Microsoft Ads management: what the Google import gets wrong, and the switches to change before it spends
The Google import's defaults in Microsoft Advertising: live campaigns, widened towns, raised bids, overwritten changes and no UET tag. What to change.
By Daniel Stoychev, Webso Digital · 3 November 2026 · 7 min read
The Google import copies campaigns into Microsoft Advertising faithfully, and its defaults are the problem. Microsoft's own reference for the import options lists them: newly imported campaigns are not paused, towns Microsoft does not support are widened to the larger area around them, bids and budgets below Microsoft's minimums are raised, and each scheduled import can reset the bids, budgets and bid strategies you changed on the Microsoft side to Google's values. Conversion goals come across without the UET tag they depend on. Running Microsoft Ads well starts with changing those defaults before the first import, rather than discovering them on the first invoice.
The defaults, and what to set instead
Each line below is an option in the import screen, under Choose import options, with the default Microsoft documents for it. The last column is how we set it for a UK account that is already clean on Google.
| Import option | Microsoft's default | What it does | Set it to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pause newly imported campaigns | Off | Active Google campaigns arrive active and can start serving as soon as the import finishes | On, so every campaign is read before it spends |
| Do not expand unsupported location targets | Off, so expansion is on | A town Microsoft does not support is mapped to its parent location, often a county or region | On, then rebuild the town as a radius by hand |
| Increase campaign budgets to the minimum for Microsoft Advertising | On | Budgets under Microsoft's minimum are raised, and a separate default does the same for bids, so spend can rise; switching them off skips those campaigns instead | Leave on, and read every raised line in the import results |
| Update bids, update existing campaign budgets, update bid strategies | On | Each scheduled import can reset them to Google's values | Off after the first import, so Microsoft runs on its own numbers |
| Delete items that have been removed from your Google Ads account | Off | A campaign removed in Google stays in Microsoft, although status changes such as pausing do copy across | Leave off, and pause in Google before removing |
| Conversion goals | Imported | Goals arrive with no tag on your site to feed them | Install and test UET before the first import |
| AI Max settings | Imported | Broadened matching switched on in Google arrives with the campaign | Untick unless the setting has proved itself on Google's search terms |
Two options in the same screen help rather than hurt. Customize budgets for Microsoft Advertising and Customize bids for Microsoft Advertising scale every imported budget or bid by a percentage of Google's, anywhere from minus 90 to plus 900 per cent, so a campaign meant to run at a fifth of its Google budget can arrive at a fifth instead of being edited by hand afterwards.
The bid strategy needs its own thought. A conversion-based strategy copied from Google arrives without the conversion history that made it work there, because the conversions Google's tag recorded stay in Google. Until UET has recorded real conversions on Microsoft's side, a click-based strategy with a sensible cap is the honest start, which is one more reason to stop the scheduled import resetting it.
Microsoft adds one rule worth knowing: there is no way to exclude future item types from a scheduled import. When Microsoft starts supporting a new kind of asset or setting, every scheduled import begins bringing it across until someone opts out, so the import options deserve a fresh read every few months, not only on the first day.
Location: the widened town and the default intent
Parent location mapping is the default that hurts local businesses most. A plumber targeting three market towns on Google can arrive on Microsoft targeting the county around them if Microsoft does not list the towns, and the campaign will spend across the whole county without complaint. Read the import results for any location that was mapped, or switch the expansion off before importing and rebuild the area as a radius around the business.
Then check the intent setting. Microsoft's documentation describes two options, people in your targeted locations, and people in, searching for or viewing pages about them, and the second is what Microsoft applies by default to a campaign with no intent set. Whatever the import carried across, open each campaign's location options and confirm it reads people in. A business serving one patch of the UK has no use for the searcher abroad reading about it.
Where a Microsoft search ad can appear
Microsoft sets ad distribution per ad group, and its API documentation gives the default for a new ad group as Microsoft's own sites plus syndicated search partners. Search campaigns can also serve as audience ads on the Microsoft Audience Network: Microsoft's API reference documents an audience ads bid adjustment on search ad groups, and a Microsoft Advertising support moderator wrote in August 2026 that regular search campaigns are enabled for the Audience Network automatically and that advertisers cannot opt out on their own. The advice given for keeping most of that traffic away was to set the ad group's distribution to Microsoft sites and select traffic.
The import cannot adjust for any of this, because Google's network settings do not map onto Microsoft's. Segment the first fortnight's report by network; if the audience or partner lines spend without converting, change the distribution on the ad groups that matter, and take it to Microsoft support if the audience line keeps spending.
Conversion goals arrive; the tag does not
Microsoft's UET documentation calls the tag a prerequisite for conversion tracking: one tag, added to every page of the site. The import brings your Google conversion actions across as Microsoft goals, which makes the account look finished while nothing can record. Install UET, submit your own form and make your own call from a phone, and see each goal record once before any campaign is unpaused. If the site runs a Content Security Policy, the Microsoft tag's host has to be allowed in it too.
Then turn off what Microsoft adds by itself. Its auto-apply recommendations include adding responsive search ads, adding multimedia ads and creating conversion goals, and each type is switched on or off from the Recommendations page. A goal Microsoft creates beside the ones you imported can count the same enquiry twice, and a report built on doubled conversions flatters every number in it.
The first fortnight, in order
- Before importing: UET installed and tested, the import options set as above, new campaigns set to arrive paused.
- Import once, then read the summary: raised bids and budgets, mapped locations, anything that failed to import.
- Open each campaign: location intent set to people in, ad schedule and languages as on Google, budget at the share of Google's you agreed.
- Unpause one campaign at a time, and after a week segment its report by network and by device.
- Read Microsoft's own search terms report weekly; its matching differs from Google's, and the negatives it earns go into both accounts.
- After a fortnight, schedule the import for new keywords, ads and negatives, with bid, budget and bid strategy updates switched off.
How we run Microsoft Advertising beside a clean Google account, and how it is reported, is on the page for Microsoft Ads management.
To find out whether your account is ready for it, send your Google impression share through the quote form and the reply says whether Bing is next.
Questions on this topic
Does a Google import go live straight away in Microsoft Ads?
It can. Pausing newly imported campaigns is off by default, so active Google campaigns arrive active. Switch that option on, read each campaign, then unpause.
Will the next scheduled import overwrite my changes in Microsoft Ads?
For bids, budgets and bid strategies it can, while their update options are on, which is the default. Turn those three off after the first import if Microsoft is to run on its own numbers.
Why is my Microsoft campaign targeting a whole county?
Microsoft did not support one of your Google locations and mapped it to the parent area, which the import does by default. Find the mapped location in the import results and replace it with a radius.
Does the import install the UET tag?
No. It imports your conversion goals, but the UET tag has to be added to every page of the site before any of them can record a conversion.
Can I stop Microsoft search ads showing on the Audience Network?
Not completely on your own. A Microsoft Advertising support moderator said in August 2026 that search campaigns are enabled for it automatically, with no self-serve opt-out; setting ad distribution to Microsoft sites and select traffic removes most of it.