Microsoft Ads has one genuinely brilliant feature for busy advertisers: you can import your entire Google Ads account in a few clicks and be live on Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and the Microsoft network within the hour. For businesses that have been meaning to "do Bing" for years, it removes the main excuse.

It also removes the main safeguard, which is a human thinking about what should be different. An imported account inherits every structural quirk of the Google one, and then adds a few of its own where settings don't translate cleanly. The result is often a channel that looks switched on but never quite delivers - and then gets written off as "Bing doesn't work for us".

Here's what to check during and after the import so that doesn't happen.

Why bother with Microsoft Ads at all

Quick context for anyone still deciding. Microsoft's search share in the UK is a minority, but it's a distinctive minority: skewed older, more affluent, more likely to be on a work desktop, and more likely to be in B2B, finance, professional services and home improvement categories. CPCs are typically lower than Google because fewer advertisers compete. For the right business it's not a replacement for Google - it's a second, cheaper source of the same intent. For some accounts it's 10-20% of the search volume at a materially better cost per conversion. That's worth an afternoon of setup.

What the import does well

Campaign structure, ad groups, keywords, match types, ads, assets (sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets), negative keywords and most targeting settings come across cleanly. Scheduled imports can keep the two accounts in sync, which saves a lot of duplicated effort if your Google account changes frequently.

The things that don't carry across - or carry across wrongly

Conversion tracking

This is the big one. Microsoft Ads has its own tag - the UET tag - and its own conversion goals. The import brings over campaigns, not tracking. If you don't install UET and set up goals, Microsoft knows nothing about what happens after the click, your reporting shows zero conversions, and any automated bidding is flying blind. Install the tag through Google Tag Manager, mirror your primary Google conversions as UET goals, and check they fire before you spend a penny.

Bid strategies

Smart Bidding strategies don't map one-to-one. Depending on the import options, campaigns may land on Enhanced CPC or Manual with Google's bids copied across. Google's bids reflect Google's auction, not Microsoft's. Review every campaign's strategy after import and set it deliberately - usually starting more conservatively, because Microsoft's automated strategies have less data to learn from initially.

Budgets

Budgets import at the Google figure. Microsoft volume is a fraction of Google's, so copying a £200/day budget is harmless in most cases - but it means your budget controls aren't really controlling anything, and the day a competitor drops out you could be surprised. Set budgets that reflect the channel's realistic volume and your actual appetite.

Audience network and search partners

By default, Microsoft can show your search ads across its Audience Network - native placements on MSN, Outlook and partner sites - and across syndicated search partners. Performance on these placements is often far worse than on Bing itself, and it's not obvious from the campaign view that it's happening. Check the ad distribution settings, review performance by network, and switch off or bid down anything that isn't earning its place.

Location and language targeting

Location targeting imports, but the "people in or searching for" versus "people in" distinction and the exclusion settings deserve a second look. Language targeting is separate and sometimes defaults wider than intended. Ten minutes checking these saves months of irrelevant clicks.

Device bid adjustments

Microsoft's device mix leans desktop far more than Google's. Bid adjustments copied from Google often make no sense here - a -30% mobile adjustment that was right on Google may be irrelevant, and a positive desktop adjustment may be worth adding. Judge it on Microsoft's own data after a few weeks.

Ad formats and extensions

Most assets import, but character limits, approval policies and some asset types differ. Check for disapprovals after import. Microsoft also has a few formats of its own - action extensions, for example - that are worth adding manually.

Negative keyword conflicts

Negative match types behave slightly differently, and a negative that's harmless in Google can occasionally block a keyword in Microsoft. Run the conflict report after the first import.

A sensible import checklist

  • Install the UET tag via GTM and verify it fires on every page
  • Create conversion goals that mirror your primary Google conversions - and only the primary ones
  • Run the import with "pause imported campaigns" selected, so nothing goes live until you've reviewed it
  • Set bid strategies and budgets per campaign, deliberately
  • Review ad distribution - usually Bing and partners only at first, Audience Network off until proven
  • Check location, language and device settings
  • Review disapprovals and asset gaps
  • Enable the campaigns that matter most first - brand and your best-performing generic campaigns - rather than everything at once
  • Decide whether scheduled imports make sense for you, and if so which settings they're allowed to overwrite

Running it after launch

Treat Microsoft Ads as its own channel with its own search terms, its own negatives and its own bidding decisions, even if the structure is shared. Scheduled imports are useful for pushing new ads and keywords across, but tell the import not to overwrite bids, budgets and strategies you've tuned locally. Review search terms weekly - Microsoft's matching has its own personality, and the irrelevant queries won't be the same ones you've already excluded in Google.

Give it eight weeks and a fair amount of data before judging. In my experience the channel rarely dazzles in week one and quite often becomes the most efficient line in the account by month three. If you'd like help getting it set up properly, that's what my Microsoft Ads service is for.

Related Reading