Microsoft Advertising Editor: Download, Offline Edits, Import and Posting

This guide uses Microsoft's own pages only: the Microsoft Advertising Editor download page and the Microsoft Advertising Editor Help, mainly Synchronize campaign data and Importing and exporting with Microsoft Advertising Editor, plus the topics linked where they are used. The same kind of tool for Google is in our Google Ads Editor guide, and what an import from Google Ads changes, skips and overwrites is in our Google Ads import guide.

What Editor is for

Microsoft's Help home puts it in one line: "With Microsoft Advertising Editor, you can work on your campaigns offline and make bulk changes more quickly." You work on a copy of your campaign data stored on your computer. Nothing you change goes live until you post it, so Editor suits large edits you want to check first: new campaigns built from a spreadsheet, one URL changed across hundreds of ads, a Google Ads account brought over, or a campaign copied into another account.

The current version supports several accounts at once. Microsoft's welcome page says you "don’t have to wait for a task to complete in one account before working in another account", and you can copy keywords, ads or whole campaigns from one account and paste them into another.

The user interface topic names the parts you will use most: the toolbar (Post and Get changes), the tree view on the left for accounts, campaigns and ad groups, the type list for item types, the data view where you read and edit rows, Alerts for errors, recommendations, warnings and conflicts, and the vertical edit pane for bulk edits.

Download, system requirements and sign-in

Editor is a free download from the Microsoft Advertising site, with separate installers for Windows and Mac. Microsoft lists the same hardware for both:

• Processor: 2 GHz minimum, 3 GHz recommended.
• RAM: 6 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended.
• Hard disk: 15 GB minimum, 150 GB recommended.
• Display: 1024 x 768, 32-bit colour, and a DSL, cable or equivalent connection.

For Mac, the minimum is macOS 11 Big Sur, with macOS 13 Ventura or later recommended. For Windows, Microsoft points to its Windows lifecycle fact sheet rather than naming a version. On both systems Microsoft asks you to install pending high-priority updates first.

You sign in with the same user name or email as the Microsoft Advertising website. Since version 11.31 you can also choose Sign in with Google, then pick your Microsoft Advertising accounts as usual; the What's new page says "All features and operations remain identical otherwise." You do not need to uninstall to update: the interface topic says to uninstall "only if you want to fully remove the application". If syncing or sign-in fails, Microsoft's first checks are the latest version, signing out of other platforms, and the correct email.

Choosing which accounts to download

Accounts are added through Account > Open account, which opens the Accounts manager. Select the accounts, choose Open, confirm the download options, and close the Finished dialog. The account download topic explains why a shorter list helps: less data moves when you post or get changes, similar accounts are harder to confuse, and you see only what you work on.

The limit to know: Editor allows "10 GB of downloadable data per user name". If an account would go over it, download selected campaigns rather than the whole account. Removing an account from the list in the Accounts manager "only deletes the selected account data from your computer"; the account itself stays in Microsoft Advertising and you can download it again later.

Getting changes: Full account, Basic and More data

Because Editor works on a local copy, Microsoft's advice is to "begin each work session by getting changes from Microsoft Advertising" and to post your changes at the end of each session. Get Changes offers three routes:

• Full account downloads every campaign again.
• Selected campaigns with Basic (faster), which leaves out first page bid estimate, top of page bid estimate and quality score, or More data (slower), which includes them.
• Get recent changes, which only downloads campaign data that was updated online.

For selected campaigns you choose the depth: Everything, Campaigns only (settings, campaign-level targeting and extensions), or Campaigns and ad groups only (no ads or keywords).

The warning Microsoft repeats on several pages: changing sync settings, getting data, or using Full account "will overwrite the data in Microsoft Advertising Editor. The changes that you have not yet posted to Microsoft Advertising will be lost." Post or export first. The Full Account topic suggests it only when the online data is the right version, when you want to discard experiments, when a shared computer holds someone else's cached data, or when the local data is damaged.

Working offline

You can edit campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords without an internet connection, but you need one to post, to get changes, and to research keywords and negative keywords. Per the Working offline topic, you must get your data from Microsoft Advertising at least once before you can work offline.

Bulk changes, copying and templates

Microsoft's productivity tips name the main bulk tools:

• Edit pane: select many rows in the data view and change a setting once for all of them, for example the targeting of several campaigns, or the destination URL of many ads when a landing page moves.
• Make multiple changes: the Multiple Changes Wizard, opened from the data view, creates many campaigns, ad groups, ads or keywords in one go.
• Copy and paste: reuse ads in other ad groups instead of retyping them. Campaigns can be copied whole or as a shell (settings without ads or keywords) and pasted into any account; the Copy campaigns topic shows the steps.
• Excel round trip: export a campaign or ad group, edit it in Excel, and import it again. Give it a new name and it becomes a new campaign.

