How AsOne, a Manchester digital marketing agency, helped a local mobility business cut cost-per-click by 18.5% by expanding paid search beyond Google Ads into Microsoft Ads — without changing a word of copy.
Manchester Stairlifts is a family-run mobility specialist serving customers across Greater Manchester for over 10 years. They supply, install, and service a full range of stairlifts — helping elderly and less mobile customers stay independent at home. With digital enquiries critical to lead generation and a customer base that skews older, their paid search strategy needed to work harder. AsOne, their Manchester digital marketing agency, had been managing and optimising their PPC campaigns for well over a year — and the next opportunity to reduce cost and extend reach was hiding in plain sight.
Manchester Stairlifts had a well-performing Google Ads account under AsOne's management. But a significant portion of their target audience — older adults more likely to use Microsoft Edge as a default browser — was never seeing their paid search ads at all.
The paid search strategy was Google-only, leaving the Microsoft Ads platform completely untapped. For a business whose customers frequently include elderly users who default to Edge, this represented a meaningful gap in reach and a missed opportunity for more cost-efficient PPC management.
All PPC activity sat within Google Ads, leaving a large segment of potential customers — particularly older users on Microsoft Edge — unreachable through paid search entirely.
Increasing competition on Google Ads was driving up CPC, putting pressure on the paid search budget and limiting the volume of leads achievable at target cost.
There was no data on how the Microsoft Ads audience would perform for this client — making it an opportunity worth testing through structured PPC management before scaling.
Stairlift enquiries are often prompted by immediate need. Missing a user at the moment of search — on any platform — means missing the lead for good.
Reviewed the existing Google Ads performance data and assessed audience alignment with Microsoft's user base — identifying older demographics as a strong fit with the client's customer profile and a clear case for Microsoft Ads management.
Duplicated proven Google Ads campaigns directly into Microsoft Ads, preserving copy, structure, and targeting to enable a like-for-like paid search comparison and minimise setup risk.
Identified that Microsoft Ads carried significantly lower competition than Google in this sector and adjusted bids and budgets accordingly — maximising cost-per-click efficiency from day one of the new campaign.
Rather than increasing Google Ads budget to chase more volume, AsOne identified a smarter opportunity. By understanding the client's target demographic and the platforms they actually use, the strategy was to expand paid search into Microsoft Ads — duplicating proven campaign architecture and letting performance data drive the next decision.
The implementation was efficient and low-risk — using the existing Google Ads structure as the foundation, then optimising specifically for the Microsoft Ads environment and its competitive dynamics.
Campaign migration to Microsoft Ads
Existing Google Ads campaigns were replicated in Microsoft Ads in full — maintaining all ad copy and audience targeting to ensure a clean, comparable paid search rollout.
Competitive CPC bid strategy
A dedicated Microsoft Ads budget was set alongside existing Google Ads spend — expanding total paid search reach without reducing investment in proven activity.
Parallel budget allocation
Existing Google Ads campaigns were replicated in Microsoft Ads in full — maintaining all ad copy and audience targeting to ensure a clean, comparable paid search rollout.
Month-on-month PPC performance tracking
Click volume and CPC were tracked across both platforms month by month, providing the performance data needed to validate the strategy and inform ongoing PPC management decisions.
Across the three-month period, the average Microsoft Ads CPC came in at £2.68, compared to £3.29 on Google — an 18.5% reduction in cost-per-click with identical targeting and ad copy.
Microsoft Ads clicks grew from 68 in Month 1, to 129 in Month 2, to 224 in Month 3 — demonstrating the platform's capacity to deliver increasing paid search volume as campaigns matured.
The Microsoft Ads expansion reached older users on Edge who were never served through Google Ads — extending paid search reach to exactly the demographic most likely to convert.
The same PPC budget now works across two complementary platforms — improving overall paid search efficiency and reducing reliance on a single, more competitive channel.
The Microsoft Ads expansion didn't just reduce cost-per-click — it fundamentally improved the shape of the paid search strategy, adding a new lead generation channel that works alongside Google Ads rather than competing with it.
Expanding paid search management to Microsoft Ads delivered an immediate, measurable saving on cost-per-click — without compromising ad quality, audience targeting, or lead intent.
Older Microsoft Edge users — a core demographic for stairlift enquiries — are now reached through a dedicated paid search channel, with campaigns proven to convert on Google now working harder on a new platform.
Microsoft Ads clicks grew from 68 to 224 across the campaign period — demonstrating genuine audience demand and significant headroom for continued paid search scaling.
Manchester Stairlifts now benefits from a diversified paid search strategy across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads — a stronger, more resilient foundation for long-term digital lead generation.
By combining deep audience understanding with hands-on PPC management across multiple platforms, AsOne identified and activated an opportunity that Google-only thinking would have missed entirely. The result: lower cost-per-click, greater reach, and a paid search strategy built for long-term performance — without increasing spend. For any business relying on a single paid search platform, this case study is a clear demonstration of what platform-intelligent PPC management can deliver.
