Flight log / Transmission 020

Bing Ads vs. Google Ads: where Microsoft wins for B2B

Bing is the punchline at every PPC meetup. It also served 18.8% of US desktop searches in September 2026, according to StatCounter, and desktop is where a lot of B2B buying still gets done.

Most B2B teams treat Microsoft Advertising as a checkbox: import the Google account, set a small budget, forget it exists. That leaves its two real advantages on the table. One is who searches on Bing. The other is a targeting layer Google simply doesn't have.

Here's the honest comparison: what's confirmed, what's marketing copy, and where Google still takes the round.

Bing Ads vs. Google Ads at a glance

How much search share does Bing actually have?

Less than Google, more than its reputation. StatCounter's September 2026 data puts Bing at 9.89% of US searches across all devices and 18.8% on desktop. Google sits at 85.19% and 74.71% on the same cuts.

Two details make Microsoft's share bigger than the Bing number suggests:

• Syndication. Microsoft says its search ads also appear on partner sites including Yahoo, AOL, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia. StatCounter reports Yahoo and DuckDuckGo separately, at 2.64% and 1.75% of US searches.
• Desktop skew. Microsoft's own search ads page cites a Comscore figure of 38.1% US PC search share for its network, but that number is from March 2023 and desktop only. Treat it as dated context, not a current planning input.

Why the desktop skew matters for B2B: Windows machines ship with Edge, Edge defaults to Bing, and plenty of corporate IT teams never touch the default. The pattern that shows up in most B2B accounts is that Microsoft traffic is more desktop, more weekday and more business-hours than the Google traffic on the same keywords.

Can you target LinkedIn profiles in Microsoft Ads?

Yes, and this is the feature that earns Microsoft a real line in a B2B media plan. Microsoft Advertising calls itself the only ad platform other than LinkedIn that can target by LinkedIn profile data.

Per Microsoft's help documentation, you can target three LinkedIn attributes:

• Company, up to 1,000 companies per ad group or campaign, added manually inside the platform. File uploads of company lists aren't supported.
• Industry, such as finance or broadcast media.
• Job function, such as sales, accounting or purchasing.

It's available on Search, Dynamic Search ads, Shopping, Audience and Performance Max campaigns, with Performance Max still rolling out to some accounts.

Job seniority is the newer layer. After a Search pilot earlier in the year, it became generally available for Search and Audience campaigns, per Microsoft's August 2026 product update. It covers 10 standardized levels: CXO, VP, Director, Manager, Senior, Entry, Owner, Partner, Training and Volunteer. Rollouts like this rarely land in every market at once, so confirm it shows up in yours before you build a plan on it.

The catch: it's a bid modifier, not a filter

Microsoft is explicit that LinkedIn profile targeting won't narrow your ads' audience. Its own phrase is "bid only," as opposed to "target and bid": a searcher still triggers your ad by matching a keyword, and the LinkedIn layer raises or lowers your bid when that searcher fits the profile.

That's the right way to use it in B2B. Keep keywords doing the intent work, then bid up for target accounts and the functions that actually buy. Say a 20-person SaaS team sells to finance leaders: a keyword like "AP automation software" plus a bid increase for the finance job function and a named account list puts more weight behind the searches most likely to become pipeline.

Are Microsoft Ads cheaper than Google Ads?

The honest answer: "often, by some amount, in your category, maybe." Here's why nobody can give you a clean number.

Microsoft doesn't publish a cross-platform CPC comparison, and the most widely used public benchmark doesn't split the platforms. The LocaliQ 2026 search advertising benchmarks report an average CPC of $5.42 across industries and $5.87 for business services, but those figures blend Google Ads and Microsoft Ads data. Most "Bing is X% cheaper" stats online trace back to no source at all, so they're not here.

The mechanics point in Microsoft's favor, though. Fewer advertisers bid in its auctions, so the same keyword frequently clears at a lower price. The trade is volume: a cheaper click you can only buy 200 times a month doesn't replace a pricier one you can buy 2,000 times.

