Who Owns Microsoft Advertising?

Microsoft's advertising business predates adCenter. In the early 2000s, Microsoft sold display advertising on MSN through a direct sales team and relied on partners for search advertising. After losing a bid to acquire Overture, the pay-per-click search advertising pioneer, Microsoft decided to build its own search advertising platform. The project was code-named Moonshot.

Microsoft adCenter entered pilot testing in October 2005 in Singapore and France. Steve Ballmer officially launched Microsoft adCenter in the U.S. market on May 3, 2006, at the MSN Strategic Account Summit. adCenter served 100% of paid search traffic on Microsoft's online properties in the United States, replacing the prior reliance on Yahoo and third-party ad providers. The platform gave Microsoft its own pay-per-click auction system for the first time.

In 2009, Microsoft formed the Yahoo Bing Network search alliance with Yahoo, under which Bing powered Yahoo's search results and adCenter served the ads. The deal was meant to combine Bing and Yahoo's search market share against Google. The alliance gave adCenter access to Yahoo's search queries, expanding the advertiser reach, though Google's dominance in search limited the competitive impact.

On September 10, 2012, Microsoft renamed adCenter to Bing Ads, and the Yahoo Bing Network name replaced the Search Alliance branding. The Bing Ads name tied the advertising product more closely to the Bing search engine, which Microsoft had launched in 2009. The functionality and network did not change; the rebrand was a marketing shift.

Microsoft's broader advertising strategy struggled in the display business. In 2015, the company sold its display advertising operations to AOL, transferring roughly 1,200 employees and making Bing the search provider for AOL properties. The move reflected Microsoft's decision to focus on search advertising rather than compete in display ad tech. Microsoft also invested in AppNexus for programmatic capabilities, though it later divested that stake.

On April 30, 2019, Microsoft renamed Bing Ads to Microsoft Advertising. The new name reflected a broader focus beyond Bing search inventory, including the Microsoft Audience Network, native ads, and AI-driven features. Corporate VP Rik van der Kooi said the rebrand emphasized personalization and AI, with more advertising products using built-in AI and connected to advertiser data. At the time, Microsoft Advertising reported approximately 500,000 advertisers.

Growth accelerated after 2020 as Microsoft integrated AI into search. The partnership with OpenAI, deepened in January 2023 with a reported additional $10 billion investment, brought GPT models into Bing and Edge through the Copilot brand. Microsoft launched the new AI-powered Bing in February 2023, positioning it as a competitor to Google Search with conversational answers. The integration was meant to grow Bing's user base and, with it, search advertising inventory.

In FY2025 (ended June 30, 2025), search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs grew 21% in Q4, the highest quarterly growth in three years, reaching $13.9 billion for the full year. In FY2026, full-year search advertising revenue reached $15.2 billion, with Q4 FY2026 growth of 10% (9% in constant currency). Microsoft said Bing and Edge had taken search share for five straight years as of mid-2026, though the reported revenue growth rate moderated due to third-party partnership terms.

Microsoft continues to expand Microsoft Advertising beyond search. The platform now serves ads across Bing, Edge, MSN, Copilot, and third-party affiliates, and offers native and display formats through the Microsoft Audience Network. The company is testing advertising in Copilot and AI-powered search experiences, though monetization of AI surfaces is still early.