Microsoft’s Digital Marketing Center for search and social management adds features, opens beta

Microsoft Digital Marketing Center (DCM) is now available in open beta in the U.S. The company had been piloting the free platform designed for SMBs to manage automated search and social campaigns across Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram since June.

With the move to beta, Microsoft has added several new features.

On-site analytics. Customer action tracking reports whether users complete the conversion actions you’re tracking on your website, such as product purchase or lead form submission. Analytics also include visits to top priority pages, average time on site and pages visited.

Search term control. AI determines which search terms will trigger advertisers’ on Google and the Microsoft Advertising Network (Microsoft Bing, AOL, Yahoo). These are reported in a new Search Phrases card, and advertisers can review and pause irrelevant queries that triggered their ads.

Ad reviews. Advertisers can input their own text ads, but DCM also auto-generates text ads based on the website and business categories. Previously, advertisers had no visibility into the auto-generated ads. New Top ads reporting shows the top-performing automated text ads and allows advertisers to modify their copy. There is an option to view and edit all ads.

Why we care. In addition to AI-powered ad management, DCM also supports organic social management for up to 10 profiles. The product — available here — is aimed at simplifying management across search and social through automation, but these updates indicate Microsoft is also listening to user feedback requests for additional manual controls and data visibility.