Are You Wasting Budget on Microsoft Ads? How to Audit and Optimise Performance

Microsoft Ads can be a powerful part of a B2B paid media strategy, but without regular reviews and structured optimisation, campaigns can quickly become inefficient. Wasted budget, poor targeting and unclear goals are all common issues that lead to underperformance. A Microsoft Ads audit helps uncover where things are going wrong — and what you can do to fix them.

For B2B marketers working with long sales cycles, precise targeting and qualified lead generation, an audit is not just about improving results. It’s about ensuring your campaigns support your wider business objectives. From tracking accuracy to keyword intent, every detail matters.

This blog will walk you through how to audit and optimise your Microsoft Ads account, with a focus on lead quality, funnel alignment and performance improvement. Whether you manage campaigns in-house or with an agency, this guide will help you identify where budget is being wasted and how to fix it.

This guide will cover:

Why Microsoft Ads Campaigns Lose Efficiency

Even well-structured Microsoft Ads campaigns can lose efficiency over time. B2B marketers face additional challenges, including smaller audience pools, longer sales cycles and the need for precise targeting. Without regular checks, it’s easy for campaigns to drift away from their original objectives, wasting budget and delivering low-quality leads. This section explores the key reasons why Microsoft Ads campaigns underperform in B2B environments. From misaligned targeting to outdated ad copy, many issues are preventable with consistent oversight. Understanding these causes is the first step toward correcting them. Whether you’re reviewing your own account or working with an agency, these points highlight what to look for during an audit. Campaign inefficiency isn’t always obvious, especially when top-level metrics appear healthy. But if leads are not converting or quality is declining, it’s time to investigate. Fixing these issues early helps recover wasted spend and improve long-term performance.

Targeting That’s Too Broad or Misaligned

B2B campaigns require precise targeting. If your Microsoft Ads campaign is set too broadly — either by geographic region, job role or keyword — you’ll likely attract low-intent traffic. Many advertisers assume broad targeting equals more leads, but in B2B that often results in wasted budget and poor lead quality. Campaigns may show to users outside your service area or to job functions that aren’t relevant to your offer. Review your targeting settings regularly. Use LinkedIn integration to refine by job title, company size or industry. Exclude irrelevant regions, devices or demographics where needed. If lead quality is low despite healthy clickthrough rates, misaligned targeting is often the root cause. Fixing this issue can significantly improve campaign efficiency and ensure your message reaches the right audience with the right intent.

Over-Reliance on Automated Recommendations

Microsoft Ads includes automated suggestions in the Recommendations tab, but not all of them align with your goals. Many B2B advertisers apply these changes without questioning their relevance. Automation often suggests expanding keyword match types or increasing bids without considering lead quality. These changes may boost clicks but dilute performance. For example, switching from phrase to broad match may increase traffic from unqualified users. Use recommendations as a guide, not a rule. Evaluate each suggestion based on your campaign objective. If your goal is qualified leads rather than volume, you may need to reject recommendations that prioritise reach over precision. An effective audit includes a review of which suggestions have been accepted and whether they’ve helped or harmed performance. Controlling automation keeps your campaign strategy focused on quality, not just activity.

Ad Copy That Hasn’t Been Updated

Outdated ad copy is another reason campaigns lose efficiency. If your ads haven’t been reviewed or refreshed in months, they may no longer reflect your current offer, messaging or market position. In B2B, where trust and clarity matter, irrelevant or outdated messaging undermines credibility. Ads should be reviewed at least quarterly, with updates based on changes to your services, client insights or seasonal relevance. Use your audit to evaluate ad strength, relevance and variation. Are the headlines still accurate? Do the descriptions clearly reflect what the user will get? Is your call to action still aligned with the landing page? Testing new variations regularly keeps engagement high and gives Microsoft’s machine learning more to work with. Strong, up-to-date ad copy is one of the easiest ways to improve performance without increasing spend.

Inaccurate or Missing Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is essential for understanding what your budget is actually delivering. Many Microsoft Ads accounts are set up with tracking that’s incomplete, misconfigured or focused on the wrong actions. In B2B, this is particularly damaging, as your campaigns may appear to be working based on clicks but fail to drive qualified leads. Common issues include tracking only form completions without verifying lead quality or failing to track downloads, booked calls or CRM events. An audit should start with reviewing your conversion goals. Are they meaningful? Are they firing correctly? Are they attributed to the right campaigns? Integrating tracking with your CRM gives you a clearer view of what happens after the click. Without accurate tracking, optimisation is impossible and budget decisions become guesswork. Fixing this early improves every part of campaign performance.

