Bing Ads vs Google Ads for B2B SaaS
Bing Ads vs Google Ads for B2B SaaS: Where the Cheaper Clicks Actually Come From
Bing Ads, now called Microsoft Advertising, usually costs less per click than Google Ads because far fewer advertisers compete in the same auction. For B2B SaaS it works as a second source of high-intent demand alongside Google rather than a replacement, and because the volume is roughly a tenth of Google's it needs to be judged over a quarter rather than a month.
I get asked about Bing in almost every paid media conversation I have with a B2B SaaS founder, usually in the same slightly embarrassed way: "Should we be doing something with Bing?" The honest answer is that the channel is cheaper than Google for reasons that have nothing to do with quality, and that most of the advice written about it is wrong on one important detail. This piece sits alongside our [Link: guide to B2B SaaS PPC strategy -> https://www.team4.agency/post/b2b-saas-ppc-google-ads-strategy-in-2026] and goes deeper on the Microsoft side of the account.
What Is the Real Difference Between Bing Ads and Google Ads?
Bing Ads and Google Ads are both keyword-based paid search platforms, but Bing Ads was renamed Microsoft Advertising in 2019 and the ads now run well beyond Bing itself. Search ads serve on Bing and its syndicated search partners, while Audience ads reach people across MSN, Outlook.com, the Edge browser and Microsoft 365 apps (Microsoft Advertising, 2025).
The naming confusion is real, by the way. "Bing ads vs microsoft ads" pulls 1,900 US searches a month, almost six times the volume of "bing ads vs google ads" at 320 (Semrush, August 2026). Plenty of marketers still do not know they are the same platform.
The differences that actually matter for a B2B SaaS account:
- Auction density. Fewer advertisers bidding on the same terms, so lower clearing prices.
- Device mix. Heavily desktop, which in B2B means work machines during work hours.
- LinkedIn data. Microsoft owns LinkedIn and exposes some of that profile data inside search campaigns. Google has no equivalent.
- Import tooling. Microsoft's import tools pull campaigns straight across from Google Ads, which makes the setup cost of a test genuinely low.
Why Are Bing Ads Cheaper Than Google Ads for B2B SaaS?
Microsoft clicks cost less because the auction is thinner, not because the traffic is worse. That distinction matters, because it means the discount is a competitive artefact rather than a quality discount, and it is largest exactly where Google is most expensive.
Here is what Google is charging for the category terms our clients bid on (Semrush, US database, August 2026, USD):
Look at that contract management number again. Sixty-eight dollars for one click, and that click might be a student writing a dissertation. When your category head term costs that much, even a modest reduction in click price stops being a rounding error.
Now the part most articles skip. I could not find a single independently audited figure for how much cheaper Microsoft clicks are. Every "Microsoft is 33% cheaper" claim in circulation traces back to vendor estimates or to Microsoft's own marketing, and the published ranges run anywhere from 20% to 60% depending on who is selling what. The direction is well established and consistent with how auctions work. The specific percentage is not evidence. Treat any number you are quoted, including mine, as a planning assumption to be replaced with your own account data.
Does a Lower CPC Actually Mean a Lower Cost Per Lead?
Not automatically, and this is where most Bing recommendations fall down. A cheaper click only becomes a cheaper lead if the conversion rate holds up, and on Microsoft the volume is often too thin to know your conversion rate with any confidence for the first few months.
The benchmark data does not settle it either. The most widely cited search benchmarks put the median cost per lead at $66.69 and the median CPC at $5.42 across 13,474 campaigns, but that dataset blends Google and Microsoft Ads together rather than reporting them separately (WordStream, 2026). Nobody publishes a clean Microsoft-only cost per lead for B2B software. If an agency quotes you one, ask where it came from.
So work it through with your own numbers instead. Take field service management software at $37.79 on Google. Bing runs at 8.63% of US search against Google's 86.6% (Statcounter, July 2026), so those 9,900 monthly searches become closer to 1,000 on Microsoft. Assume clicks come in 30% cheaper at around $26.45, and assume you buy 40 of them a month. That is roughly $1,060 in monthly spend, and at a 2.5% click-to-demo rate it produces about one demo a month.
One demo a month. That is a warning about your reporting cadence rather than the channel. Three demos a quarter for around $3,180 is a good trade if your ACV is $30k and you close one in four, and the same three demos bought on Google at $37.79 a click would have cost about $4,535.
The LinkedIn Targeting Thing Almost Everyone Gets Wrong
Microsoft Advertising is the only paid search platform other than LinkedIn itself that lets you target on LinkedIn profile data, and the available dimensions are company, industry and job function (Microsoft Advertising, 2026). That is the full list. Not job title. Not seniority. I have lost count of the agency pages claiming you can target "VP of Marketing at companies with 500+ employees" on Microsoft search. You cannot. Job title targeting lives on LinkedIn's own ad platform, at LinkedIn's own prices.
