Not the biggest engine.
Often the most efficient.
Microsoft Advertising is the search channel most agencies quietly skip and most CFOs quietly love once they see the numbers. Older, higher-income audience, less auction pressure, and LinkedIn profile targeting inside Search. We run it as the efficiency lever alongside Google - not the replacement for it.
The honest read.
Microsoft's share of US desktop search is small enough to ignore and large enough to matter. What agencies miss: the audience skews older, higher household income, and heavier on B2B decision-makers logged into Windows at work. That's the same profile LinkedIn charges $8 CPCs for - and Microsoft prices it against a Google-parity auction that's often 30–50% less competitive.
The discipline is not 'import Google to Bing.' It's import, diverge, and tune to the audience Microsoft actually has: heavier LinkedIn Profile targeting on B2B, tighter negative lists, Shopping campaigns tuned to the older skew, and Audience Network kept honest with real incrementality reads. Where the audience fits, Microsoft routinely runs at 60–70% of Google CPA with equivalent conversion rates.
The surfaces.
How we run it.
Import + diverge
Google campaigns as scaffolding, then re-tune negatives, bids, and match types to Microsoft's smaller, older auction.
LinkedIn Profile layer
For B2B: seniority + industry + company size layered onto Search. Bid modifiers where ICP shows up.
Shopping first for DTC
Feed hygiene as the lever. Microsoft Shopping punches above weight for premium categories.
Audience Network with skepticism
Only where a lift test justifies the spend. Default off, on selectively.
Server-side UET
Conversions API-equivalent for Microsoft. Offline upload for B2B pipelines and long windows.
Efficiency check quarterly
Microsoft's cost-per-outcome vs Google's, on matched keywords. Real efficiency, not vanity share.
Profit reported, not platform ROAS.
How this channel gets scored inside the engine - the metrics that actually make it into the QBR.
- Microsoft CPA / ROAS vs matched Google keywords
- Server-side UET + offline conversion upload
- LinkedIn Profile layer performance for B2B pipelines
- Audience Network kept behind an incrementality gate
- Blended CAC contribution reported alongside Google
Works better with the rest of the portfolio.
Same intent surface, different auction. The efficiency layer to Google's volume.
Same audience - bought at Search CPCs instead of feed CPMs.
Microsoft Audience Network overlaps DSP inventory - one incrementality read, not two.