Microsoft Advertising introduces more automation via ad suggestions with auto-apply

Beginning this month, Microsoft Advertising users may see ad suggestions with auto-apply on their Recommendations page, the company announced Thursday.

What it is. Ad suggestions are variations of your existing ads, based on their keywords, landing page, targeting, ad extensions and other relevant content.

How it works. Microsoft Advertising will generate ad suggestions when it detects an ad group that may be better served with more quality ads. This also means that most ad groups may never get ad suggestions.

Ad suggestions will continue to be created as long as Microsoft Advertising’s systems detect that your ad group performance can improve. Advertisers will receive a maximum of 50 ad suggestions per account at any given time.

The auto-apply ad suggestions feature. Advertisers should be aware that ad suggestions marked as auto-apply will start serving after 14 days if no action is taken.

If an ad suggestion is applied, the go-live date will appear in the Recommendations page and the advertiser is notified via email. Auto-applied suggestions can be viewed in the Ad & extensions page, with the tag “Auto applied ad suggestion,” where advertisers can pause, delete or edit them.

To disable auto-applying ad suggestions, go to your Account settings page (shown above). Even if the setting is disabled, ad suggestions may still be presented, but you’ll need to manually add them to your account.

Why we care. Advertisers should verify that auto-apply ad suggestions are toggled to their desired setting. Microsoft’s announcement does not state whether the auto-apply ad suggestions setting is enabled by default; we’ve reached out for comment and will update this article when we receive a response.

Ad suggestions may help advertisers save time when creating ads, or serve as a jumping-off point to further tailor them to their audiences.

For more about automation in ad creation, register for SMX Create, where our Director of Search Content, Carolyn Lyden, and I will be presenting a keynote entitled “Humans vs. machines: How content and experience are caught between platforms and people.”

About The Author

George Nguyen

George Nguyen is an editor for Search Engine Land, covering organic search, podcasting and e-commerce. His background is in journalism and content marketing. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host and public school teacher.