Microsoft Ads in Germany: is Bing worth it? Import and tracking

Microsoft Ads in Germany isn’t a second Google, but it isn’t a niche channel either: on desktop, almost one search in five runs through Bing. Whether that pays for you depends less on budget than on who searches for you at a desk, and on whether your tracking survives the move. Importing your Google campaigns is quick. The real work afterwards sits in a few settings that the import, by default, handles differently from what a clean test needs.

1. Microsoft Ads in Germany: how big Bing really is

Numbers first, from one source with a date on it. StatCounter measures search engine share from page views on the websites that run its code. For Germany, September 2026 looks like this:

• All devices: Google 87.84%, Bing 6.49%, Yahoo 1.71%, Yandex 1.56%, DuckDuckGo 1.07%, Ecosia 1.03%.
• Desktop: Google 69.98%, Bing 19.42%, Yahoo 5.21%, DuckDuckGo 1.92%.
• Mobile: Google 96.21%, Bing 0.4%.

An overall share of a little over 6% sounds small. The real story is the split: in Germany, Bing is a desktop channel. One obvious reason: Microsoft Edge comes with Bing as its search engine, and on a lot of work computers nobody changes that.

Microsoft also doesn’t show search ads only on its own sites. The ad distribution setting separates Microsoft’s own sites from syndicated partners, and Microsoft recommends the entire network. StatCounter doesn’t show how much reach the partners add in Germany. So plan with the Bing number and treat anything above it as a bonus.

When Bing pays

In my view a test makes sense when several of these apply to you:

• You sell B2B. Buyers, planners and managing directors search during the day on work computers, often with Windows and Edge.
• Most of your Google conversions come from desktop. You can check this in five minutes: segment your campaigns by device in Google Ads. If desktop accounts for well over half your conversions, Bing is a candidate.
• Your audience skews older and is probably less likely to switch away from the default browser. That’s an assumption, not a statistic. The device report is better evidence.
• You’ve maxed out the volume on Google. If your main Search campaigns hardly lose any impressions to budget and more spend would only go into broader keywords, Bing is often the better way to grow.

It makes less sense if you’re a local trade business whose enquiries almost all come from phones, or if your Google account doesn’t measure cleanly yet. Then Bing just doubles the problem.

2. Importing Google Ads into Microsoft Ads: how it works and what it changes

Microsoft built the import so that you don’t have to create anything from scratch. Campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, extensions and targeting come across by default. The process:

1. In Microsoft Ads, choose Import from Google Ads and sign in with the Google account that has access to your Google Ads account.
2. Pick the Google Ads account and, if you don’t want everything, individual campaigns.
3. Under Choose import options, decide what gets imported, how bids and budgets are carried over and which other options apply.
4. Pick the schedule: now, once at a set time, daily, weekly, monthly or automatically on Microsoft’s own rhythm.
5. After the run, read the results and the error log.

Microsoft itself says that not everything comes across and that you should review the imported campaigns and add back what’s missing. So read the log once in full.

What the import does differently by default

These are the places I look at first after every import. All of them come from Microsoft’s description of the import options.

Minimum bids and budgets. If your Google bids or budgets are below Microsoft’s minimum, the import raises them automatically. Microsoft itself points out that your spend may go up as a result. If you turn this off, the affected campaigns aren’t imported at all.

Locations. Locations Microsoft doesn’t support are expanded to the next larger region by default. For a local business, that can mean your ads reach further than they do on Google. Check every campaign’s locations after the import.

Tracking templates and URL options. Tracking templates, custom parameters and final URL suffixes come across by default. If your parameters hard-code “google”, Bing clicks end up in your reports as Google traffic. The import offers find and replace for tracking templates, custom parameters and suffixes. Use it, and check two real click URLs in a browser before you spend money.

Recurring imports overwrite you. In scheduled imports, “Updates to existing items” is on by default. It includes campaign status and Update existing campaign budgets, among other things. A status or budget you changed only in Microsoft Ads can be set back to the Google value on the next run. If you want your own budgets in Microsoft Ads, and you should, import once or take budgets and status out of the updates.

Paused campaigns. Paused Google campaigns don’t come across in the first import by default. That’s usually right, but don’t be surprised if a seasonal campaign is missing.

