Bing Ads Audit Checklist: What Every Advertiser Should Review
A thorough Bing Ads audit helps you understand where your Microsoft Advertising budget is going, what is producing qualified leads or sales, and what may be quietly wasting spend. It is one of the most effective ways to bring clarity to an account that has become difficult to manage, especially when campaigns have been imported from Google Ads and left largely unchanged.
Microsoft Advertising can be a valuable channel for businesses that want to reach desktop users, professionals, B2B decision-makers, higher-income audiences, and customers who may not be as active on Google. However, strong results do not happen simply because campaigns are running. Accounts need regular reviews, accurate tracking, intentional structure, and decisions based on meaningful performance data.
A proper Bing Ads audit is not about making random changes or chasing clicks. It is about giving business owners and marketing teams a clearer view of their advertising, so they can make confident decisions without getting buried in jargon, dashboards, or agency-style complexity.
Electric Buzz believes paid advertising should feel understandable. You should know what your campaigns are doing, why changes are being made, and how your budget supports your larger business goals. This checklist outlines the most important areas to review during a Bing Ads audit and shows how each can contribute to more efficient, higher-performing campaigns.
What Is a Bing Ads Audit?
A Bing Ads audit is a structured evaluation of a Microsoft Advertising account. It looks at the settings, performance data, campaigns, keywords, ads, audiences, budgets, conversion tracking, and landing pages that influence results.
The goal is to identify what is working, what needs improvement, and what should be removed or adjusted. Instead of relying on assumptions, an audit gives you a clearer picture of how your account performs across the entire customer journey.
A complete Bing Ads audit typically reviews:
• Campaign and ad group structure
• Keyword targeting and match types
• Search term relevance
• Negative keyword lists
• Ad copy and responsive search ads
• Ad extensions and assets
• Conversion tracking setup
• Audience targeting and bid adjustments
• Device, location, and scheduling performance
• Budget allocation and bidding strategy
• Landing page relevance and conversion experience
• Quality Score and auction competitiveness
Even accounts that seem successful may have hidden opportunities. For example, a campaign may be generating leads, but those leads may be expensive, unqualified, duplicated, or from locations the business does not serve. A Bing Ads audit helps uncover those issues before they become an ongoing drain on your budget.
Why Is a Bing Ads Audit Important?
Microsoft Advertising campaigns can continue spending money every day, even when performance is slipping. Without a consistent review process, outdated keywords, weak ads, incorrect settings, and broken tracking can remain unnoticed for months.
A Bing Ads audit helps you regain control by showing where improvements can have the greatest impact.
Regular audits can help you:
• Reduce spend on irrelevant or low-converting search queries
• Identify high-performing keywords that deserve more budget
• Find campaigns that are limited by budget
• Improve the quality and relevance of ad copy
• Correct conversion tracking problems
• Remove old promotions, pricing, or landing pages
• Improve targeting by audience, device, location, and schedule
• Make reporting easier to understand and more useful
Many business owners have experienced the frustration of receiving reports filled with metrics but no clear explanation of what those numbers actually mean. Impressions, clicks, click-through rates, and conversion totals are useful, but they do not tell the full story on their own.
A thoughtful Bing Ads audit turns scattered account data into actionable answers. It helps clarify questions such as:
• Which campaigns are producing the best leads?
• Which search terms are wasting budget?
• Are ads sending people to the right pages?
• Are conversions tracked correctly?
• Is the budget focused on the highest-priority services or products?
• Are customers finding you when your business is available to help them?
That level of visibility helps marketing feel less stressed and more manageable.
Who Needs a Bing Ads Audit?
Any business running Microsoft Advertising campaigns can benefit from a Bing Ads audit. This includes small local businesses, ecommerce brands, B2B companies, professional service providers, healthcare practices, home service businesses, and larger organizations with multiple campaigns.
