Microsoft Advertising
Search Engine Land is your go-to source for Microsoft Ads news, strategies, and in-depth content. You’ll find a wide range of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.
Optimizing your Microsoft Ads campaigns
Microsoft Ads offers unique opportunities to reach high-intent audiences across platforms like Bing, MSN, and the Microsoft Audience Network. This page provides practical advice and insights for optimizing your campaigns, from structuring effective ad groups to leveraging advanced targeting options.
Stay informed on updates to Microsoft’s advertising tools, including AI-powered enhancements, new bidding strategies, and cross-platform integrations. Whether you’re exploring audience targeting, different ad formats, or conversion tracking, you’ll find the guidance you need to make the most of Microsoft’s advertising ecosystem.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, as well as subject matter experts from agencies and top-performing brands leveraging Microsoft’s advertising ecosystem.
Discover how businesses are effectively using Microsoft Ads to tap into unique audiences and improve performance across channels.
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Microsoft Advertising Editor gets updated with recommendations and campaign-level targeting
The new features are designed to help advertisers with bulk campaign management and optimize performance.
Microsoft Advertising offers free stock images for Audience ads
A new partnership with Shutterstock opens up the stock image library to advertisers.
What’s behind the hype about Customer Data Platforms?
How CDPs aim to solve some of marketers' most vexing challenges.
Video: Christi Olson of Microsoft on audience targeting, syncing with Google and Promote IQ
Christi Olson is the head of Evangelism for Search and Advertising at Microsoft.
Bing brings visual search to product ads
Currently available for clothing and shoes, users can upload an image or click on a product result to shop for visually similar items.
Microsoft launches a free Search and Social campaign management platform for SMBs
Digital Marketing Center powers both organic social media and ad campaigns across Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Welcome to the Predictive Marketing Era
How to become a nimbler, smarter, more successful PPC marketer in the age of machine learning and AI.
Martech Spotlight: How Kenshoo does digital commerce ad management
At a time when digital commerce is more important than ever, we're profiling vendors that help retailers scale their ads on e-commerce marketplaces.
Why digital commerce marketers shouldn’t ‘go dark’ during COVID [Video]
Keeping up your marketing momentum is more important than ever as shopping habits shift.
Have we hit bottom yet? What new earnings reports say about COVID’s impact on digital advertising
The hit in mid-March was sudden and dramatic, but there appear to be signs, including from media buyers, that the worst is over.
Why businesses that prioritized martech, data and organization are faring better during COVID [Video]
The struggles of companies without solid data practices are now exacerbated, said Brad Geddes in this clip from Live with Search Engine Land.
Microsoft: Search, LinkedIn ad revenue took a big hit due to COVID-19
Search advertising grew by just 1% in the third-quarter of fiscal year 2020. That could spell opportunity for some advertisers.
Why updating your messaging is the best strategy right now [Video]
‘This works, you should be doing this all the time instead of these hard, shove-it-down-their-throat sales tactics.’
How working from home has thrown a wrench in campaign targeting [Video]
While working remotely has kept some businesses online, it has also made analytics and cookie data less reliable.
Microsoft Advertising adds cookie-based experiment option
Cookie-based A/B tests will ensure that customers are only shown ads from either your experiment or original campaign.
From the bottom to the top of the funnel, COVID-19 is flipping B2B strategies [Video]
Marketers have an opportunity to try new tactics as clients divert resources to long-term goals.
COVID-19 upheaval is actually speeding up some PPC campaigns [Video]
Less red tape and shifting priorities have resulted in much shorter buying cycles for some B2B businesses, PPC experts say in this clip from Live with Search Engine Land.
Microsoft Advertising adds support for multi-account Google imports
The feature should save advertisers some time when extending their campaigns from Google to Microsoft’s ad platform.
Microsoft Advertising adds ‘Include in Conversions’, view-through conversion options
The two new conversion goal options offer more flexibility in evaluating and optimizing conversion performance of Search and Audience Network campaigns.
Replay: 8 takeaways for B2B advertisers in the time of COVID-19
B2B marketers are facing particular challenges during this time with disruption to analytics, audiences and ABM programs and supply chains.
Paid search ad copy strategies during coronavirus
Why you should re-examine your PPC ad messaging now.
Desktop search is rising amid the work-from-home surge
Device usage is just one way consumer behavior is changing during the pandemic, says Microsoft Advertising.
Microsoft Advertising expands UI redesign to more pages
Includes a new overview dashboard for Manager accounts. Users can apply for preview access.
‘Made in USA’ ad extensions spotted on Bing
The latest automated extension test from Microsoft Advertising.
Conditional IF functions now available in all Microsoft Advertising accounts
Scale expanded text ad messaging by device or audience -- works with Google import, too.
Filter, sort, bulk manage product groups in Microsoft Shopping soon
Scripts are also coming to Shopping campaigns in Microsoft Advertising.
Microsoft Advertising to deprecate average position after all
The change brings position reporting in line with Google Ads.
Responsive search ads available globally in all Microsoft Advertising interfaces
Microsoft recommends running up to five ads per ad group, including at least one RSA.
Microsoft Advertising’s PromoteIQ integration for retailers, brands is now in beta
The on-site search product Microsoft Bing for Commerce is also becoming available to retailers.
Standard text ads will live on a bit longer, Microsoft Advertising says
The company announced a three-month reprieve for advertisers still holding on.
Microsoft Advertising launches sweepstakes for advertisers
Entries are open for agencies in the U.S., Canada (excluding Quebec), U.K., Ireland, Netherlands and Germany.
The big PPC shifts of 2019 that will shape how we market in 2020
Automation, full-funnel campaigns, shoppable ads and privacy fueled paid search changes in 2019.
The PPC changes that bugged and elated marketers most in 2019: An unscientific poll
Close variants changes and poor customer support topped the list of grievances this year.
Last-minute paid search tactics, management tips for Black Friday, Cyber Monday success
Keep your cool this holiday weekend knowing your campaigns are in top shape.
Redesigned Microsoft Advertising Editor now available
The new look comes with additional feature support.
E-commerce ad spend on search and social product ads keeps growing
Product ad spend growth on social outpaced search in the third quarter, Kenshoo reports.
Microsoft search, LinkedIn revenue growth remains slower than a year ago
Cloud helped the company beat expectations with overall revenues of $33.1 billion in the first fiscal quarter of 2020.
Microsoft Advertising unveils interface redesign
The new user experience brings it in line with Google Ads.
Microsoft betas for account hierarchies, sharing UET tags and remarketing lists across accounts now open to all
In addition, all advertisers will now automatically start with manager accounts.
Microsoft Advertising will also deprecate accelerated delivery
The option to have ads delivered as early and often as possible will go away next month.