Most PPC and search marketers are preoccupied with Google Ads, often lacking the time, budget, or inclination to engage with Microsoft Ads. Even for those who do, the returns may not always justify the effort.

How can you determine if your account holds untapped potential on Microsoft? How do you transition?

This article will explore:

• The similarities between Microsoft Ads and Google Ads.
• The distinct functionalities and how to manage them.
• The process of importing your Google Ads account into Microsoft.
• The optimal time to experiment with Microsoft Ads.

Functional Similarities: What’s Consistent in Microsoft and Google Ads?

Functionally, the two platforms share numerous similarities.

Microsoft has patterned much of its advertising platform after Google's model, which benefits those managing search campaigns.

This means you don't need to master a completely new software, making navigation of the new platform more straightforward.

The foundational principles of search behavior also apply to Microsoft in the same way as they do to Google.

You continue to meet users at key moments, aligning your keywords with their search queries, and frequently providing answers and solutions to their genuine needs and desires.

Given these similarities, the synergy between the two products often surpasses expectations.

That doesn’t mean Microsoft isn’t worth considering, especially since it means that you’ll have the ability to target people based on the information in their LinkedIn profiles. ?

— Menachem Ani – Google Ads ? (@MenachemAni) August 8, 2024

Microsoft has developed a workflow that simplifies importing your Google ad account settings – including account structure, campaigns, keywords, and more.

You can even configure the system to import and synchronize with your Google Ads account on a weekly, daily, or even hourly basis.

If you're running Shopping or Performance Max campaigns, you can set up a data feed using Microsoft’s version of Merchant Center and also configure it to import automatically from Google.

This approach allows you to manage just one feed from your store, while easily utilizing the Microsoft app for Shopify and setting it up swiftly.

How to Import Ad Campaigns from Google into Microsoft

Within Microsoft Advertising, there's an option to import account setups from Google or Meta seamlessly.

More experienced advertisers might prefer the advanced user setup, but even those with less marketing expertise and business owners can import campaigns and make subsequent adjustments.

I prefer to go through the initial setup where it prompts you to log into your Google account and set up custom rules or import specific campaigns. Once completed, I typically adjust the settings to accommodate the differences between Google and Microsoft.

The straightforward part involves selecting an account on the Google side, choosing which campaigns to transfer, importing a feed from Merchant Center if available (keeping Microsoft in sync with Shopify if that’s your product population method), and continuing to import and synchronize on a daily basis.

Key Differences Between Google and Microsoft and How to Adapt Your PPC Strategy

Despite Microsoft adopting much of Google’s interface and features, the two platforms are not identical.

Here are some key differences that impact campaign performance and functionality on Microsoft Ads.

• Microsoft has less competition but also less search volume, which means you often can't achieve the same scale as on Google. However, this could make Microsoft Ads more profitable and worth the effort.
• Microsoft's match types are more lenient, leading to Broad Match keywords attracting more low-quality traffic than on Google. This is due to Microsoft having less and less sophisticated user data. We often restrict match types to Phrase and Exact when they might warrant Broad Match on Google.
• When importing an account from Google, any UTM tags on your campaigns (highly recommended) must be switched from Google to Microsoft as the source.
• Another aspect you shouldn't import from Google is your budget. From my experience, spending on Microsoft is about ~10% of what you'd spend on Google. Setting a higher budget might result in failing to exhaust it – or worse, exhausting it on low-quality traffic.
• Bids also require adjustment and should not be directly copied without a plan to modify them. Due to less competition, you don't need to bid as aggressively. We typically lower bids by 50-70% to align them with Microsoft norms.
• An interesting feature Microsoft offers (and which works well for B2B verticals) is targeting using LinkedIn data due to shared ownership. This allows targeting people in specific roles or companies, offering unique use cases.
• For ecommerce conversion tracking and running Shopify, there's a Microsoft app that parallels the Google app. Install it, connect your desired accounts, and it will handle the heavy lifting for you.
• For lead generation clients, a third-party tool is necessary for tracking phone calls, as Microsoft does not provide a free call tracking code snippet like Google does. We mainly use CallRail, which sends data back to Microsoft upon a phone call conversion. The rest of the conversion tracking is similar to Google.

When Should You Expand from Google to Microsoft?

Google remains the primary choice for search advertising. However, several scenarios justify expanding your presence into Microsoft Ads. Typically, there are several considerations.

The first consideration is the industry of the account or business. If you're in a B2B sector like SaaS or manufacturing – particularly an industry targeting older consumers – Microsoft can be highly effective.

This demographic accounts for about 25% of U.S. searches and often uses devices pre-installed with Bing, sticking with it. Many of these users are homeowners with disposable income, making Microsoft a good fit for certain B2B and B2C services.

Although Microsoft tends to attract this audience, another factor is the lower competition because many advertisers do not invest in managing campaigns on Microsoft.

Industries facing high competition and costs on Google are worth testing on Microsoft, where CPCs are often lower.

However, my experience suggests that despite Microsoft claiming to power about 25% of search across Bing, MSN, AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo, you typically end up spending only about 10% of what you could on Google.

My recommendation for most brands and businesses is to start with Google. Once you've begun to maximize or saturate your market – which can happen more quickly with Local campaigns or industries with low search volume – that's when you should consider adding Microsoft.

Microsoft offers other campaign types beyond Search, including Shopping campaigns, and has recently introduced Performance Max.

Test Microsoft Ads Before Writing It Off

Dismissing untested and unexplored ad platforms can be limiting. It's concerning when brands, businesses, and agencies dismiss Microsoft as a viable ad channel without any experience to support that view.

If you're constrained by your ad budget, just starting with search ads, or fit one of many other conditions that make it reasonable to focus on Google Ads, choosing not to invest in Microsoft is understandable.

However, if you have the budget and have saturated Google Ads with a successful strategy and offer, it feels like a missed opportunity not to at least explore whether Microsoft can provide an incremental boost to acquisition and growth.

Contributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. The opinions they express are their own.

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