You may especially need an audit if:
• Your campaigns were imported from Google Ads
• Your spending has increased but leads or sales have not
• You do not fully trust your conversion data
• You have not reviewed search terms recently
• Your account has many old campaigns or ad groups
• Your ads mention outdated offers, services, or pricing
• You are unsure which keywords drive qualified leads
• Your campaigns feel confusing or difficult to manage
• You have changed agencies, websites, landing pages, or tracking tools
• You want to scale but need a clearer foundation first
Small businesses should not assume an audit is only for large accounts. In fact, smaller budgets often require greater efficiency because there is less room for wasted spend. Every unnecessary click can make a bigger difference when your monthly budget is limited.
A professional Bing Ads audit can help smaller companies prioritize the actions most likely to improve results rather than trying to change everything at once.
How Often Should You Complete a Bing Ads Audit?
The ideal audit frequency depends on your spend, campaign complexity, business goals, and how quickly your market changes. High-spend accounts tend to require more frequent monitoring because small inefficiencies can add up quickly.
A practical schedule may look like this:
| Account Type | Recommended Audit Frequency |
|---|---|
| Small accounts with limited monthly spend | Every three months |
| Growing local or regional accounts | Monthly |
| Medium-sized accounts with multiple campaigns | Monthly or twice per month |
| Large accounts with substantial ad spend | Every one to two weeks |
| Seasonal businesses | Before, during, and after each major season or promotion |
A full Bing Ads audit does not always require a complete rebuild. Some reviews may focus on specific areas, such as search terms, conversion tracking, budget allocation, or campaign performance by location.
The most important factor is consistency. An account performs best when it is actively managed, thoughtfully reviewed, and adjusted according to business priorities.
Review Campaign Structure First
Campaign structure is one of the first things to examine during a Bing Ads audit. A clear account structure makes it easier to control budgets, understand performance, write relevant ads, and make changes without creating confusion.
A strong account often separates campaigns by meaningful business categories, such as:
• Core services
• Product categories
• Geographic service areas
• Brand and non-brand terms
• Competitor terms, where appropriate
• Remarketing campaigns
• Seasonal campaigns
• High-priority lead generation offers
Within each campaign, ad groups should focus on closely related keywords and search intent. For example, a dental practice may separate “dental implants,” “emergency dentist,” and “teeth whitening” into distinct ad groups or campaigns rather than placing all dental keywords into a single broad group.
During your audit, ask:
• Are campaign names clear and easy to understand?
• Are campaigns organized by service, product, or location?
• Are ad groups focused on tightly related keyword themes?
• Are old or duplicate campaigns still running?
• Is budget control available where it is needed most?
• Were campaigns imported from Google Ads without being adjusted for Microsoft Advertising?
Poor structure makes optimization harder. It also makes reporting less useful because performance data gets blended across unrelated services or audiences.
A well-organized account gives you more control. You can direct budget toward the services that matter most, tailor ads to search intent, and quickly identify which campaign areas need attention.
Confirm Conversion Tracking Is Accurate
Conversion tracking is one of the most important parts of any Bing Ads audit. If conversion data is wrong, every decision based on that data becomes less reliable.
Microsoft Advertising uses Universal Event Tracking (UET) to track actions that matter to your business. These actions may include form submissions, phone calls, purchases, appointment bookings, quote requests, newsletter signups, downloads, or other valuable customer interactions.
During the audit, check that:
• The UET tag is installed correctly across the website
• Conversion goals are active and properly configured
• Forms trigger the intended conversion action
• Thank-you page tracking works as expected
• Phone call tracking is accurate
• Ecommerce purchase values are correctly passed into the platform
• Duplicate conversions are not being counted
• Test conversions appear correctly in Microsoft Advertising reports
• Old or outdated goals have been removed or marked inactive
It is common to find conversion goals that are firing too often. For example, a form conversion may be triggered when someone simply visits a contact page, rather than when they successfully submit a form. That can make an account appear to generate more leads than it actually does.
Another issue is duplicate tracking, where a single completed action is counted multiple times across separate tags, events, or imported goals. This can make automated bidding strategies chase inaccurate data.
