What Are Bing Ads and Should Small Businesses Use Them?

Bing Ads, now officially called Microsoft Ads, are paid search adverts that appear on Microsoft's search engine, Bing, along with its partner sites. They work almost exactly like Google Ads: you bid on keywords, write text adverts, and pay when someone clicks. The main difference is where those adverts show and, often, how much each click costs.

Should a small business use them? For most, the honest answer is yes, as a second channel alongside Google. Bing tends to have less competition, lower cost per click, and a slightly older, more affluent audience. It won't replace Google, but it can bring in extra enquiries at a lower price, which matters when every pound of your budget has to work.

What are Bing Ads, in plain terms?

Bing Ads is the old name. Microsoft rebranded the platform to Microsoft Advertising a few years ago, but plenty of people still search for "Bing Ads", so the terms are used interchangeably. It's Microsoft's version of Google Ads, and if you understand one, you're most of the way to understanding the other.

When someone types a search into Bing, the results page shows a mix of paid adverts and organic listings, just like Google. If you're advertising, your text advert can appear at the top of that page for the keywords you've chosen. You only pay when someone actually clicks through to your website. Nobody is charged for the advert simply being seen, which keeps the model straightforward for a small business.

The reach goes further than Bing itself. Microsoft Ads also show across a network of partner sites and other search engines. If you've ever wondered why your advert appeared somewhere unexpected, that's the partner network at work. We've covered this in detail in our post on whether Bing Ads show on Yahoo, which is worth a read if you want to understand exactly where your money goes.

Where your adverts can appear

• Bing search results, the core placement.
• Yahoo and AOL search, which run on Microsoft's search technology.
• The Microsoft Audience Network, which places display-style adverts across MSN, Outlook.com and partner sites.
• Devices running Windows and the Edge browser, where Bing is often the default search engine.

That last point matters more than people expect. A lot of office computers and older users default to Bing without ever changing the setting, so you reach people who simply never see your Google adverts. For a business chasing established, desk-bound customers, that hidden pool of searchers can be genuinely useful.

How the auction actually works

Every time someone searches, Microsoft runs an instant auction to decide which adverts show and in what order. Your position isn't decided by the highest bid alone. Microsoft weighs your bid against a quality measure that looks at how relevant your advert is, how likely people are to click it, and how good the landing page experience is.

The practical lesson is the same as it is on Google: a tightly written advert pointing at a relevant page can outrank a competitor who bids more but writes lazily. You don't win by throwing money at it. You win by matching the advert closely to what the searcher typed, then sending them somewhere that answers the query. Small businesses often underestimate how much cheaper their clicks become once relevance improves.

How Bing Ads differ from Google Ads

If you already run Google Ads, the good news is that Microsoft Ads will feel familiar. The account structure, the keyword match types and the bidding options are nearly identical. You can even import your Google campaigns directly, which saves hours of setup.

But there are real differences that affect how you should run them.

Factor	Google Ads	Microsoft Ads (Bing)
Search volume	Much higher	Lower, a smaller slice of UK searches
Competition	High, prices bid up	Usually lower
Typical cost per click	Higher	Often lower for the same keyword
Audience	Broad, all ages	Skews older, often more affluent, desktop-heavy
Setup	Standalone	Can import from Google in minutes

The lower competition is the headline benefit. Because fewer businesses advertise on Bing, you often win the same keyword for less money. That doesn't mean it's always cheaper per lead, but the click prices are frequently kinder to a small budget.

The audience difference is real

Bing's users tend to be older and often use work computers where Bing is the default. For some businesses that's a perfect match. If you sell professional services, financial products, B2B tools, or anything aimed at an established, higher-income customer, the Bing audience can convert well. If your customers are young and mobile-first, Bing will do less for you.

There's a device angle here too. A larger share of Bing traffic comes from desktop computers than you'd see on Google, where mobile dominates. That changes how you should think about your adverts and your landing pages. Someone searching from a work desktop is often researching carefully, comparing suppliers, and more willing to fill in a longer enquiry form than a person tapping on a phone between other tasks. If your offer suits considered, sit-down research, Bing plays to that.

Features that behave slightly differently

Most of the tools you know from Google exist on Microsoft Ads, but a few work in their own way. Some automated bidding strategies need more conversion data before they perform well, and because Bing has lower volume, that data takes longer to build up. It's often sensible to start with manual or lightly automated bidding on Bing and only hand over to full automation once you have enough conversions for the system to learn from.

Microsoft also offers audience targeting options tied to LinkedIn profile data, such as company, job function and industry. That's a genuine point of difference and one reason Bing suits B2B advertisers. If you sell to a specific type of professional, you can layer that targeting on top of your keywords to focus the budget where it counts.

Should your small business actually use them?

Here's the practical framework we use with clients. Bing is worth running when at least one of these is true.

And here's when Bing is probably not your first move.

• You have a tiny budget and aren't yet on Google. Start with Google, prove the offer, then expand.
• Your audience is young and almost entirely mobile.
• You sell in a niche where the Bing search volume is close to zero. It's fine to check and move on.

The key is to make the decision on evidence rather than assumption. A quick way to check demand is to build a small campaign, or import an existing one, and let Microsoft's own forecasting tools show you the estimated impressions for your keywords. If the numbers are tiny in your area, you've spent five minutes and lost nothing. If they're healthy, you've found a channel worth a proper test.

A realistic example

Imagine a family-run accountancy firm in Leeds. They run Google Ads targeting "accountant Leeds" and similar terms, and it's profitable but the clicks aren't cheap because other firms bid on the same words.

