Microsoft credit card ads are now available globally, plus 11 other new product updates

Microsoft has just announced a slew of new product updates, including the global adoption of credit card ads.

Let’s dive in.

1. Credit card ads

Credit card ads were launched last year to advertisers in the US and Canada. Now, they’re available globally.

Credit card ads appear on the right rail of Bing search results and run alongside mainline text ad placements. These ads can trigger for queries like brand name, card category and credit level.

2. Performance Max import

Microsoft just announced that the Performance Max import tool is now available with or without a Merchant Center feed.

3. No-code conversion setup wizard beta

A beta is now available to advertisers to let you set up conversion tracking via Clarity. By having Microsoft Clarity insights for Microsoft Advertising enabled within your Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag setup, you can now set up conversion tracking by event, as well as measure performance.

4. New UET tag dashboard

There is a new UET tag dashboard that can help you monitor tag data and fix issues. The dashboard includes real-time insights into the data that gets sent via UET tags and troubleshooting action recommendations. 

5. RSA recommendations through the API

Microsoft ETAs are going away on February 1, 2023. You can now upload RSA recommendations to your accounts using the bulk API. This is to help advertisers migrate top-performing content to RSAs and ensure all ad groups have RSA before February. 

6. PrestaShop partnership

PrestaShop is a freemium, open-source e-commerce platform that’s an alternative to Shopify. PrestaShop merchants can now connect natively to the Microsoft Advertising platform module within the PrestaShop experience.

7. Aggregator partner options

Directly from the Microsoft blog, “For retailers working with aggregators, we’ve removed the “all-or-nothing” choice for direct retailers, and they can now choose to block only specific aggregators from paid listings (Product Ads). Now available in all Shopping Campaigns global markets.”

8. Audience Ads management in Microsoft Editor

Advertisers can now manage Audience Ads with multiple assets from within the Microsoft Editor tool. Support for Multimedia Ads was also added to the editor tool in September.

9. In-market audience targeting for soccer fans

Microsoft has developed an easy-to-use In-market Audience specifically designed for the Word Cup, starting on November 20, which will allow you to target high-value customers across the Microsoft Search and Audience Networks. 

How to use it. Microsoft says, “Apply our “Qatar 2022 football” audience to your campaigns. On search campaigns, associate these audiences to your existing top-performing ad groups with “bid only” targeting and a bid boost of 20% to begin, then adjust as you evaluate performance. On your audience campaigns, add these lists in “target and bid” to your existing campaigns that use In-market Audiences, or create a separate campaign to target these sports enthusiasts.” 

10. Customer Match availability

Customer Match is now available in all Microsoft Advertising markets (excluding China). To get started with this feature, either directly upload your customer lists to Microsoft Advertising or connect your customer data platform (CDP) to import the data. 

Microsoft says “We’ve recently expanded the CDPs that can connect to Microsoft Advertising and have integrations with Lytics new, Amperity, Adobe Advertising Cloud, and Skai. For more information on how to connect your CDP to Microsoft Advertising, work with your account team or our support team.” 

11. Similar Audiences available in more markets

While Google is doing away with Similar Audiences segments, Microsoft is embracing them. Similar Audiences can be used in the US and Canada, and now, they’re now generally available in more markets. You can see the full list of markets on the Microsoft blog announcement.

12. Audience Network CPM pricing

For advertisers who run image ads on the Microsoft Audience Network, the manual bidding options have been expanded- with the addition of CPM pricing. With this pricing model, you specify a maximum amount you are willing to pay for 1,000 impressions. This pricing model is now available in all markets where the Microsoft Audience Network is available!

if you don’t want to use CPM, you can use the manual cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model or choose Enhanced CPC.

Honorable mention: Netflix’s ad-supported tier

Don’t forget that Netflix has partnered with Microsoft to deliver an ad-supported subscription plan to the streaming platform. That ad-supported tier is set to launch on November 3.

Why we care. In my opinion, Microsoft is worth testing, if you haven’t done so already. Whereas Google is leaning toward full automation, Microsoft is still keeping and allowing the use of many of the manual bidding and audience segments that Google is getting rid of.

The addition and updates of these features should be good news to advertisers looking for alternative search and audience options, as well as more control over their ad campaigns.