What Is Microsoft Advertising? The Bing Ads Rebrand Explained
Vishnu Prasadh
Last updated on
Microsoft Advertising is Microsoft’s pay-per-click platform for search, display, and native ads across Bing, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, and its own Audience Network. It’s the same platform that used to be called Bing Ads, renamed in 2019, running on the same auction and the same core search inventory.
What You Need to Know About Microsoft Advertising
- Microsoft Advertising is the 2019 rebrand of Bing Ads, running on the same auction mechanics and reaching the same core search inventory.
- It covers Bing search, plus Yahoo and AOL through a long-standing search partnership, MSN, and the Microsoft Audience Network’s native and display placements.
- The rebrand changed the name, not the mechanics. Anyone who ran Bing Ads can run Microsoft Advertising without relearning the platform.
- Most SaaS teams write it off as low-intent leftover traffic, but the actual case for running it comes down to audience skew: older, higher-income, more desktop, less competition.
- Google Ads wins on scale. Microsoft Advertising’s edge is a cheaper, thinner auction for a specific, often B2B-relevant slice of your buyers.
What Is Microsoft Advertising?
Microsoft Advertising is Microsoft’s self-serve advertising platform for running search, display, and native campaigns across its own properties and partner network. It’s built on the exact infrastructure Bing Ads ran on before the 2019 rename, with the auction and campaign structure carried over unchanged.
Most SaaS teams hear “Microsoft Advertising,” or still say “Bing Ads,” and assume it means a small, low-intent slice of search traffic not worth a real budget line. That read was never really about the name. It’s about who’s actually searching there.
- Platform: the self-serve ad platform for running search, display, and native campaigns across Microsoft’s owned and partner properties.
- Rebrand date: renamed from Bing Ads to Microsoft Advertising in 2019, folding the Microsoft Audience Network under one umbrella.
- Core inventory: Bing search results, running the same bid-and-quality-score auction mechanics as Google Ads .
- Interface: same account structure as Bing Ads, so an old Bing Ads login still gets you into the current platform with campaign history intact.
- Import tool: a built-in Google Ads import that copies most campaigns, keywords, and settings over in a few clicks.
Consider a procurement SaaS selling to fintech ops teams. Their Google account was maxed out on competitive terms like “vendor risk management software,” with CPCs climbing every quarter. The same keywords on Microsoft Advertising sat in a noticeably thinner auction, because fewer advertisers bothered to show up there.
What Networks Does Microsoft Advertising Actually Reach?
Microsoft Advertising reaches Bing search, Yahoo and AOL through a search partnership, MSN, and the Microsoft Audience Network’s native and display placements. That’s a wider footprint than “just Bing” suggests, and most SaaS teams never look past the name to check.
- Bing search: the core search engine, still the default on most Windows installs and Microsoft 365 environments.
- Yahoo and AOL: search partnerships that route a meaningful slice of their query volume into Microsoft’s ad auction.
- MSN: Microsoft’s own portal and news network, carrying native and display inventory.
- Microsoft Audience Network: native ads placed across Microsoft properties and third-party syndicated partner sites, similar in concept to Google’s Display Network.
A Bing search campaign’s actual reach extends across Yahoo, AOL, and MSN through these partnerships, even though most advertisers only ever see the word “Bing” in the account name.
How Does Microsoft Advertising Compare to Google Ads?
Microsoft Advertising and Google Ads run on nearly identical mechanics: an auction weighing bid against ad relevance and quality. The real differences are scale, competition, and who shows up in each auction, not how either platform works underneath.
| Factor | Microsoft Advertising | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Search volume | A fraction of Google’s, but not negligible once Yahoo, AOL, and MSN are counted | The largest search engine by volume, worldwide |
| Auction competition | Usually thinner for the same keywords | Denser and typically pricier per click |
| Audience skew | Desktop-heavy, older, workplace and enterprise machines | Broad, mobile-heavy, all demographics |
| Campaign types | Search, native/display via Microsoft Audience Network | Search, Display, Shopping, YouTube, remarketing |
Google Ads is the scale channel. Microsoft Advertising is the efficiency channel for the slice of your audience that’s already there. Running it as a smaller copy of your Google account, rather than tuning it for its own auction, is how most teams waste the budget.
Is Microsoft Advertising Worth Running for a SaaS Team?
Microsoft Advertising is worth running once your Google Ads account is already performing, since it adds reach into an audience segment Google alone doesn’t fully cover. It’s not a replacement channel, and treating it as a smaller Google account is where most teams go wrong.
- Good fit: B2B SaaS selling to enterprise or ops roles, where a desktop, workplace-machine audience matches your ICP .
- Weaker fit: consumer or mobile-first products, where Microsoft’s audience skew works against you.
- Prerequisite: a Google Ads account with enough conversion history to know which keywords already convert.
- Realistic expectation: meaningful cost-per-lead efficiency on smaller volume, over a second Google-sized pipeline.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Judging the Platform by Impression Volume Alone
Microsoft’s total search volume will always look small next to Google’s. Judging the account on impressions instead of cost per qualified lead is why most teams pause it before enough conversion data can show whether the audience fit is actually there.
Importing a Google Campaign and Leaving It Untouched
Google Import saves setup time, but the PPC auction and audience are different enough that bidding and targeting need genuine re-optimization, not a copy-paste.
Assuming It’s the Same Thing as LinkedIn Ads
Microsoft owns both, but they’re separate platforms with separate billing. Microsoft Advertising can layer LinkedIn profile targeting onto its own search campaigns, which is a targeting feature, not a merger of the two products, distinct from running a standalone LinkedIn ads campaign.
Ignoring the Audience Network as a Separate Line Item
Treating Microsoft Advertising as one undifferentiated account, rather than search and Audience Network priced and targeted separately, makes it harder to see which part is actually driving results.
How PipeRocket Digital Runs Microsoft Advertising for SaaS
We treat Microsoft Advertising as a deliberate second channel once Google Ads already performs, targeting the audience skew directly rather than importing a Google campaign and hoping. For the full tactical playbook, including LinkedIn profile targeting, see our Microsoft Ads for SaaS guide, or explore our SaaS PPC service. Get in touch if you’re deciding whether Microsoft Advertising earns a spot in your paid mix.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Microsoft Advertising?
Microsoft Advertising is Microsoft’s pay-per-click platform for search, display, and native ads, covering Bing, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, and the Microsoft Audience Network. It’s the 2019 rebrand of Bing Ads, running on the same underlying auction and account infrastructure that existed before the name changed.
Is Microsoft Advertising the same as Bing Ads?
Yes. The 2019 rebrand renamed the product, not the underlying account, campaigns, or billing. Logging in with old Bing Ads credentials lands in the current Microsoft Advertising interface with campaign history fully intact, and the Microsoft Audience Network was added under the same account.
How much does Microsoft Advertising cost compared to Google Ads?
Microsoft Advertising typically runs cheaper per click than Google Ads for the same keywords, driven mainly by thinner auction competition rather than a different pricing mechanism. The size of that gap varies by industry and keyword category, and it tends to be widest in under-competed B2B and enterprise verticals.
