microsoft is usually built from scratch because most existing Microsoft accounts have been neglected and the cleanest path is a fresh build mirroring the new Google structure.
Yes. Landing pages are part of the engagement and we test them per channel because Microsoft and Google traffic behave differently (older audience, more research mode, longer dwell). Aggregated 'paid traffic' CRO hides the differences; channel-level CRO catches them. If your platform is Shopify, WooCommerce, or WordPress we work natively in those.