Google Ads vs Microsoft Advertising for a local service business: worth running both?

A local service business, a plumber, an HVAC company, a law firm, wants to appear when someone nearby searches for what it does. Both platforms sell that placement through an auction, and both make the case that a serious search advertiser should be running at least Google Ads, if not both.

The real decision is less “which platform” and more “is a second platform worth the setup and management time,” since Google Ads alone still carries the large majority of local search volume for most service categories.

Microsoft Advertising's documented Import Tools are built specifically to lower the cost of adding a second platform: they pull in campaign settings, keywords, ad groups, ads, targeting, and creative assets directly from an existing Google Ads account, and support search, shopping, audience, and Performance Max campaign types along with Merchant Center feeds. Imports can run on a recurring schedule, so updates made in Google Ads sync across without manual rebuilding.

Conversion tracking on Microsoft Advertising runs through a UET tag, one snippet placed site-wide, which Microsoft's documentation describes as the prerequisite for conversion tracking, audience remarketing, and automated bidding strategies like Target CPA and Maximize Conversions. Google Ads has its own separate tagging and conversion setup that does not carry over automatically; running both platforms means maintaining two tracking tags, even after Microsoft's import tool has copied your campaign structure.

Google Ads charges per click within an auction: you set a maximum cost-per-click bid, and support.google.com is explicit that your actual charge is often less than that maximum, because the auction only charges what's required to beat the ad rank of the advertiser below you. There is no separate platform fee on top of what you bid, and payment runs prepay or postpay depending on your account and country.

Microsoft Advertising's own import and help documentation did not spell out its billing mechanics on the pages reviewed here, but Microsoft Advertising is widely known to run the same pay-per-click auction model as Google Ads, with advertisers setting bids and paying only for clicks received, rather than a subscription or platform fee.

Start with Google Ads for the large majority of local service businesses, since it carries the bulk of local search volume in Canada and the US and is where most of your customers are already searching.

Add Microsoft Advertising once Google Ads is stable and profitable, using its documented import tool to copy your proven campaigns across with a scheduled sync, rather than building a second campaign structure from scratch. Microsoft Advertising is worth the extra UET tag and management time as an incremental channel, not usually as a replacement for Google Ads.