Most B2B advertisers put every search dollar into Google and treat Microsoft Ads as an afterthought, if they think of it at all. That is a measurable mistake. Microsoft reaches roughly a third of the US search market, its users skew toward exactly the demographic that signs B2B purchase orders, and clicks routinely cost a fraction of the Google equivalent. This article covers where those buyers come from, the one targeting feature Google cannot copy, the import workflow that gets you live in days, and the honest cases where Microsoft Ads is not worth your budget.
Why is the Microsoft Ads audience different for B2B?
Because much of it arrives by corporate default. Windows machines ship with Edge and Bing, and many company IT policies never change them, so a large share of workday desktop searches happen on Microsoft’s network. That audience skews older, more educated and higher-income, and searches from an office desk rather than a phone on a couch.
This matters for B2B more than for almost any other segment. The person researching procurement software at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning is doing it on a work laptop, often in the browser their IT department installed. Microsoft reaches approximately 36% of the US search market, an audience many of your competitors never bid on. In accounts where we run both platforms, that structural difference shows up in the numbers: less competition on the same keywords, and buyers who convert at rates that are frequently 10 to 15 percent higher for B2B offers than the equivalent Google traffic.
The reach also extends beyond Bing.com. Microsoft’s search partner network serves your ads across Yahoo, AOL, DuckDuckGo and other partners, plus placements tied to Edge and Windows. One campaign, several entry points into the same corporate desktop audience.
What is LinkedIn profile targeting in Microsoft Ads?
Microsoft owns LinkedIn, and Microsoft Ads is the only search platform that can use LinkedIn profile data for targeting. You can adjust bids for searchers by company, industry and job function, on top of your normal keywords. No amount of Google audience engineering reproduces targeting a search for “ERP software” and bidding up when the searcher works in manufacturing.
In practice you use it as a bid modifier rather than a filter: keep the campaign open, then bid up the segments that match your ICP. Together with the team at one enterprise client, we used the LinkedIn integration to target decision-makers at companies matching their ideal customer profile, and qualified traffic increased by 47%. The same mechanism works defensively, bidding down industries and functions your sales team always disqualifies.
If your ICP is defined by firmographics, this feature alone justifies testing the platform. Our Microsoft Ads agency services page covers the targeting options in more depth.
How does the import-from-Google workflow actually work?
Microsoft Ads imports campaigns directly from Google Ads: structure, keywords, ads, extensions and bids, either once or on a recurring schedule. A working account can be live in days. The import is a starting point, though. Accounts left as unedited Google copies underperform, because bids, budgets, demographics and search partners behave differently on Microsoft.
What we adjust after every import, in rough order of impact:
- Bids and budgets. Microsoft CPCs average 30 to 50 percent lower than Google for equivalent keywords. Imported Google bids overpay from day one; rebase them against Microsoft’s own auction data.
- Search partner review. Check partner network performance separately and exclude placements that send volume without conversions.
- Negative keyword rebuild. Query behavior differs on Bing; the first weeks of search-term reports always surface negatives your Google list never needed.
- LinkedIn profile bid modifiers. Google has no equivalent, so no import creates them. Adding ICP-based company, industry and job-function modifiers is where the B2B advantage actually gets configured.
- Demographics and scheduling. The desktop, workday skew of the audience usually justifies different dayparting and device strategy than the Google original.
- Conversion tracking. Set up UET tags and import goals properly before judging anything. An imported account with borrowed tracking produces confident, wrong conclusions.
If you already run Google, the marginal cost of testing Microsoft is low precisely because of this workflow: the strategic thinking is done, and the platform work is adaptation. We manage both from one plan, alongside Google Ads management, so budget can follow whichever auction is cheaper that quarter.
What results should a B2B advertiser expect?
Expect Google to deliver more volume and Microsoft to deliver better efficiency on the volume it has. Together with the teams at clients where we run both, we have seen Microsoft Ads produce 28% of total PPC leads on 18% of the budget, conversion rates 24% higher than other channels, and average deal sizes 22% higher than the Google equivalent.
