Microsoft Ads import from Google: copy the whole account or rebuild the bids?

The import tool makes it tempting to copy a Google account across in one go, and that's usually where the trouble starts. A Google account carries years of auto-applied changes, broad match expansion and whatever Smart Bidding learned from its own volume. Microsoft's audience is smaller, skews older and leans desktop, so the same settings don't behave the same way. Copying the structure is fine. Copying the target CPAs and bid strategies usually isn't, because Microsoft doesn't have the data to hold them.

My view: import the campaign structure and the negatives, then set bids based on Microsoft's own numbers and give them a few weeks before judging anything. Carrying over a Google target CPA unchanged is the part I'd push back on most.

Agreed on the bids. The device adjustments are what I'd look at first. Plenty of Google accounts run a big mobile bump because that's where their volume sits, and if it carries over unchanged you end up paying a premium for mobile clicks on a platform where desktop is the bigger share. Let Microsoft's own device report set the modifiers after the first couple of weeks, not the Google numbers.

Same goes for negatives and match types: don't bulk copy them from Google either. Microsoft's search query data is thinner, so a decent rule is to import the negatives as a starting point and then let Microsoft's own search terms report decide what gets added, because Google's list reflects Google's query mix.

I'd split the Google negative list before importing it. Most of it is plain intent filtering, stuff like "jobs", "free" or "DIY", and that transfers fine. The risky part is terms that were blocked because of something specific to Google, like a query that only looked bad after broad match expansion. Say a dental clinic blocked "teeth whitening cost" during a Google test. On Microsoft that same query could be the one converting, and the old block would quietly hide it. So import the intent list and let the search terms report tell you what else needs blocking.

It depends on how the Google block was earned, so check that first. A term blocked after a few clicks during a broad match test is weak evidence. The intent may have been fine and the clicks just unlucky, so lifting that block on Microsoft costs little. A term that burned real budget for months with no leads is a different story, and I'd be reluctant to reopen it even with a different audience.

Either way, watch the volume. Microsoft's query data is thin, so "no conversions" on a term with eight impressions tells you almost nothing. For the riskier half of the list, I'd bring it in paused or excluded from expansion, then let it collect enough impressions before the search terms report gets a vote.

It comes down to whether the Google block was about the query itself or about everything around it. If a term got clicks but no leads because the ad pointed at a weak landing page, or the bid was too low to win decent placements, the query was never the problem. Blocking it papered over a setup issue, and that doesn't carry over to another platform. But if the searcher clearly wanted something you don't sell, like "jobs" or a free version, the block is about intent and stays on any platform.

So look at what the term was sending people to on Google. If that same page is what you're running on Microsoft, the old evidence is mostly about the page, not the query. In that case I'd bring the term back paused and test it against a page you'd actually be happy to pay for.

Whether the Google "no conversions" verdict holds depends on how it was measured. A lot of blocks rest on terms that did convert but got logged badly. Say a clinic only counts form fills, while most of its leads arrive as phone calls that never got imported. The term looks dead on Google, but the block was built on half the picture.

So before you carry that verdict across, check whether the old conversion actions were firing for every lead type, and whether the Microsoft setup captures the same things. If Google's tracking was incomplete, the old data doesn't tell you much, and I'd bring the term back in a normal ad group with clean conversion tracking. If the tracking was solid and the page was the problem, then it's the case you described. Tracking comes first because it decides how much the old data is worth.