Budget Spread Too Thin Across Campaigns

Running too many campaigns or ad groups with limited budget is another cause of inefficiency. This leads to under-delivery, low data volume and slow optimisation. B2B advertisers often try to cover every product, service or audience segment in one go. But without enough spend per campaign, performance data is limited and results are diluted. During your audit, identify which campaigns are underperforming due to low impression share or inconsistent delivery. Consider consolidating similar campaigns or pausing low-priority activity. Focus spend on the campaigns that are aligned with your highest-value goals and best-performing audiences. A leaner structure with adequate budget allocation leads to faster learning and better results. Scaling can come later — but only once you know what’s working. Budget consolidation is often one of the quickest ways to reduce waste and improve return on investment.

How to Run a B2B-Focused Microsoft Ads Audit

A proper Microsoft Ads audit is more than just reviewing clicks and impressions. For B2B marketers, the audit must focus on lead quality, funnel alignment and strategic relevance. The goal is to understand whether your campaigns are reaching the right people, with the right message, at the right stage. That means reviewing your setup from targeting and creative to budget allocation and tracking. A B2B-focused audit identifies what’s working, what’s underperforming and what needs realignment. It should also reflect your business priorities — not just campaign metrics. In this section, we’ll walk through five steps to audit your Microsoft Ads account through a B2B lens. Whether you’re starting from scratch or reviewing an existing setup, this framework helps you uncover hidden inefficiencies, improve campaign structure and build a stronger foundation for future optimisation. A regular audit is one of the most effective ways to reduce wasted spend and increase lead value.

Review Campaign Objectives and Funnel Fit

Start by reviewing the objective of each campaign and whether it matches the stage of the funnel it’s targeting. A brand awareness campaign should not be judged on lead volume, just as a bottom-funnel campaign should not focus on impressions. Many B2B advertisers run campaigns without a clear funnel strategy. This leads to mixed messaging, confusing metrics and poor performance. Categorise each campaign as top, middle or bottom of funnel. Then evaluate whether the ad copy, targeting and landing page align with that position. Use this review to identify gaps or overlaps in your funnel. A strong campaign structure should guide users from awareness through to conversion. If multiple campaigns are targeting the same audience with the same offer, you may be cannibalising performance. Clarifying the funnel role of each campaign helps improve reporting accuracy, audience segmentation and overall lead quality.

Assess Keyword Intent and Match Type Usage

Keywords play a different role in B2B than in consumer campaigns. Volume is not the priority — intent is. Review your keyword list and remove terms that attract unqualified traffic. Look for informational phrases that may bring in early-stage users without commercial intent. For example, “what is managed IT” may generate clicks but not leads. Prioritise keywords with clear buying signals, such as “IT support for financial firms” or “ISO 27001 consultancy Devon.” Match types also matter. Broad match may deliver scale but often sacrifices lead quality. Phrase and exact match give you more control and better alignment with B2B queries. Use your audit to evaluate performance by match type and adjust accordingly. Always balance traffic volume with lead relevance. In B2B, fewer qualified clicks are far more valuable than high-volume, low-intent traffic. Keyword refinement improves budget efficiency and lead conversion rates.

Analyse Targeting Settings and Audience Segments

Audit your targeting at the campaign and ad group level. Check locations, devices, demographics and audience layering. For B2B, LinkedIn integration is particularly important — make sure it’s being used to refine by job title, industry or company size. Also review exclusions. Are you filtering out irrelevant regions, age groups or devices? Many advertisers skip exclusions, which leads to budget being spent on users who are unlikely to convert. Look at performance by segment. If mobile traffic performs poorly, consider adjusting your bid strategy or excluding it altogether. Evaluate whether your remarketing lists are being used effectively. If you’re not running remarketing, you’re missing a key part of the B2B funnel. A targeting audit should result in a tighter, more focused reach that prioritises the users most likely to take meaningful action. Every targeting setting must serve a clear purpose in your lead generation strategy.

Check Conversion Tracking and Attribution Accuracy

Without accurate tracking, your audit cannot provide actionable insights. Check your Microsoft Ads conversion settings — are the right goals being tracked? Are you capturing both soft and hard conversions? Common B2B conversion actions include guide downloads, contact form submissions, demo bookings and event sign-ups. Make sure each action is tracked, validated and mapped to the correct campaign. Use test submissions to verify tags are firing correctly. Also review attribution windows. A seven-day window might be too short for B2B sales cycles. Adjust attribution models to reflect how your leads typically convert. If you use a CRM, compare ad-attributed leads with closed deals to understand lead quality. Fixing tracking issues improves reporting, budget allocation and campaign optimisation. It also builds confidence across your team by tying ad spend to real outcomes. Accurate conversion data is the foundation of every successful audit.

