Making the Most of Your Paid Search Budget

If Google Ads are the backbone of your paid search strategy, you’re not alone. But what if you could reach a high-value audience with less competition and lower costs? That’s exactly the opportunity Microsoft Ads on Bing presents.

Search habits are shifting, thanks to OpenAI’s ChatGPT integration into Bing. Users aren’t just typing in keywords, they’re engaging in deeper, more conversational searches. Microsoft is also actively testing new ad placements within AI-generated answers through their Co-Pilot feature, creating fresh opportunities for brands willing to get ahead of the curve.

What makes Microsoft Ads stand out? For starters, they reach nearly half of the U.S. population, including professionals and decision-makers. And with LinkedIn-powered targeting, advertisers can reach audiences by job title, industry, and company size—a huge advantage for B2B and high-value B2C brands.

Beyond targeting, lower competition means better efficiency. Microsoft Ads often have lower cost-per-clicks (CPCs) than Google, helping your budget go further and delivering more value per dollar spent.

If you’re only relying on Google Ads, you could be leaving high-quality leads (and more efficient ad spend) on the table.

Why This Matters

• Bing isn’t a niche player anymore. Nearly half of the U.S. population uses Microsoft’s search network, including high-value decision makers.
• Less competition, better efficiency. Lower CPCs mean you get more clicks for the same budget.
• Exclusive LinkedIn-powered targeting. Reach users based on job title, industry, and company size (something Google can’t offer!)
• Microsoft is integrating ads into AI-generated answers, creating new opportunities for early adopters.

Want to Explore how Microsoft Ads Could Work for You? Let's Chat!

?Workshop Wisdom

Resource of the Week

B2B Marketing Attribution: A Guide to Track and Attribute Leads

Want to know which marketing efforts are truly driving growth? This guide breaks down how to track and attribute leads effectively, so you can optimize your strategy and maximize ROI.

→ Key Takeaway: Stronger insights start with the right analytics tools and lead attribution strategy.

Discover How to Start Tracking Smarter

Fresh Insights From Our Experts

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Performance Max Drives 4X More Conversions Than Google Display Network

Our paid media team tested out three different campaign types to see what performed best. Check out our findings!

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Learn how AEO can help your site rank with artificial intelligence (AI), voice search, and conversational search engines. – Sara Vicioso , Growth Marketing Manager

Quick Win of the Week

Strengthen Lead Attribution with Custom Dimensions in GA4

Time: 30-60 Minutes per Account

Difficulty: Intermediate

Tool(s) Needed: Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Tag Manager (GTM)

Struggling to track which marketing touchpoints are truly driving leads? Google Analytics 4’s default attribution models provide valuable insights, but custom dimensions allow you to go deeper by capturing first-touch source data, lead status, and key user interactions.

Capture First-Touch Lead Source By default, GA4 attribution favors last-click interactions, but custom dimensions let you store the original source of a lead for better long-term tracking.

• In Google Tag Manager, create a variable to capture utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign when a user first visits your site.
• Store these values as user properties in GA4 using a custom dimension.
• This ensures you can attribute leads back to the first marketing touchpoint, not just the last one before conversion.

Track High-Intent Lead Actions Not all form submissions are created equal. If you offer multiple lead capture points (e.g., contact form vs. demo request), track form submission types with an event-scoped custom dimension.

• Add a custom event parameter in GTM to capture form_type (e.g., “Demo Request,” “White Paper Download”).
• Create a custom dimension in GA4 to store form_type
• This lets you analyze which form submissions drive the most qualified leads.

Map CRM Data to Marketing Efforts For full-funnel attribution, pass lead status (MQL, SQL, Closed-Won) from your CRM back into GA4 via Measurement Protocol.

• Store lead status as a user-scoped custom dimension to track how marketing campaigns impact revenue.
• Use this to segment audiences and optimize campaigns that drive sales-qualified leads (SQLs).

Need a more thorough guide? Check out our blog post on setting up custom dimensions.

Action Items: Set up GA4 Explorations to compare first-touch vs. last-touch attribution and identify which channels drive high-value leads. Use this data to optimize ad spend, refine targeting, and prioritize campaigns that generate the most SQLs. Over time, adjust budgets and strategies based on lead quality, not just conversions.

Expected Outcome: By integrating custom dimensions into your lead attribution strategy, you’ll gain a clearer picture of which marketing efforts truly impact revenue, allowing for smarter budget allocation, more effective targeting, and better long-term campaign performance.

→ Pro Tip: Combine first-touch source, form type, and lead status to create a custom attribution model in GA4's Explorations, revealing which marketing channels deliver the most valuable leads.

That’s all for this edition of Shop Talk. We’ll be back in 2 weeks!