Microsoft
Channel
Microsoft Ads
Microsoft exists in your account because someone ran the Google import once. Nobody has looked at it since, and it is judged on a share of budget nobody chose.
- Funnel stages
- 5
- Campaign types
- 7
- Checked against the platform
- 14 September 2026
5 funnel stages7 campaign typesChecked Sept 2026
Why it is worth running
A different auction with different competition. Built natively, not imported and forgotten.
Microsoft is the clearest example of the argument this whole practice is built on. It is a genuinely different auction, with different competitors, different audience data behind it and, in several sectors, materially cheaper clicks. Treating it as a copy of the Google account guarantees you inherit Google's structure, Google's negatives and Google's assumptions, and collect none of the reasons to be there.
The single most common finding in a Microsoft audit is an account that is technically live and functionally unmanaged. Google’s negatives, Google’s ad groups, Google’s bid strategy, and a conversion tag nobody has checked since the day it was pasted in.
None of that is a reason to spend less on Microsoft. It is a reason to run it as its own account, with its own structure and its own numbers.
Full funnel
Every stage, and what it is judged on
Demand capture
- They are
- Searching on Bing, Copilot, Yahoo and partner sites, often from a work machine
- We run
- Search built natively on Microsoft's own query data, with Dynamic Search Ads covering the long tail
- Judged on
- Cost per qualified lead against the Google equivalent, judged separately not blended
Demand creation
- They are
- Not searching yet, but reachable through Microsoft's audience data
- We run
- Audience campaigns across MSN, Outlook, Edge and the Microsoft Audience Network
- Judged on
- New visitor rate and cost per first qualified session
Consideration
- They are
- Comparing, returning, reading, not yet ready
- We run
- Remarketing and in-market audiences layered onto Search, LinkedIn profile targeting on B2B accounts
- Judged on
- Assisted conversions and returning-visitor conversion rate
Conversion
- They are
- Ready to buy, often at a higher basket value than the Google equivalent
- We run
- Shopping against a Merchant Center feed, Performance Max where retail automation earns its place
- Judged on
- Cost per acquisition and average order value, compared honestly across channels
Retention and win-back
- They are
- Existing customers, lapsed buyers, and accounts worth renewing
- We run
- Customer list targeting and feed segmentation by margin rather than by category
- Judged on
- Repeat purchase rate and cost per reactivated customer
Every campaign type
Grouped by whatthey are for
Checked against the platform on 14 September 2026, because these names change, and a stale campaign name on a paid media site is worse than no page.
Search and intent
- Search
- Keyword-led capture across the Microsoft Search Network, including Bing and Copilot surfaces.
- Dynamic Search Ads
- Keyword-free coverage of the long tail, configured inside Search campaigns. Useful for large catalogues.
Retail and feed-led
Smart Shopping is being retired. Existing campaigns upgrade to Performance Max automatically, and new Smart Shopping campaigns can no longer be created.
- Shopping
- Feed-driven product ads through Microsoft Merchant Center, with manual control over structure and bids.
- Performance Max
- Cross-property retail automation spanning Search, the Audience Network, Shopping and Copilot surfaces.
- Smart Shoppingbeing retired
- Superseded. Campaigns migrate to Performance Max; treat any remaining ones as a migration task, not a strategy.
Audience and automated
- Audience
- Native and display placements across MSN, Outlook, Edge and partner inventory, using Microsoft's own audience data.
- Smart campaignsbeing retired
- Simplified automation aimed at small lead-gen advertisers. Being wound down, and never the right tool at scale.
Verified 14 September 2026 against Microsoft Advertising campaign types, 2026, Microsoft Advertising product updates, 2026.
Measurement
How we know it worked
We build all of this for free before you commit to anything.
What the free setup covers- 01UET tag verified independently of the Google tag, not assumed to be firing
- 02Conversion goals defined natively rather than inherited through an import
- 03Microsoft reported separately from Google, because a blended cost per lead hides which one is working
- 04Audience Network placements reviewed for quality, since automatic placements are where budget leaks
- 05Import settings audited, so a Google change does not silently rewrite the Microsoft account
Questions we get
Asked before,answered plainly
- Is Microsoft actually worth the effort at our size?
- That is exactly what the free audit answers, with your own data rather than a general claim. In some sectors the answer is a clear yes, in others it is a small incremental channel. We will tell you which one you are.
- Should we stop using the Google import entirely?
- Usually the import is a reasonable way to seed an account and a poor way to run one. We tend to keep it for catalogue coverage and rebuild everything that matters natively.
- Does Copilot change how Microsoft Ads works?
- It adds surfaces rather than replacing the mechanics. The campaign types and the auction still behave the way they always have, which is why structure and feed quality still decide the outcome.