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The Google Import tool moves about 80% of your Google Ads setup into Microsoft Ads in 20 minutes — but the 20% that doesn't transfer includes the parts that cost the most when missed.
Who this is forOwners running Google Ads who want to launch Microsoft Ads quickly without rebuilding campaigns from scratch. The import is the right starting point — but treat it as 80% of the work, not 100%.
What you'll need
Step 1
Pause low-quality campaigns before import. Microsoft Ads will faithfully reproduce your mistakes if you import everything.
Open Google Ads → Campaigns. Identify campaigns with negative ROAS, dormant performance, or experimental settings.
You have two choices: (a) pause them in Google so they're imported as paused, or (b) deselect them in the import wizard later.
Either is fine — what's NOT fine is importing 30 campaigns when you only actively run 12. Microsoft Ads will look chaotic and you'll struggle to find what matters.
Pull a Search Terms report from Google Ads (last 90 days). Save it. You'll use it in step 6 to seed Microsoft Ads negative keywords.
Step 2
Microsoft Ads → Tools → Import → Import from Google Ads. Authorize your Google account, choose campaigns, configure options.
Open Microsoft Ads → click the Tools icon (wrench) → Import → Import from Google Ads.
Click "Import from Google Ads." Sign in with the Google account that has access to the Google Ads account.
Select the Google Ads account from the dropdown (you must have at least standard access on the Google side).
Choose campaigns to import. Recommended: deselect experimental, paused-and-not-coming-back, and brand campaigns (you may want different branded settings on Bing).
Pick import frequency: One-time, daily, weekly, or monthly. For ongoing parallel management, daily is the right answer.
Step 3
In the options screen, enable URL replacement only if needed, preserve Microsoft-only changes, and choose how to handle bids.
URL replacement: enable only if your destination URLs need to differ between Google and Microsoft (e.g., utm_source=bing vs utm_source=google).
Bidding: import existing bids or set Microsoft-specific bid adjustment. Most accounts should accept Google bids initially and adjust within 30 days based on Microsoft data.
Preserve Microsoft Ads changes: ENABLE this. Otherwise daily imports overwrite every tweak you make on the Microsoft side.
Conflict resolution: choose "Microsoft Ads takes priority" so manual edits aren't reverted.
Step 4
The import takes 5-20 minutes. Review the summary — note which campaigns imported as Eligible vs. Paused, and which items skipped.
Click Import. Microsoft processes the request and reports back: campaigns imported, ad groups, keywords, ads, errors, and skipped items.
Expected outcome: 80-90% of items import. The rest are skipped because Microsoft Ads doesn't support the equivalent feature (e.g., some YouTube-only assets, certain demographic combinations).
Read the summary carefully. Any "Error" or "Failed" rows need attention before launching.
Common skipped items: Performance Max campaigns (Microsoft has Performance Max Audience but it's not 1:1), some Display targeting types, Customer Match audiences with too few members.
Step 5
Five categories of settings commonly DON'T import correctly. Walk each one campaign by campaign.
Audience modifiers (bid adjustments by audience) — Google Ads exports these but Microsoft's Audience equivalents are named differently. Re-apply in Campaigns → Audiences manually.
Ad extensions — sitelinks usually import, but call extensions and structured snippets sometimes don't. Audit Microsoft Ads → Ads & extensions → Extensions.
Negative keyword lists — campaign-level negatives import, but shared negative lists at the account level need to be recreated in Microsoft Ads → Shared library.
Ad schedule (dayparting) — imports, but Microsoft's default time zone may differ. Re-verify schedules show the right local times.
Custom labels — Google's campaign labels don't import. Recreate manually if you use labels for reporting.
Step 6
Once the import is clean, layer in the features that are unique or stronger on Microsoft: LinkedIn profile targeting, Microsoft Audience Network, and Bing-specific match types.
LinkedIn profile targeting (Microsoft-only): in any Search campaign, add LinkedIn targeting under Audiences → LinkedIn profile. Filter by company industry, company name, job function, or company size. Unique competitive edge for B2B.
Microsoft Audience Network: separate from Search — runs on MSN, Outlook.com, Microsoft Edge. Create a dedicated Audience Ads campaign rather than auto-enabling on Search campaigns.
Set Microsoft-specific bid adjustments: typical accounts get +20-40% lower CPCs on Microsoft, so bid floors that worked on Google may now be too high. Audit after 7 days of data.
