Microsoft Advertising for law firms: Bing, Copilot and the Google import

Microsoft Advertising runs search ads on Bing, inside Microsoft Copilot and across Microsoft’s partner sites. For most firms it is the easiest second search channel: the same kind of searches, a smaller audience, and an import tool that copies your Google campaigns in an afternoon. The catch is the word “copies.” An import left alone spends money in ways no one at the firm decided. This guide follows our Google Ads for law firms pillar and assumes your Google account already works.

Who Bing and Copilot reach

Statcounter, which counts search-engine referrals to the websites it tracks, put Google at 85.19% and Bing at 9.89% of US search referrals on all platforms in September 2026, and Bing at 18.8% on desktop (Statcounter; Statcounter). The desktop share is the reason Microsoft matters more than its headline number suggests: on computers, roughly one search in five in that panel came from Bing.

Copilot adds a second surface. Microsoft says it serves ads in varying formats inside Copilot’s responses, built automatically from a campaign’s existing text and images (Microsoft). We return to what that means below.

None of this makes Microsoft right for every firm. It makes it worth a measured test once your Google campaigns, phones and tracking work.

The Google import, and what it changes without asking

Microsoft lets you import Google Ads campaigns once or on a schedule (daily, weekly, monthly, or “Auto”) and “will import most supported campaigns, ads, targets, ad extensions, and other settings by default” (Microsoft). It also warns that not all information will be imported, and asks you to review the campaigns afterward (same source).

The import options list shows what happens by default. Several defaults deserve a decision rather than a shrug (Microsoft):

• Audience targets are imported by default. In-market audience targets and exclusions come across unless you turn the option off. For a family law, criminal defense or injury campaign, that is a setting to switch off before the first import.
• Low bids are raised to Microsoft’s minimums by default, which “may increase” overall spend, Microsoft says.
• Unsupported locations are expanded to a larger parent location by default. A city-level Google target can become a wider Microsoft target.
• New campaigns are not paused by default. An imported campaign can start serving before anyone reviews it, unless you choose to pause new campaigns.
• Conversion goals and bid strategies are imported and updated by default, and a scheduled import overwrites changes you made in Microsoft to match Google again.

The last check is the one most often missed. A weekly re-import feels tidy, but it keeps Microsoft as a copy of Google, and the two engines match searches differently. Run the import once, tune Microsoft on its own, and copy specific new campaigns across by hand when you need them.

Identity verification

Since August 1, 2023, Microsoft has said all ads on its network come from verified advertisers, and new advertisers must be verified before ads serve (Microsoft). Microsoft also said ads display the advertiser’s name and location (same source). For a law firm, that means the account belongs in the firm’s legal name with documents to match. An agency that runs your ads from its own verified account is advertising as itself, not as your firm, and you lose the history if you leave.

Sending signed cases back: offline conversions

Microsoft accepts offline conversions keyed to its own click ID, the MSCLKID. Its help page sets the rules (Microsoft):

• Auto-tagging turns on when you create your first offline conversion goal, and the MSCLKID is added to your landing page address on each click.
• You must capture and store it. The click ID sits only on the landing page URL, so the site has to save it (Microsoft suggests a cookie) and pass it with each form or call record into your CRM.
• Each upload needs the click ID, the conversion goal name and the conversion time; a value and currency are optional.
• Timing: wait 2 hours after creating a goal before uploading to it; conversions uploaded more than 90 days after the last click are not imported; data can take up to 6 hours to appear.
• Daily uploads are recommended, or automated bidding may suffer.
• Corrections are possible. Restate changes a value; retract removes a conversion.

A firm running Google and Microsoft side by side stores both click IDs on each lead, the GCLID and the MSCLKID, and uploads the same stages and value bands to both. The stage names and value bands are in our signed-case tracking guide. Uploads carry a click ID, a neutral stage, a value band and a time, never case details. Sensitive practices (immigration, family, criminal) get that standard upload only, with no hashed contact data.

