How much do Bing Ads cost in Australia?

Most Australian businesses never price up Bing Ads because Google takes all the attention. That leaves a second search auction with fewer bidders in it. This guide covers what Microsoft Advertising actually charges for, what a click costs according to a published benchmark, how budgets and GST work on the bill, and what management adds on top. Every figure below links to its source.

US dollar figures convert at the Reserve Bank of Australia rate of 0.6933 US cents per Australian dollar on 2 October 2026.

How much does Microsoft Advertising cost? The three lines on the bill

1. Ad spend: what you pay Microsoft when someone clicks your ad. Microsoft bills it straight to your card, adds GST, and a good agency never marks it up.
2. Management fee: what you pay someone to build, run and report on the account. Scalepoint’s Bing Ads management is A$690/month + ad spend, ex GST, with no setup fee.
3. Tracking: the Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag and conversion goals that tell Microsoft which clicks became enquiries. It costs nothing from Microsoft, but without it you cannot judge cost per lead or use the conversion-based bid strategies.

How the Bing Ads auction sets your cost per click

Microsoft Advertising is pay per click: Microsoft describes itself as a PPC service that charges you each time your ad is clicked. Every search runs an auction. Your keyword bid sets the most you can be charged for a click, and any bid adjustments you add for time of day, device or audience raise that ceiling when they apply.

Bid is only half of it. Microsoft scores each keyword from 1 to 10 on how relevant your keywords, ads and landing pages are to the search. A tight ad group and a landing page that matches the search help you hold position without raising the bid.

Bid strategies for Search campaigns

Microsoft’s bid strategy guide lists the options. Enhanced CPC lets you set keyword bids and has Microsoft nudge them up or down on each search. Maximise clicks and Maximise conversions let Microsoft set every bid, and you can add an optional maximum CPC so no single click costs more than you allow. Microsoft recommends letting conversion-based strategies collect at least 30 conversions before you judge them.

Microsoft Ads CPC: what a click costs in 2026

Microsoft does not publish average click prices for Australia, and no Australian benchmark breaks out Microsoft Ads on its own. The most transparent published figure comes from AgencyAnalytics, which analysed 150,000 campaigns run by more than 7,000 marketing agencies (published January 2025). It found a median Microsoft Ads CPC of US$1.53 (about A$2.21) and a median Google Search CPC of US$1.80 (about A$2.60).

Read that number with care. It is a median across every industry and country in the dataset, reported in US dollars, not a price for an Australian plumber or electrician. Competitive trade searches in metro suburbs can clear well above a cross-industry median. The figure that matters is the one for your keywords in your area, and Microsoft shows estimated first-page bids for each keyword inside the account before you spend anything.

Bing Ads cost in Australia: budgets, billing and GST

You set a daily budget per campaign and can change it whenever you like. Microsoft treats the daily figure as a target and caps the month instead: the monthly limit is your daily budget multiplied by 30.4. On a busy day a campaign can spend more than its daily budget (Microsoft says it usually keeps that overspend under 100%, so up to about double), and quieter days balance it out. If a campaign ever goes over the monthly limit, Microsoft refunds the difference at the end of the month.

You choose how to pay. A postpay threshold account charges your card when you hit a billing threshold or on your monthly billing date, whichever comes first. A prepay account draws down funds you add in advance and pauses when they run out.

Microsoft also charges Australian GST on search advertising costs and asks for your ABN at sign-up. Billing runs through Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd. Microsoft’s own example: on a postpay account with a A$100 threshold, your card is charged A$110. Budget for the GST on top of the bid.

A worked budget example (illustrative)

Say you set a A$20 daily budget. Microsoft’s monthly limit becomes A$608 (A$20 × 30.4), plus A$60.80 GST, so A$668.80 leaves your card. If your clicks cost the AgencyAnalytics median of about A$2.21, that buys roughly 275 clicks a month. Trade keywords often cost more than a cross-industry median, so treat that as the generous end. Add A$690 a month if Scalepoint manages it.