Disable 'Enable to expand to similar keywords' on imported campaigns until you trust the import quality. Otherwise Microsoft auto-expands match types in ways Google didn't.
Step 7
Build a spreadsheet or dashboard that compares Google vs. Microsoft side-by-side at the campaign level. You'll need this to make the next 3 months of decisions.
Pull metrics: Spend, Clicks, CPC, Conversions, CPA, ROAS — at the campaign level.
Two columns per campaign: Google number, Microsoft number, % diff.
Refresh weekly for the first month. Microsoft's data needs 2-3 weeks to stabilize before you can trust the comparison.
If Microsoft CPA is 30-50% better than Google for the same campaign, lean budget that direction. If it's the opposite, audit the import again — usually a tracking or audience-modifier issue.
Common mistakes
Treating the import as 100% complete
What goes wrong: You import, see the success message, walk away. Three months later your Microsoft CPA is 2x Google's, and you assume Bing is just worse. It's not — your import is. Typical waste: $500-2,000/mo on a $5K/mo account.
How to avoid: Always run the post-import audit (step 5). Walk each of the five categories — audience modifiers, extensions, negative lists, ad schedules, custom labels.
Importing audience modifiers and assuming they transferred
What goes wrong: Google Ads custom-audience bid modifiers don't carry over. You bid the base rate to cart-abandoners on Microsoft when you have a +30% modifier on Google. Leaks ~$200/wk for a $5K/mo account.
How to avoid: In Microsoft Ads → Campaign → Audiences, re-apply every custom-audience bid modifier from Google. Use the same percentages until you have 30 days of Microsoft data.
Daily import without preservation enabled
What goes wrong: You tweak a Microsoft campaign on Tuesday. Wednesday's daily sync overwrites your change. You spend a week confused about why your edits keep reverting.
How to avoid: During import setup, enable "Preserve Microsoft Ads changes" and set conflict resolution to "Microsoft Ads takes priority."
Auto-enabling Microsoft Audience Network on Search campaigns
What goes wrong: Microsoft enables the Audience Network by default on imported Search campaigns. Your Search budget bleeds into low-quality display impressions on MSN. CPA looks great in early reporting because the cheap clicks dilute the metric.
How to avoid: Audit each Search campaign → Settings → Network → uncheck Microsoft Audience Network. Run Audience Network as its own separate campaign with its own creative and bids.
Not setting Microsoft-specific bids after 7 days
What goes wrong: You inherit Google bids that were calibrated for Google's auction. Microsoft's auction is cheaper, so your inherited bids overshoot. You pay 30-40% more per click than you needed to for the same position.
How to avoid: After 7 days of Microsoft data, audit Auction Insights and Top of Page bids. Lower bids by 20-30% across the board and watch impression share for one week. Most accounts settle at 60-75% of original bids.
Skipping the negative keyword refresh
What goes wrong: Microsoft Ads search-query data differs from Google. Search terms that never came up on Google show up on Microsoft. Without a refresh, you bid on junk queries you'd have blocked on Google.
How to avoid: After 14 days of Microsoft data, pull a Search Terms report (Microsoft Ads → Keywords → Search Terms). Add platform-specific negatives. Repeat monthly.
Recap
Done — what's next
How to set up a Microsoft Ads account from scratch
Read the next tutorial
Hand it off
The import is fast. The post-import audit and ongoing parallel-channel management is where the work lives. A vetted performance marketing specialist runs the import, closes the gaps, and manages both channels in parallel for $400-1,200/mo at $14-16/hr.
See ongoing management rates
Just a subset. Import only the campaigns you actively want to run on Microsoft. Importing every paused experimental campaign clutters Microsoft Ads and increases the risk of accidentally launching something you don't want to spend on.
Daily is right for the first 60 days while you're building parallel data. After that, switch to weekly or monthly — you'll be making more Microsoft-specific tweaks and don't want sync churn. Or disable sync entirely once Microsoft Ads diverges meaningfully from Google.
Not directly. Microsoft Ads has Performance Max Audience (a similar feature) but the campaign type doesn't have a 1:1 import path. Recreate your Performance Max strategy manually on Microsoft if it's a meaningful spend channel.
Microsoft Ads supports up to 90-character descriptions (Google supports 90 too, but enforces line breaks differently). Imported ads sometimes display oddly. Re-create the top 10-20 ads natively on Microsoft for cleaner rendering.
Yes, Google Ads Editor supports importing from Microsoft, but the workflow is more manual and the use case is rare. Most operators run Google → Microsoft, not the reverse.
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