Problems Importing Google Ads Campaigns Into Microsoft Advertising

Importing Google Ads campaigns into Microsoft Advertising saves rebuilding an account by hand, but the copy that lands on the Microsoft side is rarely identical to the original. Settings with no equivalent are changed or dropped, scheduled imports can undo edits made in Microsoft Advertising and conversion tracking needs its own setup before automated bidding has anything to work with. The problems tend to trace back to a small number of import options that are easy to miss, so knowing them is the quickest route to Microsoft Ads campaigns for B2B companies that behave the way they did on Google.

The two platforms differ in more than their settings, as the comparison of Microsoft Ads and Google Ads for B2B sets out. The sections below cover how Google Import works, why imports fail, what does not come across and why scheduled imports overwrite changes, followed by the tracking, bidding, Performance Max, location and language settings to check.

How Google Import Works in Microsoft Advertising

Google Import copies campaigns from a linked Google Ads account into Microsoft Advertising, either once or on a repeating schedule. Microsoft’s help page on how to import campaigns directly from Google Ads describes two starting points in the Import menu, a Quick import that applies Microsoft Advertising’s default settings and a Customize route for changing budgets, campaign status and other options before anything runs.

The Customize route leads to Smart import, where Microsoft Advertising fine tunes the settings and automates the schedule, or Advanced import, where you choose the campaigns and items to bring across, adjust bids, bid strategies and budgets and associate a UET tag. Quick import also moves you into the Smart import flow when the Google login covers more than one Google Ads account or a Merchant Center account.

Advanced import suits anyone who runs the two platforms differently, because it shows the item, bid and budget options before the first import goes ahead. One detail catches people out at this stage. If you select every ad group in a campaign without ticking Show paused ad groups, only the active ad groups are imported.

The schedule is chosen at the end of the setup and decides how the import behaves from then on. An automatic schedule runs the import regularly so that changes made in Google Ads are copied across, which is useful for a mirrored account and a source of trouble for an account managed separately.

Why an Import Fails or Skips Campaigns

An import that fails or skips items leaves a record in the import summary and in a downloadable error file, so the cause can be found without guesswork. The troubleshooting steps on the same Microsoft help page work from the top of the account down, with campaign errors resolved before ad group errors.

Some failures happen before any campaign is read. Microsoft notes that users with Google two step verification need to create a password specifically for Microsoft Advertising. Importing from a file is the fallback Microsoft suggests when direct imports keep failing. Large accounts can also hit the import limits, in which case importing the campaigns in smaller groups gets them through.

Account structure matters too. Microsoft recommends importing a single Google Ads account into a single Microsoft Advertising account, since combining several raises the risk of reaching the account keyword limits.

What Does Not Import or Imports Differently

Most campaign settings come across from Google Ads, but a number of items are skipped, converted or capped because Microsoft Advertising handles them differently. Microsoft’s list of what gets imported from Google Ads sets out the exceptions. The ones that most often explain a campaign that looks wrong after import are below.

Ads have their own limits. Microsoft Advertising caps the host part of a final URL at 35 characters and allows three enabled responsive search ads per ad group, so ads that break either rule can fail until older ads are paused or the URL is shortened.

Tracking parameters change as well. A utm_source value of google in a Google Ads URL is replaced with bing during import. Microsoft also advises against importing tracking templates, custom parameters and final URL suffixes if those are managed outside Google Ads.

Campaign names can cause surprises. A Google Ads campaign that has never been imported but shares its name with an existing Microsoft Advertising campaign is merged into it and the two stay permanently linked, so later imports keep updating that campaign.

Why Scheduled Imports Overwrite Changes Made in Microsoft Advertising

Scheduled imports overwrite changes because they treat Google Ads as the master copy of every campaign they are linked to. When Updates to existing items is switched on, each run can bring campaign status, bids, bid strategies and budgets back in line with Google Ads, wiping out edits made on the Microsoft side since the last run.

Microsoft’s page on editing scheduled imports and reviewing import history explains that these updates are controlled by the Update bids, Update bid strategies and Update existing campaign budgets settings under Bids and budgets. The same page lists the schedule options that decide how often this happens.

The most common symptom is a campaign that was paused in Microsoft Advertising and starts spending again. The Microsoft help page on importing from Google Ads explains that automated imports keep running at the frequency set, reactivating campaigns and resetting settings, budget included, to match Google Ads.

The fix sits under Import, then Scheduled, where each schedule can be edited, paused or deleted. Imports can be scheduled at both account and manager account level, so check both before deciding that no schedule is running. A schedule created by another agency linked to the account cannot be edited or deleted from your login.

There are two ways to keep importing without losing Microsoft side edits. Untick the update options for the settings you manage in Microsoft Advertising, or choose Items not previously imported so that new campaigns come across while existing ones are left alone.

Scheduled imports only fetch items that have changed in Google Ads since the last run. To push Google Ads values back over items that were changed only in Microsoft Advertising, use Run now on the Import schedule and history page instead of waiting for the next scheduled run.

Conversion Goals and Tracking After an Import

Conversion tracking does not work after an import until a UET tag is installed on the website, whichever way the goals themselves are created. Microsoft’s explanation of what UET is and how it helps describes the tag as a prerequisite for conversion tracking, remarketing and automated bid strategies.