Before making major budget or bid changes, make sure you can trust your tracking. A clear foundation helps you make confident decisions and prevents your account from optimizing toward the wrong outcomes.
Analyze Keyword Performance and Search Terms
Keywords are central to a successful Bing Ads audit because they influence which searches trigger your ads. However, reviewing keywords should go beyond looking at impressions, clicks, or average position.
A useful keyword review examines:
• Conversion volume
• Conversion rate
• Cost per conversion
• Total spend
• Click-through rate
• Quality Score
• Match type
• Search intent
• Search term relevance
• Landing page alignment
Start by identifying keywords that consistently generate valuable conversions. These terms may deserve more budget, stronger bids, improved ad copy, or dedicated landing pages.
Then identify keywords that receive clicks but do not generate results. A keyword with high spend and no meaningful conversions may need a lower bid, a tighter match type, a negative keyword adjustment, a revised landing page, or removal from the campaign.
Search term reports are equally important. They show the actual queries people used before clicking an ad. This is where you can find irrelevant traffic, new keyword opportunities, and customer language that can improve your ad copy.
For example, a company promoting premium office furniture may see clicks from searches for free furniture, DIY furniture plans, repair services, or job openings. If those terms do not support the campaign goal, they should be considered for negative keywords.
A Bing Ads audit should also assess whether match types fit the account’s goals:
• Exact match gives greater control over closely related search intent.
• Phrase match can capture relevant variations while maintaining more control than broad match.
• Broad match can expand reach but requires careful search term monitoring and reliable conversion data.
The best approach depends on the account, industry, conversion volume, and available budget. The goal is not to use every match type. The goal is to use each one intentionally.
Strengthen Your Negative Keyword Strategy
Negative keywords prevent ads from showing for irrelevant searches. They are one of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce wasted spend during a Bing Ads audit.
Without an active negative keyword strategy, campaigns may attract people who are not looking for your product, service, or offer. This creates unnecessary clicks, higher costs, and lower conversion efficiency.
During the audit, review whether:
• Negative keywords exist at both campaign and ad group levels
• Search term reports are reviewed regularly
• Shared negative keyword lists are organized logically
• Negative keywords match the company’s actual exclusions
• Imported Google Ads negative lists are still relevant
• Negative keywords are not accidentally blocking valuable searches
• Competitor names, job-seeking terms, free-related terms, support-related queries, and research-only searches are handled appropriately
Common negative keyword categories may include:
• Free
• Jobs
• Careers
• Salary
• Training
• DIY
• Used
• Repair
• Reviews
• Login
• Customer service
• Wholesale
• Cheap
Not every business should block every term in this list. A business offering repair services should not add “repair” as a negative keyword. A company that wants price-conscious leads may not want to block “cheap.” The right negative keyword list depends on your offer and ideal customer.
This is why a Bing Ads audit should not rely solely on a generic list. It should be based on the actual search terms appearing in your account and the types of leads or sales your business wants to attract.
Review Ad Copy and Responsive Search Ads
Ad copy affects whether someone chooses your listing over another advertiser’s. During a Bing Ads audit, evaluate whether your ads are relevant, current, clear, and aligned with the landing page experience.
Review each ad group for:
• Multiple active ad variations
• Responsive Search Ads that are fully developed
• Headlines that reflect the target keyword theme
• Descriptions that communicate a clear benefit
• Strong calls to action
• Accurate offers, pricing, promotions, and availability
• Brand messaging that feels consistent across campaigns
• Landing page messaging that matches the ad
Good ad copy should make it easy for a searcher to understand what you offer and why they should choose you. It should not rely on vague claims or generic phrases that could apply to any competitor.
Instead of writing “Best Service in Town,” a business might use a more specific message such as:
“Custom Lighting Design for Homes and Businesses. Get a Clear Plan and Expert Support.”
That message communicates the service, audience, and a benefit without sounding overly complicated.
A Bing Ads audit should also identify outdated ads. Expired seasonal promotions, old pricing, discontinued services, or outdated landing page references can weaken trust and waste clicks.
