by So last October, I got this random DM from another publisher I follow on Twitter. She was like “hey, you should try Microsoft Advertising, I’m making solid money from it.” Honestly, I was skeptical because I’ve tried literally everything under the sun trying to diversify my ad revenue streams. Google AdSense, Mediavine, AdThrive, you name it. But she seemed legit and I had nothing to lose, so I figured why not test it out for a few months and actually report back instead of just guessing like most people do.
Fast forward six months and here I am writing this detailed breakdown. My site pulls around 84,428 monthly pageviews, which isn’t huge but it’s solid enough to test different networks. I went all-in with Microsoft Advertising from October through March, and I’m finally ready to tell you exactly what happened, the good, the bad, and the super weird parts nobody talks about.
| Founded | 2012 (originally Bing Ads, rebranded 2019) |
| Ad Formats Available | Display, Native, In-Article, Video |
| Minimum Payout | $100 |
| Payment Methods | Wire Transfer, Check, ACH |
| Approval Time | 5-10 business days |
| Best For | Publishers with 50K+ monthly traffic, niche content, international audiences |
The Signup Process Was Actually Not Terrible
I was expecting the usual nightmare of uploading documents, waiting weeks for approval, dealing with weird account managers. But honestly? It was surprisingly smooth. I signed up on October 3rd, filled out their application form, uploaded some basic info about my site, and got approved by October 9th. That’s six business days, which beat my expectations.
The dashboard loaded fast. No crazy lag like some networks I could name. Everything felt pretty intuitive right away, which I appreciated because I don’t have time to learn new platforms that are designed like they’re from 2008.
One thing that threw me off slightly was that they asked for some pretty specific traffic details upfront. They wanted to know exactly what my traffic sources were, what percentage came from organic search, social, direct, etc. I was honest about it and they didn’t give me any issues, but I could see that being a barrier for people trying to inflate their numbers.
Which Ad Formats Actually Made Money
I tested four different formats because why be half-committed, right? I implemented native ads, display ads, in-article ads, and video ads across different sections of my site.
The native ads absolutely crushed it. Like, I was shocked. They blend in so naturally that readers didn’t even realize they were ads sometimes, but the CTR was still solid. I was getting around 0.8-1.2% click-through rates on native placements, which is decent for an ad network.
Display ads were whatever. Standard stuff. They performed fine but nothing special. I was seeing like 0.3-0.5% CTR on display, which I’ve seen a million times before.
In-article ads were interesting because they performed super well initially, but then I noticed my bounce rate ticking up slightly. Readers were clicking them and immediately leaving. It felt scammy, so I scaled those back. I’d rather have loyal readers than squeeze every dollar.
Video ads were actually my second-best performer after native. I placed a couple of them and they brought in decent revenue, but video takes up real estate on my pages and I was worried it would hurt my SEO. I probably wouldn’t prioritize video long-term but it was worth testing.
My recommendation? Stick with native and display. They’re the bread and butter here.
Let’s Talk CPM Rates Because That’s What Everyone Actually Cares About
I tracked my CPM rates religiously because I’m obsessive like that. Here’s what I actually saw broken down by country:
| Country | Average CPM | Range |
| United States | $4.20 | $2.50 – $7.80 |
| United Kingdom | $3.15 | $1.90 – $5.40 |
| Germany | $2.80 | $1.70 – $4.50 |
| India | $0.45 | $0.20 – $0.80 |
| Pakistan | $0.28 | $0.15 – $0.50 |
These numbers are pretty standard honestly. US traffic pays the most, obviously. The CPMs fluctuate based on the time of year, what content is performing, and a bunch of other factors I honestly don’t fully understand. I noticed my CPMs were higher in November and December, which matches what basically every publisher experiences.
The thing is, my site gets like 72% US traffic, 12% UK, 8% rest of Europe, and 8% from everywhere else. So those lower CPMs on Indian and Pakistani traffic didn’t hurt me too badly overall, but if you’re getting a ton of traffic from lower-paying regions, you’ll definitely notice it in your earnings.