Microsoft also publishes bulk upload templates, pre-filled files for a Search campaign shell, a Performance Max shell, native and video Audience campaign shells, and simple tasks such as pausing or enabling campaigns and editing budgets. You add your own URLs, images and data, import the file, and check it in Editor before posting.

Importing from a file or from Google Ads

Editor imports .csv, .txt, .tsv, .xls and .xlsx files. The file must be closed before you import it. You can start from a Microsoft template, from an Editor export, or from a Google Ads Editor export. The flow is the same: Import > Import from a file, match any column headings with the drop-downs, review the default settings, then read the Import summary, which lists items added, updated and skipped. Microsoft notes that "Unmatched columns will not be imported."

For Google Ads, Import > Import from Google Ads signs in to Google and reads campaign data through the Google API. Microsoft suggests choosing one account at a time. You can convert the currency on import or leave it and adjust bids and budgets yourself. You then name the import, set a schedule and choose email notifications, or use Advanced import to pick campaigns and options such as campaign targets, UET tags, and bids and budgets. If you want to check the result before it reaches your account, set Google Ads import settings to Download locally under Tools > Options > Defaults (Preferences on a Mac). What carries over from Google and what does not is covered in our Google Ads import guide, so it is not repeated here.

Exports go the other way: right-click a campaign or ad group, choose Export, and pick the whole account, selected campaigns and ad groups, the current campaign and ad group, or the current view. Per the export topic, IDs in the CSV are enclosed in square brackets.

Posting changes

Posting uploads your local changes. Select Post selected campaigns on the toolbar, choose All Campaigns or Selected campaigns, review the Changes summary, and confirm. The Finished posting dialog then shows what went through. The posting topic has the steps for a single campaign.

Before you post, read the Alerts panel. It collects errors, warnings, recommendations and conflicts, and the search box can filter by items with errors or by warning type.

Conflicts, errors and stopping a post

A conflict happens when someone else changed the same campaign online, or uploaded changes, while you were editing it in Editor. When you sync, Editor flags it and you choose which version to keep before posting. Per Resolving conflicts, you can resolve all at once with Use data from Microsoft Advertising Editor or Use data from Microsoft Advertising, pick per cell, or set a default under Tools > Options > Defaults.

A large post or download can be cancelled from the Accounts manager and run again in smaller parts. Microsoft warns that stopping a post or get "may cause inconsistencies between your online data in Microsoft Advertising and your local copy", so get changes again afterwards (Stop uploads or downloads in progress).

Undo, revert and backups

Undo steps back through your last actions. Revert returns a selected item to the version you last downloaded. The revert topic gives the difference: a keyword edited twice and then reverted goes back to the downloaded version, not to your first edit. A deleted ad group can be restored with Revert too. To drop every local change, use Get Changes > Get full account.

None of this works after posting: "Once changes are posted through Microsoft Advertising Editor, they become permanent and cannot be reverted using the Undo or Revert options." Microsoft's own tip is to export your data to an archive file from time to time, so you can go back to an earlier state.

Our view

This part is our opinion, not Microsoft's. We start every Editor session with Get recent changes and finish it with a post, so a local copy never sits for days. Before a large change we export the affected campaigns as a backup, because Undo and Revert stop at posting. For a new Microsoft account built from Google Ads, we import with Download locally, fix what the Alerts panel shows, and post one campaign first. When more than one person edits an account, we agree who edits what, because conflicts are easier to avoid than to sort out.

Frequently asked questions

Is Microsoft Advertising Editor free?

Yes. It is a free download from the Microsoft Advertising site, with installers for Windows and Mac.

Does Microsoft Advertising Editor run on a Mac?

Yes. Microsoft lists macOS 11 Big Sur as the minimum and macOS 13 Ventura or later as recommended, with 6 GB RAM (8 GB recommended) and at least 15 GB of disk space.

Do changes in Editor go live straight away?

No. Edits stay on your computer until you post them to Microsoft Advertising with Post selected campaigns.

Can I import Google Ads campaigns with Microsoft Advertising Editor?

Yes. Import from Google Ads signs in to your Google account and reads the campaigns directly, or you can import a CSV exported from Google Ads Editor.

Is there a data limit in Microsoft Advertising Editor?

Microsoft limits downloads to 10 GB of data per user name. For larger accounts, download selected campaigns instead of the full account.

Bulk edits are quicker when the landing pages behind them are already in order. See our website development service and all our services, or email [email protected].