Should you use Microsoft Ads or Google Ads?

Use Google Ads first if you need broad search demand, YouTube advertising or a wider range of campaign options. Use Microsoft Ads if its audience and LinkedIn profile targeting suit your customers, particularly for B2B campaigns. Use both if each platform produces suitable enquiries or sales at an acceptable cost.

How are Microsoft Ads and Google Ads different?

Both platforms let you bid to show ads when someone searches for a relevant product or service. They also support shopping, audience and remarketing campaigns. The main differences are reach, placements, audience targeting and the amount of demand available for your keywords.

Google Ads can place ads across Google Search, YouTube, Google Maps, Shopping and the Google Display Network. These options help businesses reach people before, during and after a search. Google Ads can suit businesses with broad consumer audiences, several product categories or a need for video advertising.

Microsoft search ads can appear on Bing and search partners such as Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Microsoft Ads also provides other advertising placements across Microsoft-owned properties such as MSN and Outlook. Placement availability depends on the campaign type, market and current platform settings.

Microsoft Ads offers LinkedIn profile targeting based on attributes such as company, industry and job function. A B2B advertiser can use this to combine a relevant search with professional information. Google has its own audience and intent targeting, but it does not provide the same LinkedIn profile filters.

Microsoft Ads may have lower click costs in some markets because it often faces less advertiser competition, although this varies by industry and location. A cheaper click is not automatically a better click. The visitor still needs to become a suitable lead or customer.

Which platform fits your business?

Choose a platform according to the offer, customers and campaign goal. Broad comparisons between Microsoft Ads and Google Ads are less useful than evidence from the website, sales records and advertising accounts.

Google Ads is often the starting point when a business needs more search demand or access to Google-specific inventory such as YouTube. It can also suit a broad consumer offer that needs reach across search, video, maps or display placements.

Microsoft Ads can be a suitable starting point when job function, industry or company targeting can help reach B2B buyers. It may also be worth testing when customers use its search network or the business needs another source of search enquiries beyond Google.

Using both can make sense once conversion tracking works and each platform can be assessed against the same business outcome. Check website analytics and customer records before deciding. Look at device use, location, company type and the job roles involved in a purchase.

Ask the people handling sales whether buyers mention Bing, Google, YouTube or a particular device. This will not provide a complete answer, but it can expose assumptions that need testing.

Google Ads can still be the better starting point even if Microsoft offers useful B2B targeting. Search volume matters when the business needs enough enquiries to support its operations. The guide on whether Google Ads is worth it for small business explains how to assess that wider decision.

Should you advertise on both platforms?

Using both platforms can expand reach and reduce reliance on one source of paid traffic. It also creates more work. Each account needs its own budget controls, search-term reviews, conversion checks and performance decisions.

Microsoft Ads can import campaigns from Google Ads. Importing can save setup work, but it does not remove the need for a manual review. Settings, audience options, partner networks, automated bidding and conversion goals may behave differently across the platforms.

1. Build a focused campaign around one offer and a clear conversion action.
2. Confirm that forms, calls, bookings or purchases are recorded correctly.
3. Import or rebuild the campaign on the second platform.
4. Review locations, networks, keywords, ads, budgets and conversion goals before publishing.
5. Keep brand searches separate from general product or service searches.
6. Compare the platforms using qualified enquiries, sales and acquisition cost.

Do not divide the budget equally by default. Search demand and lead quality can differ between platforms. Allocate enough budget to collect useful evidence, then direct spending towards the campaigns producing better business outcomes.

Running both platforms may not suit a small starting budget. Spreading limited funds across too many campaigns can leave each campaign without enough activity to assess. A focused test on one platform may provide clearer information before the other is added.

How should you compare results?

Compare campaigns with similar conditions. A campaign for the business name on Microsoft Ads should not be compared with a campaign for broad service keywords on Google Ads. Keep the offer, location, keywords, landing page and conversion definition as close as the platforms allow.

Use business results rather than selecting the platform with the lowest click cost. Start by reading the search terms that triggered the ads and excluding searches that do not match the offer. Then check the conversion rate to see how often relevant visits produce the intended action.

Cost per qualified enquiry or sale is more useful than cost per click alone because it connects advertising with the sales process. Lead quality also matters. Record whether each enquiry matches the service, location and customer type.

Where the systems allow it, compare the value of sales rather than only counting submitted forms. Check whether performance differs across desktop, mobile and service areas. Reporting should also separate search results from partner and audience placements where reporting allows it.

Use the same conversion rules and attribution approach in both accounts. Test forms and phone tracking directly, then confirm that each action appears once. Platform reports can otherwise count duplicate actions or give both networks credit for the same customer.

Connect advertising reports with website analytics and sales records. An ad platform can show that a form was submitted, but it cannot judge whether the enquiry was suitable unless that information is returned from the sales process.

How can you check the choice yourself?

Use a written checklist before launching or importing a campaign. It reduces the chance that a platform setting, rather than genuine customer behaviour, decides the result.

• Define the outcome and clear offer. State whether a confirmed purchase, booking or qualified sales enquiry counts as a conversion, and avoid mixing unrelated services.
• Match campaign conditions. Use comparable keywords, locations, schedules, ads and landing pages, and target people in the service area rather than people who only show an interest in it.
• Review network settings. Confirm whether the campaign includes search partners, audience placements or other inventory.
• Inspect imported settings. Check bids, budgets, audiences, conversion goals and ad assets instead of publishing immediately.
• Separate brand and non-brand searches. People searching for the business name may act differently from people discovering it through a service keyword.
• Record changes and review suitable leads and sales. Note edits to bids, keywords, ads and landing pages, and do not choose a winner from impressions, clicks or click-through rate alone.

One avoidable mistake is assuming an imported Google campaign is ready to run in Microsoft Ads. Review every inherited option. A setting that made sense in the Google account may be unavailable, mapped differently or unsuitable for Microsoft placements.

Another mistake is making a decision from an early burst of clicks. Search demand changes by keyword, location and schedule. Wait until the campaign has enough relevant activity to support a decision, without leaving obvious tracking errors or irrelevant searches running.

When should you get help?

Get help when conversion tracking is unclear, imported settings cannot be verified, irrelevant searches are consuming budget or advertising reports do not match sales records. Support can also help when separate campaigns are needed for different services, locations or customer groups.

A specialist can review account structure, tracking, search terms, audience settings and landing pages before more budget is committed. See the Microsoft Ads service for campaign setup and management, or request a free audit to identify account issues and practical next steps.

Ask for reporting that separates platforms, brand terms, campaign types and conversion actions. The final decision should rest on suitable enquiries, sales value and acquisition cost, not a general claim that one platform is better.