They import those campaigns into Microsoft Ads. On Bing, fewer local accountants are advertising, so their adverts show near the top for less per click. Their customers, established business owners, often use Bing at work. Over a few weeks they get a modest but steady flow of extra enquiries at a lower cost per lead than Google delivered.

That's the typical pattern. Bing rarely doubles your leads. It quietly adds a chunk of cheaper ones, which is exactly what a small business budget needs. We won't promise you specific numbers, because every sector and area behaves differently, but the mechanism is sound and consistent.

A contrasting example where Bing does less

Now picture a mobile app aimed at students, promoted mainly through short adverts people tap on their phones. Most of the audience is young, and they search on phones running Google as the default. On Bing, the search volume for the relevant terms is low, and the audience that does appear isn't the target market. Here, pouring effort into Bing would be a poor use of time. Better to double down on channels where those customers actually are.

Holding these two examples side by side is the honest way to decide. Bing isn't universally good or bad. It's good for a particular shape of business and a particular shape of customer, and weak for others. Matching it to your own situation is the whole game.

What it costs and how it's managed

You pay for the clicks (your ad spend, which goes to Microsoft) plus, usually, a management fee if someone runs it for you. At DPOM our Microsoft Ads and Bing Ads management sits on a fixed transparent monthly fee, so you always know what you're paying regardless of how the month goes. We don't do pay-on-results or guaranteed rankings, because in paid search nobody can honestly promise those.

The ad spend itself is entirely up to you. You can set daily budgets, cap them, and change them any time. A small business often starts modestly on Bing precisely because click costs are lower, which stretches the budget further.

It helps to separate the two numbers clearly in your head. The management fee covers the work of building, running and improving the campaigns. The ad spend is the fuel that actually buys the clicks. When you compare quotes from different providers, always check whether a headline price includes the ad spend or sits on top of it, because that single detail changes the whole comparison. Our preference is to keep it simple: a fixed fee for the work, and your ad budget kept plainly separate so you can see exactly where each pound goes.

Common mistakes to avoid

1. Importing from Google and forgetting it. Bing behaves differently, so the imported campaigns need reviewing, not leaving on autopilot.
2. Ignoring the Audience Network. This is switched on by default and can spend budget on low-quality display placements. Decide deliberately whether to keep it. Our guide to the Microsoft Ads Audience Network walks through exactly when to use it or disable it.
3. Not tracking conversions. Without conversion tracking you're guessing. Set it up before you spend a penny.
4. Copying Google budgets blindly. Bing has less volume, so a huge daily budget may never be spent. Match the budget to the traffic that's actually there.
5. Not protecting against wasted clicks. As with any paid platform, invalid and repeated clicks cost money. Sensible click fraud protection keeps your spend on genuine prospects.

How to write adverts that work on Bing

The same craft that wins on Google wins on Bing, but a couple of habits pay off especially well. Match your headline to the exact search where you can, because a searcher scanning a page of results clicks the advert that mirrors their own words. Put your strongest selling point in the first headline rather than burying it. And use every relevant extension available, from sitelinks to call buttons, so your advert takes up more of the page and gives people more reasons to click.

Landing pages matter just as much. If your advert promises a free quote, the page it opens should lead with the free quote, not a general homepage. Every extra step between the click and the action loses people. On desktop-heavy Bing traffic you can afford a slightly longer, more detailed page, but the principle holds: send people to the answer, not the reception desk.

Bing Ads and your wider strategy

Think of Microsoft Ads as one part of a paid search plan, not a standalone gamble. The strongest results usually come from running Google and Bing together, using what you learn on one to improve the other. Keywords that convert on Google are a good starting point for Bing, and cheaper Bing data can flag opportunities you then push harder on Google.

There's a reporting benefit to this joined-up view too. When you look at both platforms side by side, you can see which channel delivers the cheaper lead for each service you offer, then shift budget accordingly month by month. That kind of steady, evidence-led adjustment is where a lot of the value in professional management comes from. It isn't dramatic, but over a year it adds up.

Looking further ahead, Microsoft's search share has been supported by its integration of AI features and its default position across Windows and Edge. We've argued the case in full in our post on why Microsoft Ads belong in every 2026 PPC strategy. The short version: ignoring a cheaper channel that reaches a distinct audience is leaving money on the table.

If you're an agency rather than a business owner, the same logic applies to how you serve your clients. Many agencies bolt Bing onto their existing paid search offering, and it pairs naturally with white label Google Ads management. If that's you, our guide to white label PPC is a useful next read.

How to start, step by step

1. Make sure your Google Ads are profitable first, or at least tracking properly.
2. Create a Microsoft Advertising account.
3. Import your Google campaigns as a starting point.
4. Review match types, budgets and the Audience Network setting.
5. Confirm conversion tracking is firing correctly.
6. Run it for a few weeks, then judge on cost per lead, not clicks.

Give it a fair run. A week isn't enough to judge any paid channel. Look at four to eight weeks of real conversion data before deciding whether Bing earns its place.

Questions small business owners ask next

Do I need a separate budget for Bing? Yes, treat it as its own budget rather than splitting your Google spend down the middle. Start small, judge it on results, then decide whether to grow it.

Can I run Bing without Google? You can, and it's technically no harder. But for most small businesses Google is the bigger, faster way to prove whether paid search works at all, so it usually makes sense to start there.

How long before I see results? Clicks come quickly, but meaningful conversion data takes longer on Bing because volume is lower. Plan to give it several weeks before drawing conclusions.

Is it worth it for a very local business? Sometimes. Check the forecasted search volume for your town and services first. If people are searching, local targeting on Bing can bring in cheap, relevant enquiries. If nobody's searching, it isn't worth the effort.