Microsoft Ads API adds deeper search reporting and more PMax controls

Microsoft Advertising is expanding its API with a new Search Term Landing Page report, campaign-level device exclusions for Performance Max and support for LinkedIn segment targeting.

The changes give advertisers and third-party tool builders more visibility into where search traffic actually lands while adding controls that can help shape how Performance Max campaigns run.

What’s new. Microsoft has introduced a Search Term Landing Page Report that connects a user’s search term with the headline they were shown and the final landing page they reached.

How it works. Advertisers can pull the search term, delivered headline, final URL and performance metrics into the same report. Microsoft says the data can be used to understand how search intent maps to ad delivery and landing-page experiences.

Why we care. That connection can make it easier to spot mismatches between what someone searched for, the message Microsoft served and where the click ultimately went. For teams building reporting or optimization tools on top of the API, it creates a potentially useful new layer for landing-page analysis.

For Performance Max. Microsoft is also adding campaign-level device exclusions, allowing advertisers to exclude Computers, Smartphones or Tablets from PMax campaigns.

The significance. Performance Max platforms generally lean heavily on automation, so additional exclusion controls give advertisers another way to impose business rules on campaigns rather than leaving every decision to the algorithm.

Also new. The API update adds support for LinkedIn segment targeting, expanding the audience signals developers can work with through Microsoft Advertising.

The Microsoft advantage. LinkedIn data remains one of the more distinctive pieces of Microsoft’s advertising ecosystem. LinkedIn’s advertising platform supports professional audience data and matched-audience capabilities, giving Microsoft an audience-data asset that competing search platforms don’t directly own.

For tool builders. These additions are particularly relevant to agencies, platforms and advertisers managing Microsoft Ads programmatically. The new report can feed search-to-landing-page analysis into dashboards and scripts, while device exclusions and LinkedIn segments create additional campaign-management options.

The bigger picture. Microsoft is continuing to add automation through products such as Performance Max while simultaneously exposing more reporting and controls through its API. That combination matters as advertisers increasingly ask not just for better automation, but for better visibility into what that automation is doing.

The bottom line. Microsoft’s latest API changes give sophisticated advertisers three useful additions: a clearer view of the journey from search term to landing page, more control over which devices PMax can serve on, and additional access to LinkedIn-powered audience targeting.