Most owners never think about how to set up Bing ads, and that's exactly why they're worth a look. Bing, now called Microsoft Advertising, gets overlooked because everyone fixates on Google. But the clicks are often cheaper, the audience skews toward older homeowners with money, and you can import your Google campaigns in about ten minutes. For a lot of local businesses, it's easy incremental leads.
Why bother with Bing at all?
Three real reasons, none of them hype:
- Cheaper clicks. Less competition than Google usually means a lower cost per click, and often a lower cost per lead.
- Older, higher-income audience. Bing's users skew older and more affluent, partly because it's the default search on many Windows computers and Microsoft Edge. For home services aimed at established homeowners, that's a good match.
- Less competition. Fewer businesses bother, so you're fighting over fewer clicks.
It's not going to replace Google. Google has far more volume. But Bing is often the cheapest extra leads you're not currently getting.
Step 1: Create your Microsoft Advertising account
- Go to ads.microsoft.com and sign up.
- Add your business details and a payment method.
- Install the UET tag (Bing's version of a conversion pixel) on your website so you can track leads.
Step 2: Import straight from Google Ads
This is the killer feature. If you already run Google Ads, Microsoft lets you import your entire account, campaigns, keywords, ads, budgets, in a few clicks. You don't have to rebuild anything from scratch.
- In Microsoft Advertising, choose Import from Google Ads.
- Sign in to your Google account and select the campaigns to bring over.
- Review the settings, since budgets and some options may need adjusting.
- Set it to a one-time import, or a recurring sync so changes carry over automatically.
Ten minutes and your proven Google setup is running on Bing too.
Step 3: Adjust, don't just copy blindly
The import is a starting point, not a finish line. Bing's audience and costs differ, so:
- Set separate, sensible budgets rather than mirroring Google exactly.
- Recheck your negative keywords carried over correctly.
- Give it a couple weeks of its own data before judging.
Step 4: Watch cost per lead on its own terms
Track Bing's cost per lead separately from Google's. Because volume is lower, month-to-month numbers can look bumpy, so give it time and enough conversions to mean something. In many trades Bing quietly delivers leads at a lower cost than Google, which is the whole point. Compare it against your Google benchmark, like our guide on Google Ads costs for electricians, to see the gap for your business.
Who should skip it?
If your budget is truly tiny, say $300 a month, splitting it may spread you too thin, and you're better off concentrating on one channel. But if you're already spending a reasonable amount on Google and it's working, adding Bing is one of the lowest-effort ways to squeeze out more leads. There's more on when to add channels versus focus in our growth guides.
Bing ads are the easy win almost nobody takes: cheaper clicks, an older and wealthier audience, and a ten-minute import from the Google campaigns you already trust. Set up the account, import, adjust the budgets, track it on its own, and you'll likely find leads you were leaving on the table. If you'd like it set up and managed alongside your Google campaigns, that's part of how Arbor runs your ads.