The only CPC comparison that counts is yours:

1. Price your top 20 keywords in both Google Keyword Planner and Microsoft Advertising's Keyword Planner.
2. Run both platforms for at least a full month on the same keywords and pages.
3. Compare cost per qualified lead and pipeline, not CPC. A cheap click from the wrong company is still expensive.

Do Microsoft Ads show in Copilot?

Yes. Microsoft serves ads inside Copilot, its AI assistant, and has been building richer ad formats for the conversational surface since 2025.

Microsoft says its first-party data (owned and operated properties, search only, global, February to May 2025) shows ads in Copilot drove 73% higher click-through rates and 16% stronger conversion rates than traditional search, with customer journeys 33% shorter. That tag confirms Microsoft published it, not that it will hold in your account. It's Microsoft grading Microsoft, with no published sample size, so read it as a direction, not a forecast.

What matters operationally: there's no separate Copilot campaign to build. Ads from existing Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns can serve there, built from your existing assets, and third-party guides report there's no Copilot-only breakdown in reporting yet. Strong images, logos and complete assets help, because the richer placements draw on them.

Google is doing the same thing with ads in AI Overviews and AI Mode. We break that down in ads in AI Overviews, and the standalone assistant auction in our ChatGPT ads guide.

What is the Microsoft Audience Network, and should B2B use it?

The Microsoft Audience Network is Microsoft's native and display inventory. Microsoft says Audience ads appear across MSN, Outlook, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Casual Games and partner sites, styled to fit each surface. Microsoft's developer docs also say search ads are automatically extended to these native placements, built from your search creative and image extensions.

For B2B, it's useful in two narrow ways:

• Remarketing to people who visited high-intent pages, inside an inbox they open every workday.
• Account-based reach with LinkedIn company and job function targeting layered onto Audience campaigns.

The risk is the usual one with native inventory: cheap clicks that never convert. In February 2023, Microsoft dropped the audience ad bid modifier from campaign settings, the -100% setting many advertisers used to keep search campaigns off Audience Network placements, in favor of letting its bidding optimize across channels, as reported by Search Engine Land. Third-party guides disagree on what controls exist today, so don't assume. Check your ad group settings, pull the website URL (publisher) report, exclude placements that waste money, and judge Audience Network traffic on qualified conversions, not CTR.

Where does Google Ads still win?

Most of the scoreboard, honestly. Google has the full roster. Microsoft has two very good characters and knows exactly when to use them.

• Volume. At 85% of US searches, Google has the long tail. Niche B2B keywords that get 50 searches a month on Google may get almost none on Bing.
• Mobile. Bing's share drops sharply off desktop. If your buyers research on phones, Google carries the load.
• Automated bidding. Smart Bidding needs conversion data. Smaller Microsoft campaigns often have too few conversions to train on, so learning periods run longer and results swing more.
• Inventory breadth. YouTube, Demand Gen and Discover have no true Microsoft equivalent.
• Tooling and talent. Scripts, third-party tools and practitioners all default to Google first. Features usually land there first too.

Where this breaks

• Profile data is self-reported. LinkedIn profiles aren't verified by default, so some "VP" or "finance" matches won't be what they claim.
• Small budgets stall. If Microsoft only gets a few conversions a month, automated strategies won't have enough data. Manual bidding or click-focused strategies may serve you better until volume builds.
• Imported accounts inherit Google's assumptions. Bids, budgets, audiences and negatives tuned for Google rarely fit Microsoft as-is. We cover what to change in importing Google Ads into Microsoft Ads.

Should a B2B company run Microsoft Ads?

Yes, if Google Search is already working. Microsoft is an amplifier, not a rescue. If your Google account is losing money, importing it copies the leak to a second platform.

A sensible first flight looks like this:

1. Import only your proven, highest-intent Google Search campaigns.
2. Add LinkedIn company and job function bid adjustments for your ICP.
3. Review the search terms report weekly for the first month, because Bing's matching behaves differently from Google's.
4. Send every ad group to the page that answers that exact query. The same landing page discipline that drives Quality Score on Google drives results here.
5. Judge it on cost per qualified opportunity after 60 to 90 days, not on week-two CPC.

For how Microsoft fits into the wider program, see the B2B PPC playbook.

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