The inventory you are ignoring
Microsoft Ads reaches further than most advertisers realise. Beyond Bing search results, your ads can appear across Edge browser surfaces, Windows search boxes, MSN, Outlook.com, the Microsoft Audience Network and syndication partners including DuckDuckGo, which serves Microsoft's search ads. Microsoft has also been rolling advertising formats into Copilot, its AI assistant, putting paid placements inside conversational answers.
None of this matches Google's raw volume, and it never will. But for a UK small business, volume was never the constraint; cost per enquiry was. Because far fewer advertisers compete in Microsoft's auctions, clicks in many verticals cost meaningfully less than the equivalent Google click, and that gap is the entire case for spending an afternoon on setup.
Why the clicks are cheaper, and where the gap is widest
Auction prices are set by competition, and most UK advertisers simply are not present on Microsoft Ads. Many agencies never propose it, and many businesses assume nobody uses Bing. The result is thinner auctions and lower cost per click for those who show up.
Advertisers consistently report the biggest savings in the most expensive Google verticals: insurance, legal services, finance, B2B software and professional services, where Google CPCs have been bid up for years. In cheap verticals the gap narrows, because there was less inflation to escape. The honest caveat is that lower CPC only matters if the traffic converts, so judge Microsoft Ads on cost per conversion after thirty days, not on the click price alone.
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Who is actually on Microsoft properties
Bing's UK users are not a random slice of the population, and the skew works in favour of certain businesses.
- Workplace desktops: Edge and Bing are defaults on corporate Windows machines, so daytime B2B searching over-indexes here
- Older and more affluent users: people who keep device defaults skew older, and this audience is commonly reported to have strong household purchasing power
- Professional targeting: Microsoft Ads offers LinkedIn profile targeting in the UK, letting you adjust bids by company, industry and job function, something Google cannot match
- Copilot users: early adopters of AI-assisted search within the Microsoft ecosystem, a growing surface as Copilot ships with Windows
If you sell to businesses, older homeowners or professional services buyers, the audience fit is often better than the market share numbers suggest.
Importing from Google without importing its mistakes
Microsoft Ads includes a Google import tool that copies campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads and negatives directly from your Google Ads account, and can re-sync on a schedule.
- Create your Microsoft Ads account and connect it to Google Ads via the import tool
- Import only your proven Search campaigns first; leave experiments and underperformers behind
- Install the UET tag on your site and define conversion goals before spending a penny
- Review bids and budgets: start budgets at a fraction of Google's, and do not carry over automated bid targets built on Google's data volume
- Check location targeting, ad schedules and search partner settings, which do not always map one-to-one
- Set the recurring import to sync negatives and paused items weekly, then review what it changes
The classic mistake is importing a Target CPA strategy that Google learned from thousands of conversions into an account with none. Start Microsoft campaigns on manual or enhanced bidding, then automate once conversion data accumulates.
Copilot, AI answers and measured expectations
Advertising inside AI assistants is still settling. Ad formats in Copilot continue to evolve, click behaviour differs from classic search, and reporting is less mature than for standard search placements. Treat Copilot inventory as a bonus you monitor rather than a strategy you build on.
The same discipline applies to the Microsoft Audience Network: it can extend reach cheaply, but native placements convert differently from search. Keep audience network campaigns separated from search campaigns so one cannot hide the other's performance, and exclude it from your first month entirely while you establish a clean search baseline.
Key Takeaway
Import your proven Google Search campaigns into Microsoft Ads, install the UET tag and conversion goals first, and start with a tenth to a fifth of your Google budget on manual bidding. Expect the biggest CPC savings in expensive verticals like legal, insurance and B2B, use LinkedIn profile targeting where it fits, and keep the Audience Network and Copilot placements separate from search. Judge everything on cost per conversion after thirty days.
Budgeting, measurement and the 30-day verdict
A sensible starting rule of thumb is to give Microsoft Ads around a tenth to a fifth of your Google search budget and let it run for thirty days with UET conversion tracking in place. Compare cost per conversion, not cost per click, and check lead quality with whoever answers your phone, because cheap clicks that never buy are expensive.
If the numbers beat Google, shift budget gradually until the two platforms' marginal costs converge; if they do not, you have spent little to find out. Either way you have escaped single-platform dependence, which matters when Google auction prices rise. If you want help setting up the import and measurement properly, our team at Thind Global Services can help.