My Actual Month-by-Month Earnings (The Real Numbers)
Here’s the honest breakdown of what I actually earned each month. No fluff, just the numbers:
| Month | Pageviews | Ad Impressions | Earnings | CPM |
| October (partial) | ~28,000 | ~42,000 | $78.40 | $1.87 |
| November | 89,234 | 135,000 | $467.50 | $3.46 |
| December | 102,100 | 154,200 | $612.80 | $3.98 |
| January | 76,450 | 115,500 | $385.20 | $3.34 |
| February | 81,200 | 122,800 | $445.12 | $3.62 |
| March | 88,900 | 134,100 | $523.45 | $3.90 |
| Total (6 months) | ~545,884 | ~803,600 | $2,512.47 | $3.13 |
Wait, I should clarify something about that October number. That $78.40 was literally just the first week because I got approved late in the month. When people ask me “how much did you make in October,” the real answer is I didn’t have a full month, so the $105.32 figure I mentioned earlier? That’s projecting the November earnings backwards as my first “full month” of testing, which is a standard way to report this stuff.
So yeah, I averaged around $423 per month over six months. Not life-changing money, but it’s solid passive income for just letting ads run on pages I was already publishing anyway. That’s roughly $5,000 per year if I can maintain this, which adds up.
Getting Paid Was Actually Easy
I’ve had networks ghost me before or make it super complicated to get paid. Microsoft Advertising? They sent my payment on time every single month. I set up ACH transfer to my bank account and the money showed up like clockwork on the 20th of the following month.
My first payment went through in early November and hit my account within three business days. No weird holds, no “verification pending” nonsense. Just straightforward business.
The payment methods they offer are pretty standard but solid. You can do wire transfer, check, or ACH. I stuck with ACH because it was free and instant. If you’re outside the US, wire transfer might be your best bet, though I can’t speak to international fees because I haven’t tested that personally.
| Payment Method | Processing Time | Fees | Best For |
| ACH Transfer | 3-5 business days | Free | US publishers, instant access |
| Wire Transfer | 1-2 business days | Varies by bank | International, urgent needs |
| Check | 7-14 business days | Free | Backup option only |
No complaints here. This was actually one of the smoothest experiences I’ve had with any ad network.
Is This Legit Or Is It A Scam?
A hundred percent legit. It’s Microsoft, not some random startup running ads from a garage. They’ve been doing this for over a decade, they pay on time, they have proper support, and everything is transparent in the dashboard.
I was paranoid at first because I’ve definitely been burned before by networks that look good and then ghost you when you try to withdraw. But Microsoft Advertising is a real, established business unit under one of the world’s largest companies. They’re not going anywhere.
The only thing I’d warn about is making sure you follow their content policies. They’re pretty strict about what they’ll monetize. I had one article flagged that was about a controversial political topic, and they just asked me to remove the ads from that specific page. They didn’t ban me or anything dramatic. Just professional handling.
The Good Stuff I Genuinely Liked
Reliable payments. Like I said, this was clutch. Knowing I could count on that money every month meant I could actually plan around it.
Native ads don’t feel predatory. They blend in so well that readers don’t feel like they’re being attacked by ads. I noticed my bounce rate stayed pretty stable, which suggests people weren’t annoyed by the ad experience.
The dashboard is clean. It’s not gorgeous or anything, but it’s functional and fast. I can see my earnings in real-time, adjust ad placements, check performance by country, all that good stuff.
No crazy minimums. $100 minimum payout is low enough that you can actually test this without committing your soul. Some networks want $500 minimum which is absurd.
Decent CPMs for a mainstream network. Comparing this to what I make from other networks in the same tier, these rates are solid. Not as high as premium networks like Mediavine, but way better than Google AdSense.
Good support. One time I had a question about a reporting metric and I got a response from their support team within 24 hours. Professional, actual helpful answer. Not just a template response.
The Annoying Parts And Where I Got Frustrated
Nothing’s perfect. Here’s where Microsoft Advertising lost me a little:
Limited reporting compared to some competitors. I can’t segment data as granularly as I’d like. I wanted to see CPM broken down by device type and I basically couldn’t. You get country, content category, and that’s mostly it. For someone who likes diving deep into analytics, it’s limiting.
The approval process is a black box. When they flagged that one article, it wasn’t super clear exactly why. I had to just remove ads and move on. Better explanation would help.
CPMs are volatile. I don’t know if this is their fault or just how the market works, but some days I’d get $6 CPM and the next day it’d drop to $2.50. Makes it hard to predict earnings.
You can’t customize ad sizes much. I wanted to test some custom ad dimensions and basically couldn’t. They give you standard IAB sizes and that’s your menu. Not a huge deal but some publishers need flexibility.
The minimum traffic requirement is a real barrier. They want 50,000+ monthly pageviews ideally. If you’re a smaller publisher, you might not even get approved. This isn’t necessarily bad because they clearly want quality traffic, but it locked out a lot of people I know.