Those are individual account outcomes, and yours will depend on your category and markets. But the direction is consistent enough that we treat the question as empirical: run both, measure cost per qualified lead per platform in your own CRM, and let the data allocate the budget. In one professional-services account, Microsoft campaigns delivered 31% of consultation bookings, a share nobody would have predicted from its impression volume.
For international B2B advertisers there is a second effect: because fewer competitors bother with Microsoft outside the US, country-specific campaigns with native-language ads often capture high-intent traffic at auction prices Google has not offered in years. As with everything international, translation is the cheap part; native keyword research per market is what actually captures the intent.
When is Microsoft Ads not worth it?
Skip Microsoft Ads when your buyers are mobile-first or consumer-young, when your target market searches almost entirely outside the Microsoft ecosystem, or when your total media budget is too small to split. A budget under roughly $10,000 per month usually works harder concentrated in a single auction than divided across two.
Some honest disqualifiers we apply before recommending it:
- Volume floors. Microsoft’s smaller share means niche B2B keywords that get 200 monthly searches on Google may get a few dozen on Bing. If Google volume is already thin, Microsoft will not add much.
- Audience mismatch. Products bought by developers, designers or younger consumer audiences index poorly on Edge and Bing. The corporate-default effect works for you only when your buyer sits in a corporate environment.
- Operational bandwidth. A second platform is a second set of search-term reports, experiments and budget reviews. An unmanaged Microsoft account quietly decays; if nobody will own it weekly, do not open it.
- Geography. Microsoft’s market share varies a lot by country. Check volume for your specific markets before committing, not the US headline number.
The decision rule we use across our international PPC accounts is simple: Microsoft Ads earns its place when the platform’s cheaper clicks and B2B-heavy audience produce a lower cost per qualified lead than the same budget would achieve as incremental Google spend. When it does, it is usually the easiest efficiency gain of the quarter. When it does not, the test told you cheaply.
FAQ: Microsoft Ads for B2B
Is Microsoft Ads worth it for B2B companies?
Usually yes, if your buyers work at desks. Microsoft reaches roughly 36% of the US search market, skews toward older, higher-income professionals on corporate desktops, and CPCs average 30 to 50 percent below Google. Test it whenever your Google campaigns are profitable and volume-constrained.
How do Microsoft Ads CPCs compare to Google Ads?
Across accounts we manage, Microsoft CPCs average 30 to 50 percent lower than Google for equivalent keywords, because fewer advertisers compete in the auction. Lower CPCs with comparable or better B2B conversion rates commonly translate into a meaningfully lower cost per lead on the Microsoft side.
What is LinkedIn profile targeting in Microsoft Ads?
A targeting feature exclusive to Microsoft Ads that uses LinkedIn data to adjust search bids by company, industry and job function. B2B advertisers use it to bid up searchers matching their ideal customer profile, combining keyword intent with firmographics in one auction. Google offers no equivalent.
Can I import my Google Ads campaigns into Microsoft Ads?
Yes. Microsoft Ads imports campaign structure, keywords, ads and bids directly from Google, once or on a schedule. Treat the import as a draft: rebase bids for cheaper CPCs, rebuild negatives, review search partners and add LinkedIn profile modifiers before scaling spend.
How much budget does a Microsoft Ads test need?
Enough to reach statistical honesty in your category, commonly a few thousand dollars over 60 to 90 days for B2B accounts. Below roughly $10,000 in total monthly media, we generally recommend concentrating on one platform rather than splitting across two auctions.
Where do Microsoft Ads actually appear?
Across Bing, Yahoo, AOL, DuckDuckGo and other search partners, plus placements tied to the Edge browser and Windows. One campaign covers the full network, and partner placements can be reviewed and excluded individually when they send volume without conversions.
COSEOM Team
COSEOM is a multilingual B2B growth agency. Since 2008 the COSEOM team has run international SEO, generative engine optimization, paid media and demand generation programs for B2B software and technology companies, in English, German, Spanish and Portuguese. This account publishes our research, playbooks and product guides. More about COSEOM
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