Case Study
Pension Consolidation
Microsoft Advertising

Generating Pension Enquiries via Microsoft Ads

A parallel-channel test to a live Google Search account that delivered 27% lower CPL and £2.31M in advisory assets for a UK IFA on a £1,227/month budget.

Campaign Performance

£1,227
Monthly Spend
118
Enquiries
£62.40
Cost Per Enquiry
54
Discovery Calls
14
Clients Onboarded
£165k
Avg Pot Size
£2.31M
Assets Introduced

Client Overview

A chartered UK IFA firm specialising in pension consolidation for the 55-plus market was already running a mature Google Search account with Platinum Prospects, delivering a stable £85 CPL.

The firm wanted to diversify beyond a single paid-search platform and test whether Microsoft Ads could deliver meaningful incremental volume without cannibalising Google performance.

The Challenge

Microsoft Ads is often dismissed by UK advisers as "too small to matter", with ~8% of UK search share against Google's 92%. The challenge was to run a rigorous 90-day test that either validated Microsoft as a peer channel or produced the data to rule it out for good.

The test had to isolate Microsoft performance without contaminating the live Google account, maintain FCA-compliant creative across both platforms, and prove out audience quality - not just CPC.

Strategy

A 90-day parallel test against the existing Google Search account, engineered to measure incremental lift, not replacement.

Imported the top 3 converting Google Search campaigns using Microsoft's Import from Google Ads tool, preserving ad group structure and negative keyword lists

Set initial Microsoft bids at 75% of the Google equivalent to reflect the less-competitive auction; let 21-day data inform ongoing bid adjustments

Deployed UET (Universal Event Tracking) with identical conversion names to Google, so reporting could be compared line-for-line in the client dashboard

Used Microsoft Audience Network for LinkedIn-profile-signal retargeting of pension-page visitors aged 55+ who did not convert on first visit

Created Microsoft-specific responsive search ads that referenced Edge and Outlook audience behaviours (desktop-heavy, long-form enquiry forms)

Google vs Microsoft: Head-to-Head

Identical campaign structures, identical FCA-compliant creative, measured over the same 6-month window.

Average CPC
Google£14.28
Microsoft£10.12
Microsoft
Average CPL
Google£85.48
Microsoft£62.40
Microsoft
Click-Through Rate
Google6.2%
Microsoft7.1%
Microsoft
Impression Share
Google71%
Microsoft84%
Microsoft
Monthly Leads
Google14.8
Microsoft19.7
Microsoft
Monthly Enquiry Volume Ceiling
Google~45
Microsoft~22
Google
Average Caller Age
Google52
Microsoft59
Comparable
Avg Pot Declared on Form
Google£142k
Microsoft£165k
Microsoft

Results

-27%
CPL reduction vs Google baseline
+19.7/mo
Incremental paid-search leads
+14%
MQL rate uplift on pension niche
£74.20
Blended CPL (Google + Microsoft)

The Economics

  • 14 new clients onboarded from Microsoft leads at an average pot size of £165k
  • £2.31M in new advisory assets introduced over 6 months on £7,363 total spend
  • Assets-to-spend ratio of 313x, materially better than the 242x Google achieved on the same account
  • Zero cannibalisation detected on Google performance across the test window

Key Takeaway

Microsoft Ads is not a Google replacement - it is a Google complement. Run side-by-side, it adds roughly 45% more paid-search volume at a 27% lower CPL and delivers older, higher-net-worth pension enquiries. For UK advisers with a mature Google account, it is typically the highest-ROI incremental channel available.

Want this result for your adviser firm?

We run Microsoft Ads as a peer channel alongside Google, Meta and LinkedIn for UK regulated firms. Audit your current paid-search stack and see where Microsoft could close the gap.

Request a paid-search audit