The second error is more consequential. LinkedIn profile targeting on Microsoft is bid-only, not target-and-bid. Microsoft's documentation is explicit that it will not narrow your audience: targeting a company does not exclude everyone who works elsewhere, it only adjusts your bid when a match is present (Microsoft Advertising, 2026). So if a page tells you your ads will "only reach the right job titles at the right companies", that page is describing something the platform does not do.
What it gives you is a bid lever. Used properly, that is still valuable:
- Layer job function on keywords that already convert, then push bids up where professional relevance is present.
- Build company lists for account-based work, capped at 1,000 companies per campaign or ad group (Microsoft Advertising, 2026).
- Start with one dimension. Stacking company, industry and function at once usually leaves you with an audience too small to read.
My take: the bid-only mechanic is why Microsoft works better as an efficiency layer on proven keywords than as a prospecting channel. Anyone selling it as precision ABM targeting on search has not read the audience targeting documentation.
Is Bing Really Where Enterprise Buyers Search?
Bing's audience is genuinely desktop-weighted, which is the strongest version of the enterprise argument. In the US, Bing took 12.06% of desktop search against 8.63% across all platforms combined (Statcounter, July 2026). A platform that does noticeably better on desktops than it does overall is, by definition, catching more people at a keyboard.
The mechanism behind it is Microsoft's own defaults. Edge ships with Bing, Windows and Microsoft 365 are standard issue across most large organisations, and IT teams frequently lock browser and search defaults through group policy. Nobody in a procurement team chose Bing. They just never changed it.
Where I would push back on the usual claim: "Bing users are enterprise decision makers" overstates it. The audience skews more desktop and the professional composition is real, but it is a tilt rather than a filter, and I have not seen credible first-party data on the seniority mix. You are still buying keyword intent first. The device and default behaviour improve your odds of that intent belonging to someone at work.
How Do You Run a Clean Microsoft Ads Test?
Import, restrict, and leave it alone long enough to mean something. Five steps:
- Import from Google, then cut. Bring in your best-performing search campaigns only. Importing the whole account is how you end up spending on Audience ads by accident.
- Turn off audience network expansion for the first test window so you are measuring search intent rather than display.
- Rebuild negatives. Match types behave differently enough that your Google negative lists will not cover you.
- Set conversion tracking up before launch. Microsoft uses its own UET tag, and imported campaigns bring across audience settings that point at empty lists. Use the same conversion definitions as Google so the numbers are comparable.
- Commit to a quarter and a budget floor. Below roughly £1,500 a month you will not gather enough data to make a decision, and monthly reporting will make a viable channel look dead.
Then judge it on pipeline contribution and closed revenue. At these volumes cost per lead swings wildly on two or three conversions, so it will tell you very little on its own.
How Team 4 Approaches Bing Ads for B2B SaaS
Team 4 runs Microsoft Advertising as part of a paid search programme rather than as a standalone channel, because the keyword and conversion intelligence from Google Ads is what makes the Microsoft build accurate in the first place. We use LinkedIn profile targeting as a bid layer on proven terms, keep Audience ads separate from search so the reporting stays honest, and set the expectation up front that this is a channel measured across quarters. If your ACV justifies one extra enterprise demo a month, it usually pays for itself. If it does not, we will say so before you spend anything.
FAQs: Bing Ads vs Google Ads for B2B SaaS
Q: Are Bing Ads cheaper than Google Ads?A: Per click, yes, because fewer advertisers compete in the auction. Published estimates range from 20% to 60% cheaper, but every one of them comes from a vendor or from Microsoft's own marketing rather than an independent audit, so treat the direction as reliable and measure the actual gap in your own account.
Q: Is Bing Ads worth it for B2B SaaS?A: For most B2B SaaS companies selling to mid-market or enterprise buyers, it is worth testing. Volume is roughly a tenth of Google's, so it will not replace Google Ads. If your average contract value means one extra qualified demo a month covers the spend, the maths works.
Q: Can you target job titles on Microsoft Advertising?A: No. Microsoft Advertising exposes LinkedIn company, industry and job function only, and it works as a bid adjustment rather than an audience filter. Job title and seniority targeting are available on LinkedIn's own advertising platform, at higher click prices.
Q: Are Bing Ads and Microsoft Ads the same thing?A: Yes. Bing Ads was renamed Microsoft Advertising in 2019. Search ads run on Bing and its syndicated partners, and Audience ads extend to MSN, Outlook.com, Edge and Microsoft 365 apps, so the old name understates where the ads appear.
About Team 4
Team 4 is a specialist B2B SaaS marketing agency based in London. We build Inbound Engines® for software companies from seed stage through to £10m+ ARR, combining SEO, GEO, content, Webflow development, paid media and analytics into one system measured against pipeline. Clients include Amazon Business, BigChange, Sitecore, AirDNA and Forecast.
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