How To Import AdWords Campaigns Into Bing Ads

If you already use Google AdWords for your PPC efforts and are thinking about branching out to Bing Ads, getting started may be easier than you think. This is because you can import your AdWords campaigns directly into Bing. If you already use AdWords, you’re well on your way to getting set up with Bing Ads and entering a whole new world of PPC-driven sales and leads.

How to import your Adwords Campaign into Bing Ads

1. Navigate into your account and click on “Import Campaigns” in the top menu, then select “Import From Google AdWords”.
2. Click “Sign in to Google” and enter your Google credentials.
3. Select the campaigns you would like to import and click “Continue”.
4. Under “Choose Import Options”, select the relevant options for “What to import”, “Bids and budgets”, “Landing page URLs”, “Tracking templates”, “Ad extensions”, and “Bing Merchant Centre”.
5. Under “Cleanup”, choose whether you want to delete ad groups and campaigns in Bing that you have deleted in AdWords. This will also delete any associated ads or keywords from your Bing campaign.
6. You can create a regular schedule for your import – either daily, weekly, monthly, or just the once – under “Schedule Imports”.
7. Review the import summary and imported campaigns to see what is going to be imported and check that you’re happy.

You can import multiple AdWords accounts into the same Bing Ads account if you want to, but you’ll need to import each one separately and it’s recommended that you wait at least two hours between each import.

Once your AdWords data has been imported, you should check everything to make sure it’s all set up properly. 

What are the differences between AdWords and Bing Ads?

Some features in Bing will be different to AdWords. For example:

Bids and Budgets

Bing Ads has different minimum bid and budget requirements to AdWords, and during the import, your bids and budgets may have been increased in order to comply with these minimums. You can opt-out of these increases during setup, but that means campaigns that don’t meet the minimum thresholds won’t be imported.

Targeting Options

Location targeting and time of day targeting you chose for your AdWords campaign might not translate so well when targeting Bing users. It’s worth noting that in AdWords, the time of day refers to your time zone as the advertiser (which you chose while setting up the account), while in Bing Ads it refers to the time of day for the user viewing the ad.

Negative Keywords

Another difference between AdWords and Bing Ads is that Bing does not use broad match negative keywords, so if these are present in your AdWords campaigns they will be imported into Bing as phrase match negative keywords. You may need to add more negative keywords to make sure you cover everything.

This import feature has provided a great boost to the uptake of Bing Ads by AdWords users. Something that would otherwise require marketers to invest a lot of time in, is now much quicker and easier to set up. It’s a particular bonus if you’re not sure whether Bing Ads will work for you and you’re tentatively dipping your toe in Microsoft’s waters. 

The scheduling tool also means that you can continue to import data as your AdWords account changes – so you don’t need to spend time uploading new ads or campaigns into both platforms.

Wondering why you should use Bing Ads? Find out more about how to maximise your efforts with Bing advertising in our blog post, and also "Who Uses Bing As Their Search Engine?" If you would like any help with your PPC marketing, get in touch with SilverDisc.