Google Import has an Import conversion goals option that copies goals with their attribution, lookback window and primary or secondary settings. Microsoft describes the feature as a pilot that is not yet available to every account. It only covers online goals created in Google Ads that count visits to a destination URL, not goals from Google Analytics or Search Ads 360.

Several goal types still have to be rebuilt by hand. Google hosted conversions and Smart Goals are not imported, goals that share a name with an existing Microsoft Advertising goal are blocked until one is renamed and data driven attribution comes across as last click attribution.

That consent requirement appears in Microsoft’s guide to conversion goals and goal types, which also covers the destination URL and event goals that replace anything the import could not copy. The UET tag can be added directly to the website or through Google Tag Manager. The import itself can also create a new tag and associate it with imported audiences and goals.

Check the goals once the tag is live. A goal that shows no conversions after real enquiries have come through usually points to a tag that has not fired or a destination URL rule that does not match the thank you page.

Bid Strategies and Budgets After an Import

Bid strategies change on import when Microsoft Advertising does not support the Google Ads strategy or has no conversion data to run it on. Unsupported strategies fall back to Enhanced CPC, or to manual CPC for Audience campaigns, with bids set to an amount Microsoft recommends.

Conversion based strategies need a conversion goal on the Microsoft side. Without one, Google Import converts the campaign to a strategy that does not need conversions, which is why a campaign running on target CPA in Google Ads can arrive on a strategy that does not use conversion data.

Budgets and bids can move upwards as well. Microsoft Advertising has its own minimum bids and daily budgets. The import raises anything below them by default, while campaigns that stay below the minimums after you opt out of that increase are not imported.

Currency is a separate trap. If the Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts use different currencies, the import offers to convert the figures or leave them for manual adjustment. Changing the currency of a Microsoft Advertising account means opening a new account.

Quality score is calculated differently on each platform, so bids copied from Google Ads are a starting point rather than a finished setting. Review search terms and cost per conversion in the first weeks and adjust bids in Microsoft Advertising, with Update bids switched off on any schedule so the changes stick.

How Performance Max Campaigns Import

Google Ads Performance Max campaigns import as Microsoft Advertising Performance Max campaigns in most accounts, with asset groups, product feeds, audience signals, listing groups and final URL expansion matched. Accounts on the Adobe or Marin lists receive them as Search campaigns instead.

Bid strategy is the setting that changes most often. Without a conversion goal in Microsoft Advertising, an imported Performance Max campaign switches to maximise clicks, then moves to the selected conversion based strategy automatically once a conversion goal exists and enough conversion data has been tracked.

The assets inside each asset group need checking too. Video assets and stock images are not imported, an asset group that relies only on stock images is dropped and new customer acquisition goals only come across when they are based on purchases. The way Microsoft’s version of the campaign type uses those assets is covered in more detail in Microsoft Performance Max campaigns for B2B marketers.

Image edits made in Microsoft Advertising are kept when an asset group updates through a later import. New images from Google Ads are added alongside them. Any that would take the asset group over its image limit are dropped.

Location and Language Settings to Check

Location and language targeting are matched automatically on import, but the fallbacks Microsoft uses for unsupported locations can widen a campaign far beyond its original area. Microsoft’s import documentation describes four behaviours to understand before the first import.

Every location that was mapped to a parent appears in the Import Summary and as a warning in the downloadable error file, so the widened targets can be found and corrected. Location groups are not supported at all, so campaigns built on them need their targets adding again by hand.

Microsoft describes targeting options as significantly different on each platform and advises reviewing them on every imported campaign. The time zone is a related detail, since a first import uses the account level time zone and later imports do not change it, so check it matches the time zone the Google Ads ad schedules were planned in.

A Safer Routine for Importing Google Ads Campaigns

A safe import routine decides in advance which platform owns each setting, then sets the import options to match. Accounts that copy Google Ads exactly can run on a schedule, while accounts managed separately on Microsoft Advertising work better with imports run by hand for new campaigns only.

The checks below cover the settings that cause most problems after an import. Working through them before the campaigns go live is quicker than tracing an unexpected spend or a gap in reporting afterwards.

• Use Advanced import and bring campaigns in paused on the first run
• Decide whether Update bids, Update bid strategies and Update existing campaign budgets should stay ticked
• Check scheduled imports at account and manager account level
• Install the UET tag with consent signals and confirm each conversion goal records test conversions
• Review bid strategies that fell back to Enhanced CPC or maximise clicks
• Read the location warnings in the error file and correct any expanded targets
• Recreate automated rules, IP exclusions and anything else listed as not imported

Landing pages deserve the same review, since an imported ad sends Microsoft traffic to whatever URL it carried in Google Ads. The principles in PPC landing pages that convert apply equally to both platforms. The same pages often need checking when Google Ads management and Microsoft Advertising run side by side.

Priority Pixels uses import from Google where it fits, with UET tag setup, conversion goals and offline conversion imports all part of its Microsoft Ads delivery. Whoever manages the account, the aim is the same, with every imported setting either chosen on purpose or replaced with one that suits Microsoft Advertising.