Microsoft Ads Services: What They Include and How to Judge Them

Microsoft Ads services cover the planning, set-up, management and reporting of paid campaigns on the Microsoft Advertising platform, which places ads on Bing, its search partners and Microsoft’s own websites and apps. A good service treats Microsoft as a channel in its own right rather than a copy of a Google Ads account and it judges every decision against leads or revenue. This guide explains what Microsoft Ads management for B2B organisations should include and how to tell whether the work on your account is up to standard.

Many people still search for Bing ad services, because the platform carried that name for years. Microsoft changed the name from Bing Ads to Microsoft Advertising in April 2019, so Bing Ads, Microsoft Advertising and Microsoft Ads all describe the same platform. A complete Microsoft search ads service should cover the areas below.

• A strategy built around your goals, audience and sales cycle.
• Campaign types chosen to suit those goals, from Search to Performance Max.
• A considered Google Ads import, adjusted for Microsoft’s audience.
• Audience targeting, including LinkedIn profile targeting for B2B.
• UET conversion tracking with consent mode in place.
• Weekly search term reviews and negative keyword management.
• Reporting tied to leads, pipeline or revenue.

Each of these areas is explained in the sections that follow. Together they give you a practical checklist for comparing providers or reviewing the service you already pay for.

What Are Microsoft Ads and Who Sees Them

Microsoft Ads are pay-per-click adverts that appear in Bing search results, on search partner websites and across Microsoft’s own properties. According to Microsoft, its search ads can appear on Microsoft Bing and partner sites such as Yahoo, AOL, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia, which means a single campaign reaches searchers on several engines at once.

Bing is a much smaller search engine than Google in the UK and any service proposal should be honest about that. Statcounter’s UK search engine market share data recorded Bing at 6.08% and Google at 91.39% in September 2026, with Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia sharing much of the remainder. Partner traffic adds to Bing’s own share, but Microsoft Ads still works as a complement to Google rather than a replacement for it.

The case for the platform rests on who those searchers are and what they cost to reach. In our experience across B2B accounts, Bing’s desktop-heavy audience lines up well with people researching suppliers during the working day and competition for many business keywords is lighter than on Google. Our comparison of Microsoft Ads and Google Ads for B2B looks at those differences in more detail.

Campaign Types a Microsoft Ads Service Should Cover

A Microsoft Ads service should recommend campaign types based on what you sell and how people buy it, not on what is quickest to set up. Most B2B accounts start with Search, while ecommerce businesses usually need Shopping as well and the table below summarises where each type fits.

Performance Max deserves particular care because it hands placement decisions to Microsoft’s automation. Microsoft’s own Performance Max guidance says advertisers should set up Universal Event Tracking, choose meaningful conversion goals, prepare text and image assets and add audience signals before launch. If a provider suggests Performance Max for an account with weak tracking, ask how the campaign will know which results matter. Audience ads also need a different approach from Search and our guide to the Microsoft Audience Network for B2B campaigns covers that channel on its own.

Importing From Google Ads Without Copying Its Mistakes

Most Microsoft Ads accounts begin with an import from Google Ads and that is a sensible starting point as long as the work does not stop there. Microsoft’s import tools bring across campaigns from Google Ads and Meta and they can run recurring imports so changes stay in step across platforms.

The risk is that recurring imports quietly overwrite the adjustments Microsoft needs. Search volumes are smaller, the audience behaves differently and some settings work differently between the two platforms, so bids, budgets, negative keywords and ad copy all need reviewing after the first import. A good service will explain which elements it keeps in sync and which it manages separately on Microsoft.

Testing also takes longer on Microsoft because of the lower search volume. Testing clearly different messages against each other usually produces a usable answer sooner than small changes to a single headline.

Targeting Options That Set Microsoft Apart

LinkedIn profile targeting is the feature that most clearly separates Microsoft Ads from other search platforms. Microsoft describes it as unique to its platform and its audience targeting overview explains that advertisers can target people based on the company, industry or job function shown on their LinkedIn profile.

Seniority has since been added to those options. Microsoft’s August 2026 product update announced that LinkedIn job seniority targeting is generally available for Audience ads and Search campaigns, covering levels from entry to CXO. For a B2B advertiser, that means a search campaign can bid more for a finance director searching for a service than for a student researching the same topic.