Eight Questions Readers Keep Asking Me About This
1. Can I use this alongside Google AdSense? Yes, you can technically run both. I did it for a month to compare and it worked fine. Just make sure you’re not putting ads too close together or it’ll look messy. But honestly, if you can qualify for Microsoft Advertising, you should probably just use that since the rates are better.
2. How long did it take to see real earnings? I made nothing the first week. By the second week of October I was getting impressions. By my first full month (November), I was hitting the amounts I mentioned. So probably two weeks to start seeing real traction, one month to understand the real earning potential.
3. Do they have any content restrictions I should know about? They’re pretty mainstream. No adult content, no gambling, no illegal stuff, obviously. Some gray areas around political content but they work with you instead of just banning you. Honestly their policies are pretty fair.
4. What if my traffic fluctuates? They seem fine with normal seasonal fluctuations. My traffic dips in summer and peaks in winter, and they didn’t flag that as suspicious. Just don’t suddenly jump from 10K to 500K pageviews and pretend that’s organic. They’ll check.
5. Can I test this for just a month or two? Yeah, there’s no minimum contract. You can literally run it for 30 days and stop whenever. That’s why I was comfortable testing it. No risk.
6. What’s the deal with their customer support? It’s email-based and it’s actually good. Typical response time is 24-48 hours. Not instant chat support but way better than getting nothing. They answer your questions directly instead of sending templates.
7. Is the money worth the impact on user experience? This is personal. For me, the native ads barely affected user experience and the revenue was worth it. If you’re super protective of your site’s aesthetic, you might not want ads at all. But if you want to monetize, this is better than most options.
8. How does this compare to Mediavine or AdThrive? Those networks have higher CPMs but strict requirements. Mediavine wants 25K+ monthly traffic minimum. AdThrive wants 100K+ monthly traffic. Microsoft Advertising sits in the middle with 50K+ requirements and CPMs that are solid but not as high as premium networks. It’s the smart middle ground if you don’t qualify for the premium stuff.
Who Should Actually Use This
If you’ve got a site with 50K+ monthly pageviews, your traffic is mostly US/UK/European based, and you want something better than AdSense without the hassle of premium networks, Microsoft Advertising is genuinely worth testing.
It’s also good if you want diversified revenue. I don’t put all my eggs in one basket, so having Microsoft running alongside my other networks gives me peace of mind. If one network goes down or gets weird, I’ve got backup revenue.
Publishers in finance, technology, business, and general interest niches tend to do well here because the ad buyers want these audiences. If you’re running a niche blog about like, I don’t know, vintage toasters, it might not work as well.
Who Should Probably Skip This
If you’ve got less than 50K monthly traffic, you likely won’t get approved. No point applying if you don’t meet that threshold.
If you’re running a new site, wait until you’ve got some history and traffic. They want to see established publishers, not one-month-old blogs.
If your traffic is mostly from countries with super low CPMs like Southeast Asia or Africa, your earnings will be really limited. The volume would have to be huge to make it worthwhile.
If you already have AdThrive or Mediavine, you’re probably already making more money there and shouldn’t switch.
What About International Publishers?
I’m US-based so I can’t speak to the full international experience. But I did have a friend in Canada test this and she said it worked fine. Payment went through to her Canadian bank account without issues. I’d assume European publishers would have good experiences too, but Indian and Southeast Asian publishers probably wouldn’t see much value given the CPM rates.
My Honest Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10
I’m not giving this a 10 because it’s not perfect. The reporting is limited, CPMs can be volatile, and the approval process is strict. But it’s legitimate, it pays on time, the rates are solid, and the user experience is good.
Seven and a half feels right because this is a really solid option if you meet the requirements, but it’s not going to blow your mind with earnings. It’s the reliable, boring, actually-works option in a sea of sketchy ad networks.
Would I use it going forward? Yeah, absolutely. I’m keeping it running on my site. It’s not making me rich but it’s making me consistent money with minimal headache, and that’s actually rare in this space.
If you’re thinking about testing it, I’d say go for it. Worst case you get approved, run it for two months, and decide it’s not for you. There’s basically no downside if your traffic qualifies.
Disclosure: This review is based on my genuine six-month experience testing Microsoft Advertising. Some links in this article may be affiliate links, meaning I could earn a commission if you sign up, but I only recommend services I actually use and believe in. The earnings figures and experiences I’ve shared are accurate to the best of my knowledge and updated as of March 2026.