Some matters sign more than 90 days after the first click. Microsoft’s 90-day limit means a slow-signing practice should upload an earlier stage too, such as “qualified” or “consult held,” so bidding learns from something inside the window.

LinkedIn profile targeting: when it makes sense

Microsoft lets advertisers adjust bids by a searcher’s LinkedIn company, industry and job function, on search, dynamic search, audience and Performance Max campaigns (Microsoft). Microsoft is explicit that it “will not narrow your ads’ audience”: it is “bid only,” not a filter (same source).

For consumer practices, LinkedIn targeting adds nothing and risks an ad that looks aimed at people at a particular employer. Leave it off.

Copilot placements

Microsoft’s Copilot page is clear on four points (Microsoft):

1. Eligible campaigns are opted in automatically, and advertisers can’t opt out.
2. Search ads need a logo (a logo extension or business logo) to be eligible.
3. Negative keywords apply in Copilot as in web search.
4. No Copilot-specific metrics are reported today.

So you can’t measure Copilot on its own line yet, and you can’t turn it off. What you control is the text and images Microsoft builds the ads from. Make sure every headline, description and image in the account is one your attorney would approve on its own, because Copilot may show any of them in a new arrangement. And keep your negative keyword lists as thorough on Microsoft as on Google.

Microsoft also says that if an ad can serve on Bing, it can serve in Copilot, and it recommends disclaimers for restricted categories (same source). Microsoft lists legal services among its restricted categories, where it may restrict ads at its discretion (Microsoft, read through a search extract). Any statement your state requires in every ad belongs in the ad text itself, not only on the landing page.

Audiences, the Audience Network and our policy

Microsoft bars advertisers from using sensitive data to build remarketing lists, naming examples such as health conditions (Microsoft, read through a search extract). Its Audience Network stopped accepting lawsuit advertising and invitations to join lawsuits in 2021 (Microsoft).

Our policy is the same on Microsoft as on Google: no Customer Match or lookalike audiences built from client lists, in any practice, and remarketing only where the platform’s policy allows it, which means off for any campaign in a restricted category such as crime, family hardship or health. For most law firm accounts, that leaves Microsoft as a search channel, which is where it earns its keep anyway.

Budget rules

• Start small and separate. Give Microsoft its own campaigns and budgets, never a shared budget with Google.
• Size the budget to volume, not to Google. If Microsoft sends a tenth of your search clicks, a budget a tenth of Google’s is a fair start; raise it only when signed cases justify it.
• Watch partner sites. Microsoft’s network includes sites beyond Bing. Check where calls come from and exclude sources that send calls but no cases.
• Give it a quarter. Smaller channels take longer to produce enough signed cases to judge. Under The Probative Standard, no cost per signed case is shown for a line with fewer than 5 signed cases.

Measuring Microsoft on its own line

Microsoft gets its own lines in the monthly or weekly report: spend, leads, qualified leads, consults, signed cases and cost per signed case, by practice and language. Compare it with Google on cost per signed case, not on cost per click. Microsoft clicks are often cheaper; whether its signed cases are cheaper is a separate, more useful question.

What this means for your firm

• Add Microsoft after Google works, not before. The import only copies what you have.
• Run the twelve checks in Exhibit A before the first imported ad serves, starting with pausing new campaigns and turning off imported audiences.
• Import once, then tune separately. A scheduled re-import undoes Microsoft-specific work.
• Capture the MSCLKID next to Google’s click ID on every lead, and upload signed cases daily within the 90-day window.
• Treat every asset as a Copilot ad. Microsoft may rearrange your text and images there, and you can’t opt out.
• Judge it in signed cases, on its own line, over at least a quarter.

Probative is AI-first SEO and ads for law firms. Our Microsoft search ads service runs this setup alongside Google search ads, as one line on the pricing page. For the measurement side, see signed-case reporting.

Marketing information, not legal advice. Ads on Microsoft are lawyer advertising under your state’s rules; check with your bar and your own counsel.