The same overview lists several other audience types that a capable service should use where they fit. In-market audiences are built from purchase intent signals on Bing and Microsoft services, remarketing reaches people who have visited your website, customer match uses email addresses your customers have shared with you and similar audiences extend reach to people who resemble your existing customers. LinkedIn audience overlays sit inside our own Microsoft Ads delivery as standard, because they often change how a lead campaign performs.

LinkedIn profile targeting on Microsoft is not the same as advertising on LinkedIn itself. It adjusts who sees your search and audience ads based on professional data, whereas PPC management across Google, Microsoft and paid social lets you combine it with LinkedIn’s own lead generation formats when that suits your sales process.

Conversion Tracking, Consent and Bidding

Conversion tracking on Microsoft Ads runs through the Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag and a service should check it before changing anything else. The UET tag records conversions, builds remarketing lists and gives automated bidding the data it needs, so gaps or duplicates in tracking undermine every other decision.

Consent is part of that set-up in the UK. Microsoft told advertisers that anyone using UET must provide user consent signals for site visits from the EEA, UK and Switzerland from 5 May 2025, warning that failing to do so would affect advertising performance. In practice, that means your cookie banner needs to pass each visitor’s choice to the UET tag through consent mode.

For B2B accounts, a website enquiry is only the start of the story. Our team handles UET tag set-up, conversion goals, offline conversion imports and reporting into GA4, so leads qualified in a CRM can be fed back to Microsoft and bidding learns from lead quality rather than raw enquiry volume.

Bidding should then follow the data the account holds. Automated strategies such as Maximise Conversions or Target CPA suit accounts with steady conversion volume and Microsoft’s August 2026 update also confirmed that from 1 October 2026 a maximum CPC limit is no longer available for new non-portfolio campaigns using those strategies. We test automated bidding when it suits campaign goals, always with manual oversight and any provider should be able to explain how they keep automated spend in check after that change.

How Much Do Microsoft Ads Cost

Microsoft Ads costs are made up of two parts, which are the media spend you pay Microsoft and the management fee you pay whoever runs the account. The media spend works on a pay-per-click auction, so you set daily budgets and only pay when someone clicks, while the price of each click depends on your keywords, competition, audience settings and the quality of your ads and landing pages.

Management fees vary between providers and are usually based on the scope of work, the number of campaign types and how much reporting and testing you need. When comparing proposals, check what is included rather than comparing headline fees, because a low fee that excludes tracking, audits or landing page advice can cost more in wasted spend. Budget recommendations should come from forecasting against your own keywords and goals, not from a fixed percentage applied to every client.

How to Judge a Microsoft Ads Service

The quality of a Microsoft Ads service shows in the account itself, so ask for access and look at the detail rather than relying on a monthly summary. The four areas below reveal most of what you need to know.

Search term discipline is where many Microsoft accounts lose money, especially when broad match keywords have been imported from Google. We review search term reports weekly for that reason and our guide to auditing and optimising Microsoft Ads campaigns sets out what a thorough review of an existing account should cover.

Certifications are a useful signal but not proof of judgement. Microsoft’s Learning Lab offers separate certifications for Search Advertising, Retail and Display and Video, which show that the holder understands the platform. They say little about commercial thinking or communication, so ask how the provider has applied that knowledge to an account like yours.

Visibility matters as much as the work itself. You should own the ad account, be able to see the change history and know who is working on it. Our clients have live access to the Priority Pixels reporting dashboard, the same view our team works from and that level of openness is worth asking any provider about.

What the First Few Weeks Should Look Like

The first few weeks of a new Microsoft Ads service should focus on foundations rather than dramatic changes. For an existing account, that starts with an audit of account structure, keyword choices, ad copy, targeting settings and conversion tracking, followed by a report of priority actions.

For a new account, the early work is discovery and set-up. That means understanding your business, competitors and customers, then deciding which campaigns to import from Google, which to build specifically for Microsoft and how LinkedIn profile targeting fits your audience. Tracking and consent mode should be confirmed before any meaningful budget is spent.

You should also agree how often you will hear from the team before the work begins. Our Microsoft Ads clients receive weekly updates and monthly performance summaries and whoever you choose, a clear rhythm like that lets you judge the service on evidence rather than impressions. Results then depend on your sector, budget, competition and sales cycle, so be cautious of any provider who promises a timescale before seeing your data.