Evaluate Ad Copy, Extensions and Landing Pages

Creative and landing pages play a critical role in lead generation. Review your headlines and descriptions — are they clear, benefit-focused and relevant to the audience? Do they reflect the language and priorities of decision-makers in your target sector? Also check ad extensions. Sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets can improve visibility and support conversion. Make sure they’re active, relevant and up to date. Then review your landing pages. Is there a clear message match between the ad and the page? Is the call to action prominent and aligned with the funnel stage? Are you asking for the right amount of information on your forms? Even small inconsistencies between ad and landing page can reduce trust and impact conversion rates. Your audit should identify weak points in your creative and conversion experience. Fixing these helps turn qualified clicks into meaningful leads more efficiently.

Identifying and Fixing Common Issues

Once your audit is complete, the next step is to act on what you’ve found. Many Microsoft Ads accounts suffer from recurring problems that can be fixed quickly with the right approach. These issues often go unnoticed in day-to-day management, especially when performance looks acceptable at the surface level. But for B2B campaigns, small inefficiencies can add up to wasted spend, poor lead quality and missed opportunities. This section outlines the most common issues found during audits and explains how to fix them. Whether it’s mismatched messaging, weak targeting or budget misallocation, these problems can all be corrected through clear, structured adjustments. By addressing these issues directly, you can unlock better results from your existing campaigns without increasing budget. Fixing what’s already in place is often more effective than starting again. Use this list as a post-audit checklist to ensure your Microsoft Ads setup is working as hard as it should.

Duplicate or Competing Keywords

Duplicate keywords in different ad groups or campaigns often compete with each other, driving up cost and diluting data. This is especially problematic in B2B accounts with niche targeting, where search volume is already limited. Use your audit to identify duplicate keywords and determine where they belong. Consolidate them into a single campaign or ad group where intent is clearest. This improves budget control, reporting clarity and performance consistency. Also check for internal competition between broad match keywords and exact match variants. If two ads are bidding on the same term with different intent, one may be stealing impressions from the other. Fixing this improves quality score and allows the algorithm to optimise more effectively. A cleaner keyword structure reduces confusion and improves campaign efficiency. It also ensures that each search query is directed to the most relevant message and landing page.

Mismatch Between Ad and Landing Page

When users click an ad and arrive on a landing page that doesn’t match the message, trust is lost. This is a common issue in B2B campaigns where different services share the same page or where the ad promise isn’t clearly fulfilled. Review each ad group and confirm the associated landing page supports the call to action, offer or value proposition in the ad. If not, update the ad or build a dedicated page. For example, if your ad promotes a cybersecurity audit, your landing page should focus entirely on that service — not general IT support. A strong message match increases conversion rates and improves quality scores. Use this audit step to create a map between ad copy and landing page intent. Fixing these mismatches makes your campaigns feel more professional and increases the likelihood that a qualified user will take the next step.

Overlapping Audiences in Different Campaigns

When multiple campaigns target the same audience without exclusions, you create overlap that drives up cost and reduces efficiency. This often happens when remarketing, industry targeting and keyword campaigns are run independently without coordination. Check for audience overlap across campaigns using Microsoft Ads’ audience insights. If two campaigns are reaching the same users with different messages, you may be bidding against yourself. Fix this by setting audience exclusions or refining campaign objectives. For example, if one campaign is focused on guide downloads and another on consultations, use exclusions to avoid confusing the user or spreading your budget too thin. Managing overlap helps you control frequency, improve user experience and allocate spend more effectively. It also ensures that each campaign supports a distinct stage of the funnel. Fixing audience duplication improves performance and keeps your targeting sharp.

Campaigns That Haven’t Been Paused or Reviewed

Many accounts contain legacy campaigns that are still active but no longer relevant. These campaigns often spend small amounts inconsistently, pulling budget away from more strategic efforts. During your audit, identify any campaigns with low spend, poor engagement or outdated content. Evaluate whether they still serve a purpose. If not, pause them. Keeping your account clean makes performance tracking easier and ensures all budget is directed at campaigns that support current objectives. You can also archive campaigns that haven’t delivered value in the last three to six months. This helps declutter the interface and improves focus. Even campaigns that aren’t spending can affect account structure and make optimisation harder. Reviewing and pausing these campaigns improves clarity and frees up budget and attention for what’s working. A well-maintained account is easier to manage and consistently delivers better results.

Ad Schedule and Device Settings Not Optimised

Microsoft Ads allows you to control when and where your ads appear. In many B2B campaigns, ads run 24/7 on all devices by default. This often leads to wasted spend on impressions that are unlikely to convert. Use your audit to review performance by hour, day and device. If most conversions happen during weekday working hours on desktop, adjust your ad schedule and device bid modifiers to reflect this. You may find that mobile clicks generate traffic but fail to convert, especially for complex forms or consultation requests. Optimising these settings improves efficiency and helps you reach decision-makers when they’re most likely to engage. It also helps with lead quality by reducing unqualified traffic. Small changes to schedule and device settings often deliver outsized improvements in performance. Fixing this issue ensures your campaigns align with real user behaviour in a B2B context.

