Most agencies treat Microsoft as a checkbox next to Google. Here is one account taken from zero measurable conversions to a £114 cost per acquisition in six months, month by month, including the month that produced nothing.
From £1,500 a month · published limits · three months, then cancel any month
Pre-flight read in 5 working days ()
Microsoft Advertising carries Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and the search box built into Windows. The auction is thinner than Google's, so clicks are usually cheaper. The audience skews older, more desktop and more corporate, which is why it tends to suit B2B better than the traffic share suggests.
The reason it underperforms in most accounts is not the platform. It is that somebody ran the Google import wizard three years ago, never touched it again, and it has been quietly inheriting Google's structure, Google's negatives and Google's bidding ever since, into a completely different auction.
A UK B2B advertiser with a dormant Microsoft account and an established Google account beside it. Monthly spend is published in bands rather than exact figures, because the client has not been asked to be named and exact monthly spend would identify them. Conversions and cost per acquisition are exact. Nothing here is modelled.
| Month | Spend | Conversions | Cost per acquisition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug–Dec 2025 | nil | — | Account dormant. No activity at all. |
| January 2026 | under £10,000 | 0 | Spend, and nothing measurable coming back. |
| February | under £5,000 | 10 | £237 |
| March | £5,000–10,000 | 50 | £117 |
| April | £5,000–10,000 | 71 | £122 |
| May | £5,000–10,000 | 96 | £103 |
| June | £10,000–15,000 | 112 | £105 |
| July 2026 | £15,000–20,000 | 137 | £114 |
The month that produced nothing is on the table on purpose. January was real spend against zero measurable conversions, because conversion tracking was not reporting. That is the most common condition in a dormant Microsoft account, and it is the reason every plan starts with a five-day pre-flight read instead of an optimisation sprint. An account that cannot measure a conversion will happily spend your money forever.
By July the channel was buying conversions at £114 against the same account's twelve-month Google average of £114.50. Over the March-to-July window, once tracking was sound, it ran at £111.43 across 466 conversions — slightly ahead of Google.
One account is one account. We won't dress it up as a pattern, and we are not going to promise you the same numbers. What this shows is the shape of the work and the order it happens in.
Source: platform API data and the account's monthly report series, August 2025 to July 2026. Spend banded to keep the advertiser unidentifiable; conversions and CPA exact as reported.
Core runs one platform, and it can be Microsoft on its own. Growth runs Google and Microsoft together, which is what most accounts need. The full specification is here.
| Limit | Core | Growth | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price, per month | £1,500 | £3,500 | £6,000 |
| Ad platforms | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Markets | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Monthly ad spend covered | up to £30,000 | up to £100,000 | up to £250,000 |
| Live campaigns | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| Ad groups | 10 | 25 | 60 |
| Continuous monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Change log | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Monday snapshot | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly report | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Search-term review and negatives | Monthly | Monthly | Fortnightly |
| Ad copy rebuilds | 1 ad group/mo | 3 ad groups/mo | 8 ad groups/mo |
| Tracking fix specifications | No | Yes | Yes |
| Account audit | No | Quarterly | Monthly |
| Call allocation | None | 1 × 45 min per quarter | 1 × 45 min per month |
| Support response | 2 working days | 1 working day | Same working day |
The price you see is the price you pay. Ad spend is separate and goes straight to the platforms. No setup fee, no percentage of anything, no markup, no commission.
Three months, then cancel any month. A change to a search account or a site can't be judged in one. From the fourth month there's no minimum term, no notice period and no exit fee.
Your cost per conversion comes down, or we keep working for free. We agree the baseline from your last 90 days before anything in the account changes. If your cost per conversion at comparable spend isn't below that baseline by the end of the third month, the work continues at no charge until it is. It needs 90 days of history, spend within 30% of the baseline and tracking left intact. If your offer or your landing pages change, the clock pauses rather than the guarantee ending.
Move between tiers whenever you want. An upgrade starts the same day. A downgrade starts on your next billing date. No penalties, no call, no new contract.
The pre-flight guarantee. We read the account in the first five working days. Nothing changes in it until that read passes. If the plan can't be delivered as sold, it's cancelled, the month is refunded in full and the reason comes to you in writing.
Tell us which plan and where the accounts live. The payment link and the read-only access list come back the same working day.
You are not charged by this form. Card checkout isn't switched on yet, so the payment link and the read-only access list come back by email the same working day. What we do with your data.
Not sure it's worth running at all? The £500 Diagnostic reads the account first and tells you plainly whether a plan is worth your money.
On this account it reached the same cost per acquisition as Google, on a fraction of the spend, within six months of being switched on. That is one account and we will not pretend it is a pattern. What it does show is that the answer is measurable rather than a matter of opinion, and that finding out costs a few months of modest spend rather than a rebrand.
No. Core is one platform, and it can be Microsoft alone if that is what your account needs. Most businesses run both, which is what Growth covers.
Microsoft has an import tool and it is the fastest way to get live. It is also the reason so many Microsoft accounts underperform: an imported account inherits Google structure, Google negatives and Google bidding, none of which fit a different auction with different competitors and a different audience. Import is the starting point of the work, not the work.
Conversion tracking was not reporting. That is the single most common condition we find in a dormant or newly-imported Microsoft account, and it is why the first five working days of any plan are a pre-flight read rather than an optimisation sprint. Spending into an account that cannot measure a conversion is the most expensive thing in paid search.
The same published plans as everything else: Core £1,500, Growth £3,500, Scale £6,000 a month, defined by limits rather than scope. Three months, then cancel any month. Nothing is negotiated.
Published prices, published limits, the build shown month by month.
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