Microsoft reported Bing ads revenue up 12 percent in its latest earnings, while Google reported ad revenue up 10.5 percent. The figures, covered in Search Engine Roundtable's October 29 recap, show both search ad businesses growing, with Bing growing slightly faster off a smaller base.
Bing ads up 12 percent and Google ads up 10.5 percent describe a search advertising market that is still expanding, even as AI answers change how results look. Growth at both companies suggests advertisers are spending more across search overall, not simply shifting a fixed budget from one engine to the other.
The comparison also needs scale. Google's search advertising business is far larger than Bing's, so a slightly lower percentage growth rate at Google can still represent far more additional dollars. Percentage growth alone does not settle which platform matters more to a given advertiser.
Bing's growth coincides with its own AI push, including ads inside Bing AI Overviews powered by Copilot. As Bing's AI answers gain usage, the ad inventory inside them grows, and advertisers looking for cheaper clicks or incremental reach outside Google find a reason to test Bing.
Microsoft's broader AI distribution also helps. Copilot surfaces across Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365 give Bing search and its ads distribution that does not depend on winning a default-search deal, which diversifies how users reach Bing in the first place.
For most advertisers, the practical implication is to keep Bing in the media mix as a measured test, not as an afterthought. Import Google campaigns into Microsoft Advertising, adjust for Bing's audience and cost differences, and judge it on incremental conversions rather than on whether it matches Google's volume.
The AI Overview ad inventory is the newest reason to test. Early inventory in a new surface is often cheaper and less competitive, and advertisers who learn its performance characteristics early can scale if it works, while late entrants pay the price of a crowded auction.
Bing's ad growth is also a reminder that Bing organic visibility has independent value. Bing powers search in several surfaces beyond bing.com, including Copilot and parts of other products, and its webmaster tools and index remain a separate path to users.
SEOs who only optimise for Google are leaving Bing's audience, and its AI-answer citations, on the table. Submitting sitemaps to Bing Webmaster Tools, checking Bing indexing, and ensuring pages render well for Bingbot are low-cost steps with a distinct payoff.
Bing's AI answers, like Google's, cite sources, and Bing's separate publisher controls for AI training and grounding, announced in late October, give publishers distinct choices on that engine. A page that is well-linked and authoritative has a chance to be cited in both ecosystems, doubling the citation surface for the same content.
Treat Bing citation visibility as a second, measurable channel. Track mentions and citations in Bing and Copilot answers alongside Google's, and prioritise the content formats that earn citations in both.
A clean Bing test starts with a holdout: run Bing ads in a set of comparable regions or campaigns while holding others out, and compare conversions, not clicks. Clicks are cheap to generate and easy to misread; incremental conversions, measured against the holdout, show whether Bing is finding customers Google would not have found.
Give the test enough time and budget to reach a conclusion, and agree the success threshold in advance. A test with no threshold and no end date drifts into a permanent small spend that nobody evaluates. Decide what incremental cost per acquisition would justify scaling, measure against it, and act on the result. Document the test design before launch so the result is trusted whatever it says.
Sources: Search Engine Roundtable podcast recap, October 29, 2026.
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