At Electric Buzz, the goal is not to make advertising sound impressive for its own sake. The goal is to help your ideal customer understand why your business is the right fit and feel comfortable taking the next step.
Check Ad Extensions and Assets
Ad extensions, often referred to as assets, make your ads larger and more informative. They can improve visibility, provide useful details before a person clicks, and help direct searchers to the most relevant page.
During your Bing Ads audit, review the coverage, relevance, and performance of available ad assets.
Important assets may include:
• Sitelink extensions
• Callout extensions
• Structured snippet extensions
• Call extensions
• Location extensions
• Image extensions
• Promotion extensions
• Price extensions
• App extensions, if applicable
Sitelinks can direct people to specific pages, such as service pages, pricing pages, testimonials, contact pages, appointment booking pages, or product categories.
Callouts can highlight benefits, such as:
• Month-to-month support
• Free consultations
• Fast turnaround times
• Certified specialists
• Flexible scheduling
• Transparent reporting
Structured snippets can clarify categories, brands, services, or features. For example, a law firm may list practice areas, while a wellness business may list treatment types.
Avoid using identical assets across every campaign without considering the searcher’s intent. A campaign focused on a single service should have extensions that support that service whenever possible.
Use Audience Targeting More Intentionally
Audience targeting is often underused in Microsoft Advertising. A Bing Ads audit should evaluate whether your account is using audience insights to support smarter bidding and more relevant campaigns.
Microsoft Advertising offers audience options that can help you reach people based on previous site visits, demographic characteristics, professional attributes, and other behavior signals.
Review:
• Remarketing audiences
• Customer match lists, where available and appropriate
• In-market audiences
• Age and gender performance
• LinkedIn profile targeting for B2B campaigns
• Audience bid adjustments
• Excluded audience segments
• Performance differences between audience groups
Remarketing can be especially valuable because it allows you to reconnect with people who have already visited your website, viewed a service page, begun a checkout process, or engaged with a particular offer.
For B2B companies, LinkedIn profile targeting can create useful opportunities to adjust bids based on company, industry, or job function. This may help businesses prioritize decision-makers and professional audiences who are more likely to become qualified leads.
However, audience targeting should be guided by performance data, not assumptions. A higher-income demographic or a particular job title may seem like an ideal audience, but the data should show whether that audience actually converts at a profitable rate.
Evaluate Device Performance
Different devices can produce very different results. A Bing Ads audit should separate performance data by desktop, mobile, and tablet to understand how people interact with your campaigns.
Review device-level metrics such as:
• Clicks
• Cost
• Conversions
• Conversion rate
• Cost per conversion
• Revenue or conversion value
• Bounce rate, if available through analytics
• Form completion behavior
• Call conversion volume
Microsoft Advertising can have a strong desktop audience, particularly for B2B companies and professional services. However, that does not mean mobile should be ignored. Many users begin their research on mobile devices, call directly from ads, or return later on a desktop to complete a form or make a purchase.
If mobile produces strong calls but weak form conversions, the landing page may need a more prominent phone number, a click-to-call button, or a shorter contact form. If the desktop produces higher-value leads, you may choose to increase the desktop bid adjustments.
Device data should influence both bidding and website experience. Advertising works best when the campaign and landing page make it easy for people to take the next step on their preferred device.
Review Location Targeting
Location targeting determines where your ads are shown. If it is too broad, you may pay for clicks from people outside your service area. If it is too narrow, you may miss valuable customers in nearby locations.
During your Bing Ads audit, review:
• Geographic areas with the highest spend
• Locations with strong conversion rates
• Locations with poor lead quality
• Regions that should be excluded
• Campaign settings for presence and location interest
• Bid adjustments by city, state, region, or ZIP code
• Service area alignment
• Location-specific landing pages and ad messaging
For local businesses, location accuracy is essential. A plumbing company serving a 30-mile radius should not pay for clicks from a city hundreds of miles away. A regional healthcare provider may need separate campaigns for different clinics or service areas.
