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Metrics type: Key Metrics • Category: Ad Platform

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At a glance

Gross media cost on Microsoft Advertising (Bing + Yahoo + AOL search, Microsoft Audience Network display, plus LinkedIn audience extensions). The figure Microsoft will bill you for, before agency markup or rebates. Microsoft Ads typically delivers 5, 15% of the volume of an equivalent Google Ads spend, but at meaningfully lower CPC, treat it as the cheap incremental layer on top of Google.

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Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Microsoft Ads (Bing) data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

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Worked example

A UK home-and-garden retailer running both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. The 30-day window covers 03 Apr 26 to 02 May 26. What’s interesting:
  1. Microsoft is roughly 10% of Google spend, exactly the textbook share. Most ecommerce merchants find Microsoft delivers 5, 15% of Google’s volume on similar campaigns. If Microsoft is materially less than 5%, your campaigns are likely under-funded; over 15% suggests Microsoft is genuinely incremental in your audience (older shoppers, B2B, or Edge browser default-search demographics).
  2. CPC is 33% lower than Google (£0.40 vs £0.60). That’s the structural advantage: less auction competition. Microsoft Ads is rarely cheaper because Microsoft “thinks” your traffic is worth less; it’s cheaper because fewer bidders show up.
  3. Microsoft Audience Network underperforms. £820 spend at 0.9x ROAS is a classic display-placement leak. MSAN is on by default on most accounts, and most merchants don’t realise it’s running. Open the placements report and check Audience Network share, often a quick win is to disable MSAN entirely on accounts where Search alone is profitable.
  4. The prior 30-day spend was £4,180, ROAS 3.6x. Modest spend rise (+7%) with ROAS held, healthy expansion. A spend spike with ROAS falling is the warning shape.
Quick sanity tests:
  • Spend up + ROAS up = scaling into efficient inventory (rare and excellent).
  • Spend up + ROAS flat = healthy expansion.
  • Spend up + ROAS down = scaling beyond the efficient frontier; investigate before holding the budget.
  • Spend flat + ROAS down = audience or competitive change; investigate UET tag fires and Search Partner share.
  • Spend down + ROAS held = budget cap hitting, leaving headroom on the table.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

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Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in Microsoft Advertising: Microsoft Advertising → Reports → Performance → Account Summary. Pick the same date range you’ve selected here. The headline Spend figure should match this card to within 1, 2%. For a per-campaign breakdown that matches our Spend by Campaign card, use Reports → Performance → Campaign performance with the Spend column visible. Other Microsoft Advertising views that look like the same number but aren’t:
  • Billing → Transactions shows invoiced amounts including taxes and prior-period adjustments. This card uses pre-tax media cost from the reporting API, the two will diverge by the local VAT/sales-tax rate.
  • Reports → Performance → Final URL performance sums spend per landing page; rounded display can drift 1, 2% from the account total.
  • Microsoft Audience Network performance is a subset; this card sums Search + Shopping + MSAN + LinkedIn extensions together.
Why our number may legitimately differ from the Microsoft UI: Cross-connector reconciliation. Microsoft Ads vs Google Ads: There is no direct identity, but for retail and DTC merchants Microsoft Ads spend should track at roughly 5, 15% of google_ads.gads_spend for matched campaigns. A meaningfully larger share usually means one of:
  • B2B or LinkedIn-extended campaigns (Microsoft has the LinkedIn audience advantage Google can’t match).
  • Older or Microsoft-Edge-default-search audiences (Microsoft over-indexes on Gen X+ desktop users).
  • Google budget caps holding Google share artificially low.
A meaningfully smaller share usually means Microsoft campaigns are under-funded or the import-from-Google process never completed properly. Cross-connector reconciliation. Microsoft Ads vs Shopify / commerce platform: shopify.total_revenue attributed to Microsoft / Bing CPC in your UTM tags should be larger than this card’s Total Revenue sibling, by the difference between Microsoft’s last-click attribution and Shopify’s source attribution. Use the commerce-platform revenue as the truth side and Microsoft Ads spend as the cost side for true business ROAS.

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Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Why is my Microsoft Ads spend so much smaller than Google? This is normal. Microsoft Advertising serves Bing + Yahoo + AOL, which collectively account for roughly 8, 12% of UK desktop search and 3, 5% of mobile (where Microsoft has no operating-system advantage). Most ecommerce merchants find Microsoft delivers 5, 15% of the volume of an equivalent Google Ads campaign. Treat Microsoft as the cheap incremental layer, not a Google replacement. The audience that is there typically converts at lower CPC, which is the value. My Microsoft spend just spiked. What should I check first? In order of likelihood: (1) Microsoft Audience Network ramping. MSAN is on by default and uses smart-bidding optimisations that can suddenly find inventory. Check the Network segment in your campaign report. (2) Auction insights change. A competitor entered the same keyword auction; Bing has fewer bidders so a single new entrant can move CPC by 30%+. (3) Budget-uncapped Performance Max equivalent (Smart Campaigns). If you imported from Google, Smart Campaigns may have inherited a higher daily budget. (4) Currency or billing-cycle artefact. First day of the billing period sometimes catches up on under-reported spend from the prior period. Should I import my Google Ads campaigns into Microsoft Ads? For most merchants, yes, but not blindly. The Microsoft Advertising Import from Google tool copies campaigns 1:1 but does not adapt: (a) keyword bids that were efficient on Google will likely be too high on Bing’s lower-competition auction, you’ll over-pay; (b) Microsoft Audience Network gets toggled on by default during import even if you only intended Search; (c) negative keywords carry over but UET conversion tracking does not, you’ll need to set up UET tags separately. After import, prune bids by 20, 40% and audit MSAN placements within the first 7 days. Is the LinkedIn integration worth using? Only for B2B or career/professional-services merchants. The LinkedIn audience extension lets Microsoft target search ads at users by company, industry, or job function (data Google doesn’t have). For a UK SaaS or B2B service brand this can lift conversion rate 30, 60% on enterprise-tier search terms. For a DTC consumer brand it adds noise without obvious lift. Available as a bid modifier in Microsoft Audience Network, not free; expect a 10, 30% CPC premium for LinkedIn-targeted clicks. Why is my spend higher in the Microsoft UI than this card shows? Three usual reasons: (1) You’re looking at Billing, not Reports. Billing includes VAT/sales tax; this card is pre-tax. (2) Your UI selected a different time-zone view. Microsoft uses account-local; this card uses UTC. (3) The UI shows estimated cost; the API has settled cost. For the most recent 24h, the UI may run 2, 6% above the API as Click Quality credits haven’t yet posted. Can I trust the “today” spend figure? Less than 7-day or 30-day. Microsoft’s API runs 2, 6 hours behind the UI, and Click Quality credits post over 2, 14 days. The 7-day rolling figure is the most actionable. Don’t make budget decisions on a single day’s Microsoft spend. My Microsoft Ads account also runs LinkedIn-targeted display, is that included here? Yes. LinkedIn audience extensions run inside Microsoft Audience Network and are billed through your Microsoft account, so they sum into this card. To see LinkedIn-attributed spend separately, segment by Audience source in the Microsoft UI; we don’t currently expose that as a separate card.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Total Spend is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Microsoft Ads (Bing) and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. Start for free or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.