Microsoft Ads Setup SOP

For most search advertisers, yes, as a second channel rather than a first. Microsoft Ads reaches Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Windows/Edge search inventory with meaningfully lower CPCs and less competition than Google in most verticals. The audience skews older, more desktop-based, and often more B2B. The catch is the platform's clunkier interface and weaker defaults, which is exactly what this SOP exists to handle.

You can, and you should use the import tool rather than rebuilding by hand, but never import blind. The import copies Google settings into a platform with different networks, different volumes, and different defaults. The settings that most often burn budget after an unreviewed import are Audience Network opt-in, location targeting scope, copied budgets sized for Google-level volume, and missing negative keyword lists.

Different auction, different audience, different volume. Microsoft search volume is a fraction of Google's, so campaigns take longer to gather data; the demographic skews older and more desktop-heavy, which shifts conversion behaviour; and if the Microsoft Audience Network was left enabled on import, a chunk of your spend is going to native placements rather than search results. Judge Microsoft Ads on its own baseline after 4-6 weeks, not against your Google numbers in week one.

You need negative lists, and the Google lists are the right starting point, but they do not sync automatically after the initial import. Recreate your universal negative lists in Microsoft Ads' shared library, then review the Microsoft search terms report separately: Bing's query mix is genuinely different, and it surfaces junk queries Google never shows you.

A common starting point is 10-20% of your Google Ads budget, concentrated on your proven best campaigns rather than spread across everything. Microsoft's lower volume means a thin budget across many campaigns never exits the learning phase. Consolidate, prove the channel on your winners, then expand.