Fixing a neglected account, then importing a proven Google Ads structure instead of rebuilding from zero.
While I was growing revenue for the company, there was a constant push to experiment and try new things. One opportunity was sitting there already, and it didn't need a new idea, it needed cleanup.
When I checked the Microsoft Ads account, I found roughly €10K in spend that nobody was actively managing. The team didn't have access to it, and in some cases didn't even know it existed. Before building anything new, the first job was simply gaining control of it: fixing access, and fixing tracking so the spend that was already happening could actually be measured and acted on.
At that point, the Google Ads account was already sharp, well structured, and performing. Rather than rebuilding Microsoft Ads campaigns from scratch, I used Microsoft Ads' native option to import campaigns directly from Google Ads.
I selected around 15 of the top performing Google Ads campaigns, a mix of branded and generic, chosen specifically because they combined the highest revenue with strong ROAS, not just the biggest spenders. That gave the new channel a proven starting structure instead of an untested one.
The first month brought in meaningful extra revenue. That result got attention internally, and leadership wanted to keep pushing the channel further, so we did.
As the channel scaled, one thing became clear: Microsoft Ads never reached the same market share or revenue level as Google Ads on the same account. I was never able to match Google Ads' revenue with Microsoft Ads, and that's a real limit of the channel, not a failure of execution. What it did do was open a genuinely new revenue stream for the company, on top of what Google Ads was already generating, rather than cannibalizing it.
Not every new channel needs to be built from scratch. The fastest, most defensible way to prove out Microsoft Ads here was reusing a Google Ads structure that had already been tested and proven, rather than guessing at a new one. That turned a first month into a fast, credible win instead of a slow ramp-up.
The other lesson is just as important: a new channel doesn't have to match your biggest channel to be worth running. Microsoft Ads never caught up to Google Ads on this account, and it didn't need to. €295K in incremental revenue at 400 to 580% ROAS is a real result on its own, and recognizing that a channel has a natural ceiling is part of managing it honestly, not a reason to call it a failure.
This work sits under Performance Marketing: campaign structure, budget allocation, and channel expansion, using the tracking foundation described in Analytics & Data.
See also: Google Ads revenue growth, the same client's primary paid search channel, and the source of the campaign structure imported into Microsoft Ads.
Microsoft Ads supports importing campaigns directly from an existing Google Ads account. When the Google Ads account is already well structured and performing, importing proven campaigns gives a new Microsoft Ads account a tested starting point instead of an untested one, and can shorten the time to profitability.
By first fixing basic account hygiene, access and conversion tracking, then importing a small set of already proven campaigns rather than launching untested ones. In this case, around 15 top performing branded and generic Google Ads campaigns, selected for both revenue and ROAS, were used to seed the account.
Not necessarily. In this case, Microsoft Ads never reached the same market share or revenue level as Google Ads on the same account, even at scale. That is a real limit of the channel rather than a failure of execution, and the channel can still be a genuinely new, incremental revenue source rather than a replacement for Google Ads.
In this case, the imported campaigns sustained 400 to 580% ROAS through the scale-up, rather than a single strong month followed by a drop-off.
Starting from an account's existing, proven campaign data rather than a blank strategy. Reusing what already works on a mature channel, combined with fixing any existing tracking or management gaps first, reduces both the time and risk involved in proving out a new channel.