Microsoft Advertising

Search advertising on Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, AOL, and Copilot, plus native and display through the Microsoft Audience Network and, since 2024, connected TV and the inventory of Microsoft-owned properties including LinkedIn data for targeting. Its Google Ads import makes it the cheapest expansion any search advertiser can make.

Where ads run

• Bing search results and syndicated search partners
• Copilot and Bing AI answers (ads in conversational results)
• Microsoft Audience Network (native on MSN, Outlook, Edge, and partner sites)
• Microsoft Start, Windows, and Xbox surfaces
• Connected TV and online video through Microsoft's Netflix partnership (ended 2025) and Roku, Hulu, and others via Microsoft Invest

Campaign types

• Search
• Shopping
• Performance Max
• Audience (native and display)
• Video and CTV
• App Install
• Multimedia ads

Targeting

• Keywords with match types mirroring Google
• In-market, remarketing, similar, and customer match audiences
• LinkedIn profile targeting: company, industry, job function (search and audience campaigns)
• Demographics, location, device, schedule
• Dynamic search ads

Buying

Auction-based CPC for search, CPM and CPC for audience network, automated bidding options mirroring Google's. No minimum spend. CPCs run meaningfully below Google's on comparable terms because there is less competition, though volume is a fraction of Google's outside the US desktop market.

Measurement

Universal Event Tracking tag, offline conversion import on msclkid, Enhanced Conversions equivalent, Google Analytics import, and standard search reporting.

Watch

Import Google campaigns, then adjust: bids, budgets, and the audience network opt-out (the network is opted in by default on search campaigns and behaves differently). The LinkedIn profile targeting is unique to Microsoft and worth testing for B2B search. Copilot ad placements are new and their reporting is still evolving.

Documentation

https://help.ads.microsoft.com/

See also: benchmarks for typical costs, and the glossary for any term used above.