3. UET, conversion goals and budget: how to start the test

Without measurement, every Bing test is guesswork. The foundation in Microsoft Ads is the UET tag (Universal Event Tracking). According to Microsoft, it’s the prerequisite for conversion tracking and remarketing: one tag per account, on every page of the website.

Measure first, then import

The order is the most important point in this article. Create the UET tag and your conversion goals before the imported campaigns spend money. The import can bring conversion goals along, but they only count once the UET tag runs on your website. And a bid strategy that’s supposed to learn from conversions learns nothing without them.

You don’t paste the UET code in by hand. You add it through Google Tag Manager, with the same triggers as your Google Ads tags. The details, including the community template and the event tags, are in Bing conversion tracking: the UET tag, step by step.

Set up the conversion goals properly

A few settings decide whether your Bing numbers are comparable with Google’s:

• Goal type: for forms, an event goal is cleaner than a destination URL, because it only counts real submissions.
• Count: Microsoft offers “all” and “unique” conversions. One conversion per click is common for enquiries, all conversions for purchases.
• Conversion window: 90 days at most. Set it the same as in Google, or you’re comparing different periods.

Two things happen in the background. As soon as you create a conversion goal, Microsoft turns on auto-tagging of the click ID: msclkid is appended to your landing page URL, with a unique value for every click. If your website drops parameters on redirects, that ID gets lost. And the UET tag is a marketing tag. Once a tag stores information on the device or reads it from there, § 25 TDDDG, the German law on device access, requires consent. So the tag belongs behind your cookie banner, like your Google and Meta tags.

If you already run a server container for Google and Meta, you add Microsoft there with one more tag. I cover that in Bing server-side tracking. You don’t need it for the first test.

How much budget for Bing?

There’s no official formula. I derive my rule of thumb from the StatCounter numbers: across all devices, Bing in Germany reaches about 7% of Google’s share; on desktop, a little over a quarter. That gives a starting budget of about 10% of your Google Search budget, up to 20% for a strongly desktop-heavy business. Set the budgets in Microsoft Ads yourself instead of mirroring them from Google, and give the test six to eight weeks before you judge it. Judge it on cost per enquiry or sale, not on click prices.

The bottom line

• In Germany, Bing is a desktop channel: 19.42% on desktop, 6.49% across all devices, 0.4% on mobile (StatCounter, September 2026).
• A test pays off mainly for B2B offers and a high desktop share of your Google conversions.
• UET tag and conversion goals first, then import. Otherwise you’re buying clicks instead of enquiries.
• After the import, check minimum bids, locations and tracking parameters, and test two real click URLs.
• Recurring imports overwrite status and budgets by default. Choose the schedule and the update options on purpose.
• Start with about 10% of your Google Search budget and evaluate after six to eight weeks.

Wondering whether Bing would do anything for your business? That’s a typical question for the Clarity Session: from €390, a 60-minute video call with your device report and your measurement on the table. Afterwards you know whether a test is worth it, with what budget, and what has to happen to the measurement first. If you’d rather have your Google account and measurement fully checked beforehand, the Google Ads audit from €1,900 is the bigger step. Whether the session fits is something you can check first in a free intro call. Book a free intro call.

If you want to hand off the ongoing work on your Google account, Google Ads management (in German) covers what that includes.

FAQ

Are Bing Ads and Microsoft Ads the same thing?

Yes. The platform’s official name is Microsoft Advertising, most people say Microsoft Ads, and many still search for Bing Ads. The ads appear on Bing and, depending on your ad distribution setting, on syndicated partners.

What is Bing’s market share in Germany?

According to StatCounter, Bing had 6.49% across all devices in Germany in September 2026, 19.42% on desktop and 0.4% on mobile.

Can I just import my Google Ads conversions along with the campaigns?

The import has an option for conversion goals. But they only count once the UET tag runs on your website. After the import, check each goal individually and trigger a real test enquiry before you trust any number.

Do I need a separate cookie banner for Microsoft Ads?

Not a separate one. The UET tag has to be listed as a marketing service in your existing banner and may only fire after consent, with the same consent triggers as your Google tags.