Location reports can also reveal opportunities to create dedicated campaigns for high-performing regions. This gives you more control over budgets, ads, keywords, and landing pages for those locations.
A Bing Ads audit can turn broad targeting into a more focused strategy that supports where your business can actually deliver value.
Assess Budgets and Bid Strategies
Budget allocation is a common issue in underperforming accounts. A Bing Ads audit should identify whether money is being directed toward the campaigns, keywords, locations, and audiences that contribute most to your goals.
Review:
• Campaigns limited by budget
• Campaigns with excess spending and poor conversion performance
• High-performing campaigns that need more investment
• Spend distribution by service or product category
• Budget changes over time
• Search impression share trends
• Lost impression share due to budget
• Bidding strategy performance
Not every campaign deserves the same budget. If one campaign reliably generates qualified leads at a strong cost per conversion while another consumes budget without results, the account should reflect that difference.
Microsoft Advertising offers several bidding strategies, including manual cost-per-click bidding and automated options that optimize toward clicks, conversions, conversion value, or return on ad spend.
During the audit, ask:
• Does the campaign have enough conversion data for automation?
• Are conversion goals accurate enough to guide automated bidding?
• Is the campaign focused on leads, sales, revenue, traffic, or visibility?
• Are target CPA or return-on-ad-spend goals realistic?
• Have bid changes been documented and reviewed?
Automation can be helpful, but it is not a replacement for strategy. If tracking is inaccurate or conversion volume is too low, automated bidding may make decisions based on weak signals. In those situations, more manual control may be the better choice.
Optimize Ad Scheduling
Ad scheduling lets you control when ads appear and how aggressively you bid during certain hours or days. It is an important but frequently overlooked part of a Bing Ads audit.
Review performance by:
• Day of the week
• Hour of the day
• Business hours versus after-hours periods
• Weekday versus weekend traffic
• Seasonal periods
• Call availability
• Lead response capacity
If your business relies on phone calls and no one is available to answer after 6 p.m., running ads late at night may not be the best use of your budget. On the other hand, an e-commerce business may find that evening traffic converts well and should remain active around the clock.
Look for patterns before making major adjustments. A short period of data may be misleading, especially in lower-volume accounts. Use enough data to identify consistent trends.
The goal is not necessarily to turn off low-performing hours immediately. It is to make intentional choices about where your budget has the best chance of producing the outcomes you care about.
Audit Landing Page Relevance
Strong ads can earn clicks, but landing pages determine whether visitors take action. A Bing Ads audit should include a landing page review because ad performance and website experience are closely connected.
For every major campaign, confirm that the landing page:
• Matches the ad’s message and keyword intent
• Clearly explains the service, product, or offer
• Includes a visible call to action
• Loads quickly on desktop and mobile
• Has an easy-to-complete form
• Includes click-to-call functionality when calls matter
• Builds trust with testimonials, credentials, reviews, or guarantees
• Avoids unnecessary distractions
• Works properly across browsers and devices
• Uses tracking that records key actions accurately
A visitor who searches for “emergency electrician near me” should not land on a generic homepage where they have to hunt for emergency services. They should reach a page that immediately confirms they are in the right place and makes it easy to contact the business.
Landing pages should also feel reassuring. People are more likely to convert when they understand what happens next, how long it may take, and why they can trust the business.
This is where plain-language communication matters. Clear pages often outperform pages that use too much technical language, crowded layouts, or aggressive messaging.
Review Quality Score and Ad Relevance
Quality Score can help you understand the relationship between your keywords, ads, and landing pages. During a Bing Ads audit, low Quality Scores may indicate relevance issues that can increase costs or reduce visibility.
Review keyword-level Quality Scores and look for patterns involving:
• Low expected click-through rate
• Weak ad relevance
• Poor landing page experience
• Broad keyword groupings
• Ads that do not mention the target service
• Landing pages that do not match search intent
A low Quality Score does not always mean a keyword should be paused. Some high-value keywords may have lower scores because of competitive pressure or limited search volume. However, consistently low scores across an ad group may indicate that the structure, ads, or landing pages need improvement.
