Microsoft Ads (Bing Ads): Who You Reach and How to Get Started

Microsoft Ads was called Bing Ads until 2019 and is now officially named Microsoft Advertising. It lets you buy search ads on Bing in much the same way as search advertising in Google Ads. My recommendation is to test Microsoft Ads if many of your customers search from a computer, and especially if you sell to other businesses.

According to StatCounter, Bing accounted for 8.6% of search engine traffic in Sweden in October 2026. On desktop the share was 20.1% and on mobile just 0.6%. Is a search engine with that share worth your time? It depends on how your customers search.

Who you reach with Microsoft Ads

Bing is the default search engine in Microsoft's Edge browser. My reading is that this explains much of the gap between desktop and mobile, since many work computers run Windows and Edge. Someone looking for suppliers at work is therefore probably more likely to end up on Bing than someone searching on their phone in the evening.

Microsoft itself describes its searchers as somewhat older and with more purchasing power than average. The data comes from measurements in countries other than Sweden, so treat it as a tendency and check what it means in your own figures.

Microsoft Ads can also raise bids for people who work at particular companies or in particular job functions according to their LinkedIn profile. You can choose industry as well. According to Microsoft's own overview, however, the feature cannot be used for ads in Sweden. The overview lists 27 countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany. If you sell to businesses there, it is worth trying.

What clicks usually cost

Fewer advertisers tend to bid on the same keywords in Microsoft Ads than in Google Ads. As a result, the cost per click (CPC) is often lower and it is easier to get near the top of the page. That is not a guarantee, since the difference varies between industries.

A lower click price only gives a better return if visitors buy or get in touch as often as visitors from Google do. You will only see that once tracking is in place and the campaigns have run for a few weeks.

Where the ads appear

Microsoft Advertising shows ads in three places.

• Search results. Search ads appear on Bing and, according to Microsoft, also on search partners such as Yahoo and DuckDuckGo.
• Microsoft Audience Network. Image and video ads for selected audiences appear here on Microsoft services such as MSN and Outlook.com. They also appear in the Edge browser and on other publishers' sites.
• Copilot. Ads can appear in the answers in Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant. According to Microsoft, all campaign types that are eligible to show there are included automatically and you cannot opt out. This is similar to ads in ChatGPT.

How to get started

Start by creating an account at ads.microsoft.com.

Import your campaigns from Google Ads

If you already use Google Ads, you can import your campaigns. The import can run once or on a schedule, so that changes in Google Ads are carried over automatically.

Go through the campaigns after the import, because not everything comes across. Audiences created in Google Analytics, for example, are skipped. A scheduled import can also overwrite bids and budgets with the values from Google Ads. If you want to manage the Microsoft budget separately, turn off that update in the import settings.

Import your products from Google Merchant Center

For online retailers, Microsoft Merchant Center is the equivalent of what Google Merchant Center is for Google Shopping. You add your product catalogue there and then run Shopping campaigns that show your products with an image and a price. Microsoft Shopping campaigns are available in Sweden.

Microsoft Merchant Center can fetch your products from Google Merchant Center once or on a recurring schedule. At the same time, replace google with bing in the tracking parameters (the UTM tags) in your product links, so that clicks are attributed correctly in your statistics.

Track conversions with the UET tag

Add the UET tag (Universal Event Tracking) to your website before you spend money on campaigns. It is Microsoft's equivalent of Google's conversion tracking and shows which keywords and ads lead to purchases and enquiries.

For visitors in the EU and the rest of the EEA, Microsoft requires the tag to receive the visitor's consent choice through Consent Mode or TCF, and without it Microsoft stops counting your conversions.

After a few weeks, compare the cost per conversion with Google Ads. Raise bids on the keywords that bring in business and pause the ones that only cost money.