Is Microsoft Ads worth it for a Manchester business?

Microsoft Ads is worth running for a Manchester business when the Google account already works: the same keywords, the same negatives and the same ads, imported, reach the searches made on Bing, in Copilot, in the Windows search box and in the browsers that ship with Bing as the default, at a lower cost per click and with less competition. It is a smaller share of searches, more of them from desktops and from offices, which suits some businesses far more than others. It is not worth running as the first campaign, as a fix for a Google account that does not convert, or without the import being checked line by line, because the import breaks in three predictable places.

Who searches on Bing, in practice

• People at work on a managed Windows machine, where Edge and Bing are the default and the IT department has not changed it. That is the office worker searching for a supplier at a desk, which is the B2B buyer.
• Older users, who kept the default on a home computer, which matters for private healthcare, home improvement, wills and probate, and anything bought by a person over fifty.
• Copilot users, who ask a question and get an answer with ads beside it, which is a growing share and skews to the same two groups.
• Not, on the whole, people on phones, where the default is Google almost everywhere. A phone-led business gains least.

What it costs and what it brings

We do not quote a percentage for Bing's share, because the published figures move and the share for a given business depends on who its buyers are. The account's own first month gives the real number: the impressions and clicks Microsoft delivered against Google's, for the same keywords and the same towns.

The import, and the three places it breaks

1. Location targeting. Google's presence setting and Microsoft's equivalents do not map one to one, and an imported campaign can arrive targeting people interested in Manchester from anywhere. Check the location setting on every campaign after import.
2. Negative keyword lists. Shared lists import, but account-level negatives and some match types do not arrive as set. Read the negatives on the Microsoft side against the Google side, campaign by campaign.
3. Conversion tracking. The Microsoft tag is a separate tag, with its own goals, and an import does not install it. Without it the account spends with no count. Install the tag, define the goals to match Google's, and test them with a real form and a real call before the campaign is enabled.

The scheduled import that keeps the two accounts in step is worth setting, with one rule: nothing imported goes live until the location setting, the negatives and the goals have been read on the Microsoft side. An unchecked import is the commonest way a Microsoft account wastes its first month.

The monthly check, once it is running

1. The import log: what the scheduled import changed, read before it is accepted, because a Google-side experiment or a paused campaign arrives on the Microsoft side as a change.
2. The search terms report, which is its own report with its own surprises: Bing's matching is looser on some phrases, and the negatives list needs its own additions.
3. The device and location reports, to confirm the desktop share and that the location setting has not drifted back to interest.
4. Spend against budget: a Microsoft campaign that spends its full budget every day is unusual, and usually means the location setting has widened.
5. Goals against Google's, on the same definitions, so that the two cost-per-booking lines in the report are comparable.

One more reason the check matters in this city: Manchester's office workers are a large share of Bing's local searchers, and an import that arrives targeting people interested in Manchester from anywhere spends its first fortnight on searches from London and Leeds before anyone notices. The location line is the first of the twelve for that reason, and the device report in the first week is the second check, because a Microsoft campaign that shows mostly phones has usually been set up wrong.

What Copilot changes

Ads beside Copilot's answers reach the person who asked a question rather than typed a search, and the question is often longer and more specific: which clinic in south Manchester does this treatment on a Saturday. The keywords that match those questions are the long phrase-match ones most accounts never bother with, and the clinic or the firm with a page that answers the question is the one whose ad sits beside the answer. The report should show the Copilot share once Microsoft reports it separately for the account; until then it is folded into search, and the long-question search terms are the sign it is there.

Which Manchester businesses gain most

• B2B firms selling to office buyers: the searcher is at a desk on a managed machine, which is Bing's home ground.
• Services bought by older customers: private healthcare, wills, home improvement, mobility. The home desktop with the default search.
• Businesses whose Google account is budget-limited on searches that still convert: the same searches exist on Bing at a lower price, and the extra volume is cheap.
• Gains least: phone-led trades, takeaways, anything where the search is typed on a phone on the way somewhere.

The Microsoft Ads page describes how we run the import and the monthly check; the negatives guide beside this one is the list that has to arrive intact on both sides.