What changes the cost: Audience Network, syndication and LinkedIn targeting

Microsoft Audience Network

Audience campaigns place native, display and video ads on Microsoft-owned placements such as MSN, Outlook and the Microsoft Edge new tab page. They can bid per click (Enhanced CPC or Maximise conversions) or per 1,000 viewed impressions with Manual CPM, which is only available for Audience campaigns. Audience campaigns also allow a lifetime budget instead of a daily one. Use them for remarketing and B2B reach once Search is producing leads.

Syndication and search partners

Your ad distribution setting decides where Search ads appear. The entire Microsoft Advertising Network adds Bing and Yahoo search partner sites, which Microsoft says brings extended reach and lower cost per click. The narrower option, Microsoft sites and select traffic, keeps you to Bing, MSN, Outlook.com and partner traffic that performs like Bing. Cheaper partner clicks only help if they convert, so run the Website URL (publisher) report and exclude the sites that do not.

LinkedIn profile targeting

Microsoft owns LinkedIn, so you can adjust bids by a searcher’s company, industry or job function on Search, Dynamic Search, Shopping, Audience and Performance Max campaigns. It works as "bid only": it raises or lowers your bid for those people without shutting everyone else out. A positive adjustment means you pay more for those clicks, so use it for B2B work where a decision-maker’s click is worth it. Microsoft announced it for Australian campaigns in 2020.

Importing from Google Ads: cheaper to start, not free to run

Microsoft can import your Google Ads campaigns once or on a schedule, which cuts the build time. It is not a set-and-forget copy. Microsoft’s own notes say it raises any bids and budgets below its minimums by default, converts broad match negative keywords to phrase match, and that targeting settings differ enough between the platforms to need a review. Scheduled imports also overwrite changes you make in Microsoft, including budgets. See how we handle the Google Ads import into Microsoft Ads.

Is Bing Ads cheaper than Google Ads?

Per click, usually yes. In the AgencyAnalytics data the median Microsoft Ads click cost about 15% less than the median Google Search click. Some agencies quote bigger gaps, but few publish the data behind them.

Per month, Bing Ads costs less mostly because there is less of it to buy. StatCounter puts Bing at 9.17% of Australian searches across all platforms and 18.94% on desktop in September 2026, against roughly 88% for Google. A smaller pool of searches means a smaller budget will cover it, which is why Bing Ads works best as a second front next to Google rather than a replacement. For the Google side of the sum, see how much Google Ads cost for a plumber in Australia.

What Bing Ads management costs with Scalepoint

Our Bing Ads management is A$690/month + ad spend, ex GST. Microsoft Ads can also run as one channel inside a bundle, which the pricing page lists separately. Either way the terms are the same:

• Month-to-month, with 14 days’ notice to cancel and no exit fees.
• Your ad spend goes straight from your card to Microsoft, with 0% markup.
• The Microsoft Advertising account sits in your name, so you keep the history and the conversion data.
• A weekly numbers email showing Microsoft spend and leads beside your Google numbers.

Sources

• Microsoft Advertising currencies: minimum bids and budgets, Microsoft Learn, updated July 2026.
• Discover your budget options, Microsoft Advertising help, updated June 2026.
• Tax or VAT information, Microsoft Advertising help, 2026.
• Let Microsoft Advertising manage your bids with bid strategies, Microsoft Advertising help, 2026.
• Ad distribution settings, Microsoft Advertising help, updated June 2026.
• LinkedIn profile targeting, Microsoft Advertising help, updated June 2026.
• Import campaigns directly from Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising help, 2026.
• Average CPC by platform, AgencyAnalytics, January 2025.
• Search engine market share in Australia, StatCounter Global Stats, September 2026.
• Exchange rates, Reserve Bank of Australia, 2 October 2026.