For example, if an ad group contains keywords for “commercial lighting design,” “residential lighting installation,” and “landscape lighting,” it may be difficult to create one ad that is highly relevant to all three.
Separating those themes into tighter ad groups can improve relevance and create a more useful experience for the person searching.
Monitor Competitive Pressure
Your competitors can influence cost, visibility, click-through rate, and conversion volume. A Bing Ads audit should review auction insights and other available competitive data to understand whether your market is becoming more competitive.
Look for:
• Changes in impression share
• Lost impression share due to rank
• Lost impression share due to budget
• New advertisers appearing in auctions
• Changes in average position or visibility
• Competitor ad messaging
• Competitor promotions or offers
• Search trends around your highest-value services
Competitive analysis should not lead to automatic bid increases. Paying more is not always the answer. In some cases, better ad messaging, stronger landing pages, more specific keywords, or improved audience targeting can help you compete more efficiently.
The purpose is to understand what is changing and respond strategically rather than react emotionally.
Create an Ongoing Bing Ads Audit Process
A Bing Ads audit is most useful when it becomes part of an ongoing optimization process. A one-time review can uncover important issues, but accounts continue to change as search behavior, competitors, business priorities, and campaign data evolve.
A practical ongoing review process may include:
• Weekly search term reviews
• Weekly budget and pacing checks
• Monthly keyword performance analysis
• Monthly ad copy testing
• Monthly device, audience, and location reviews
• Monthly conversion tracking checks
• Quarterly landing page assessments
• Quarterly campaign structure reviews
• Seasonal promotion planning
• Regular competitor monitoring
Documenting changes is also important. Keep track of when bids were adjusted, keywords were paused, new ads were launched, landing pages were changed, or budgets were shifted. This makes it easier to understand what influenced performance later.
A good agency partner should make this process feel clear, collaborative, and manageable. You should not feel pressured into a complicated strategy you do not understand. You deserve straightforward communication, meaningful insights, and a campaign plan connected to the goals that matter to your business.
Conclusion
A Bing Ads audit is more than a routine check—it’s a powerful way to uncover what’s working, what needs improvement, and where your advertising dollars are truly making a difference. By reviewing campaign structure, keyword performance, ad quality, audience targeting, budgets, and landing pages, advertisers gain insights that daily monitoring often overlooks.
Regular Bing Ads audits help reduce wasted spend, improve conversion performance, and keep your campaigns aligned with real business goals. They also prepare you to respond quickly to shifts in user behavior, platform updates, and competitor activity.
If you’re ready to take control of your Microsoft Advertising strategy, contact Electric Buzz to see how our expert team can help you succeed with a proven Bing Ads agency approach. Let’s turn your data into results and build a campaign that works smarter, not harder.
FAQs
How often should a Bing Ads audit be done?
A Bing Ads audit should be done at least once every three months for smaller accounts. For larger or higher-spend accounts, monthly audits help catch issues early and improve performance more quickly.
What is the main goal of a Bing Ads audit?
The main goal of a Bing Ads audit is to identify wasted spend and improve campaign efficiency. It helps advertisers understand which keywords, ads, and settings are actually driving conversions.
Can a Bing Ads audit improve conversion rates?
Yes, a Bing Ads audit can improve conversion rates by fixing tracking issues, refining keywords, and improving ad relevance. Small adjustments found during an audit often lead to stronger performance without increasing the budget.
Is a Bing Ads audit different from a Google Ads audit?
A Bing Ads audit follows similar principles but focuses on features specific to Microsoft Advertising. Audience behavior, match types, and targeting options differ, so Bing campaigns should be reviewed separately.
Do small businesses need a Bing Ads audit?
Yes, small businesses benefit from a Bing Ads audit because limited budgets leave little room for wasted spend. Regular audits help ensure every dollar is used as effectively as possible.