Ongoing Optimisation Strategies for Better ROI

A one-time audit will uncover issues, but long-term success depends on consistent optimisation. B2B campaigns evolve, audiences shift and market conditions change. To keep your Microsoft Ads account delivering strong returns, you need a process that reviews performance regularly, tests improvements and refines strategy over time. These ongoing optimisation strategies are designed to help you maintain efficiency, improve lead quality and get more value from your ad spend. Each tactic can be applied monthly, quarterly or alongside major campaign updates. By making these reviews part of your workflow, you reduce waste and uncover new opportunities to grow. In this section, we’ll outline five practical strategies that support long-term results — from automated rules and ad testing to sales feedback loops and seasonal planning. These techniques will help you turn your audit insights into a repeatable framework that keeps your Microsoft Ads performance aligned with your business goals.

Set Monthly Reviews with Defined Metrics

Monthly performance reviews help identify trends early and prevent wasted spend. Use a consistent set of metrics tied to your campaign objectives. For lead generation, track cost per lead, qualified lead rate and conversion volume. Segment reports by campaign, audience, device and funnel stage. Compare results against your benchmarks and look for areas of decline or missed opportunity. Structure each review around a single question — what’s working, what’s not and what will we change? This helps avoid unstructured analysis and keeps your team focused on actionable decisions. Monthly reviews also create accountability. Whether you’re working in-house or with an agency, consistent reporting ensures everyone stays aligned. By making performance reviews a habit, you’ll spot small issues before they grow and create a culture of ongoing improvement. This rhythm is the foundation of sustainable B2B advertising performance.

Implement a Rolling Creative Testing Plan

Creative fatigue is a real risk in long-running B2B campaigns. Users become desensitised to the same headlines, visuals and calls to action. A rolling creative testing plan keeps your ads fresh and performance-driven. Each month, test one new element — a headline variation, a new description, or a different visual theme. Track the impact on engagement and lead quality. Replace underperforming assets with high-performing variants. Don’t make too many changes at once, as this makes it difficult to isolate what worked. Keep a record of past tests and their results so you can build a creative playbook over time. This process helps your ads remain relevant to your audience while continuously improving performance. Testing also supports seasonal relevance, product launches or shifting audience preferences. Treat creative as a performance lever, not a one-time task. Consistent testing is one of the most reliable ways to improve return on investment.

Use Automated Rules to Maintain Control

Manual campaign management can be time-consuming. Automated rules help you stay in control without constant oversight. Use them to pause underperforming ads, adjust bids during off-hours or increase budgets on high-performing campaigns. For example, you could set a rule to pause any ad with a clickthrough rate below 1% after 500 impressions. Or reduce bids by 20% on weekends if your business doesn’t convert leads on those days. These rules act as safeguards, helping you protect budget and performance while freeing up time for strategic work. They’re especially useful in B2B, where campaigns often run long-term and need consistent but lightweight management. Review your automated rules monthly to ensure they still align with your current strategy. While automation can’t replace strategy, it can help enforce it more efficiently. When used carefully, rules support faster optimisation and reduce risk across your Microsoft Ads campaigns.

Incorporate Sales Feedback into Optimisation

One of the best sources of insight is your sales team. They know which leads are qualified, which are a waste of time and what prospects are really asking about. Build a feedback loop between sales and marketing. Review lead quality together, identify common objections and match these with campaign data. For example, if sales reports show a rise in unqualified leads from a certain region, adjust your targeting or messaging to reflect this. Use real sales conversations to refine ad copy, calls to action and landing page content. This alignment improves both campaign performance and sales efficiency. It also supports stronger reporting by connecting ad spend with pipeline value. Make this collaboration part of your monthly or quarterly review process. When marketing and sales work together, lead generation becomes more effective and your campaigns move closer to commercial goals, not just marketing metrics.

Plan Ahead with Seasonal and Campaign Calendars

Planning campaigns around seasonal cycles, industry events or internal launches gives your ads more relevance and focus. Build a quarterly campaign calendar that aligns with your business priorities and sales cycles. Map out key themes, offers, budget allocations and creative updates in advance. This allows you to brief design, coordinate messaging across channels and avoid last-minute decisions. Seasonal planning also helps identify content gaps or opportunities to repurpose high-performing campaigns. For example, if you run annual events or product launches, use previous campaign data to plan timing and creative. Aligning ads with known buyer behaviours — such as budget planning in Q4 — makes your campaigns more timely and effective. A campaign calendar ensures that Microsoft Ads remain aligned with wider business activity. It also reduces reactive spend and supports more strategic, goal-driven use of your advertising budget.