> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Total Spend, Microsoft Ads (Bing) > Total Spend for Microsoft Ads (Bing) stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Key Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ad Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## 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. | | | | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **What it counts** | `SUM(Spend)` across all enabled accounts and campaigns under the customer ID, summed at daily report grain. Includes search, shopping, audience (display), and LinkedIn-targeted campaigns. | | **Cost basis** | Mostly CPC (search and shopping), with vCPM for Microsoft Audience Network display placements. Spend is the realised cost after auction, not your max-bid. | | **Currency** | Account currency, set when the Microsoft Advertising account was created and locked thereafter. Multi-currency advertisers run separate accounts per currency. | | **Conversion attribution** | UET-tag based. Default is *Last click* with cross-device on. Data-driven attribution is available but adoption is low; most agencies still run last-click on Microsoft. | | **Attribution window** | Default 30-day click + 1-day view for primary conversions. View-through is excluded from spend reporting (spend is always charged at click or impression time, not at conversion time). | | **Bot / invalid traffic** | Microsoft applies *Click Quality* filtering before billing. Cost shown is post-filter. Some IVT slips through, particularly on Search Partner Network and Microsoft Audience Network, expect 3, 8% of reported clicks to be sub-quality on those placements. | | **Cross-account aggregation** | Per-customer-account. For a manager-account-equivalent view across multiple customer IDs, use the per-account drilldown. | | **Time window** | `T/7D/30D vsP` (default 30D vs the prior 30D). Spend ingestion lag is typically 2, 6 hours, longer than Google Ads. | | **Alert trigger** | `spike >2σ vs 30D baseline`. Catches budget runaway and pricing shocks (a competitor flooding the auction). | | **Roles** | owner, marketing, finance | ## 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. ## 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. | Channel | Account | Spend | Clicks | Avg CPC | Conversions | ROAS | | ------------------- | -------------------------- | ---------- | ------ | --------- | ----------- | ---- | | Google Ads | Main | £42,800 | 71,300 | £0.60 | 1,420 | 4.8x | | **Microsoft Ads** | Bing Search | **£3,650** | 9,120 | **£0.40** | 168 | 4.1x | | Microsoft Ads | Microsoft Audience Network | £820 | 14,400 | £0.06 | 11 | 0.9x | | **Total Microsoft** | (this card) | **£4,470** | 23,520 | £0.19 | 179 | 3.5x | 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. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Total Spend | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Microsoft Ads ROAS](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/microsoft-ads/roas) | The efficiency partner. Spend without ROAS is meaningless; spend up + ROAS down is the warning shape. | | [Microsoft Ads Total Revenue](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/microsoft-ads/total-revenue) | The revenue side. Spend × ROAS = revenue (within rounding). | | [Microsoft Ads Spend by Campaign](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/microsoft-ads/spend-by-campaign) | Where the spend went. Key Metrics spend hides per-campaign concentration. | | [Microsoft Ads Spend vs Budget](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/microsoft-ads/spend-vs-budget) | Pacing read. Are you on track to hit your declared monthly budget? | | [Microsoft Ads Wasted Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/microsoft-ads/wasted-spend) | Spend on zero-conversion keywords / placements. Usually 5, 15% of total Microsoft spend on neglected accounts. | | [Microsoft Ads Zero-Conversion Spend](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/microsoft-ads/zero-conversion-spend) | Campaign-level cousin of wasted spend, full campaigns burning budget without converting. | | [Microsoft Ads Spend by Device](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/microsoft-ads/spend-by-device) | Microsoft's desktop share is much higher than Google's (older audience), useful for device-bid moderation. | | [Google Ads Spend](/nerve-centre/google_ads/gads_spend) | The benchmark. Microsoft spend should typically be 5, 15% of Google spend for the same campaigns. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Microsoft Advertising:** [Microsoft Advertising → Reports → Performance → Account Summary](https://ads.microsoft.com/cc/Reports). 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](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/microsoft-ads/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:** | Reason | Direction of divergence | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------- | | **Real-time ingestion lag**. Microsoft's reporting API runs 2, 6 hours behind the UI for the most recent day. | Ours lower for "today" | | **Time zone**. Microsoft Advertising reports in account-local time; Vortex IQ uses UTC for period boundaries. For a 30-day window the gap averages out; for "today" or "yesterday" it can shift the number meaningfully. | Either, by hour-fraction | | **Currency**. Both this card and the Microsoft UI use account currency, no FX conversion. | None | | **Click Quality re-credits**. Microsoft retroactively credits invalid-click costs back to your account 2, 14 days after the click. The first ingestion shows pre-credit cost; later snapshots reflect the credit. | Ours higher initially, converges later | | **Tax inclusion**. *Billing* views include VAT/sales tax; reporting API and this card are pre-tax. | Ours lower vs Billing screens | **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`](/nerve-centre/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`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/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. ## 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. *** ### 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](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.