#microsoft-advertising

#microsoft-advertising

Copilot search ads are a new placement option for Performance Max (PMax) campaigns and a new ad type, Showroom ads. They appear with a "Microsoft Advertising" and "Sponsored" label beneath the organic response.

By default, Microsoft pushes your ads to its "Audience Network" (display/native ads). To get as close to "Search Only" as possible, you need to restrict where your ads show. Ad Distribution: Select "Microsoft sites and select traffic". Never use "The entire Microsoft Advertising Network." Website Exclusions: Go to your Campaign Settings > Exclusions and block these domains to stop low-quality native placements: msn.com outlook.live.com outlook.com

This week, we covered more ongoing Google search ranking volatility - January was a heated month. Google AI Overviews show more button officially flows to AI Mode, which is not good for publishers. Gemini 3 is powering AI Overviews globally now. Google is being forced to explore ways to let us say we don't want Google to use our content in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A poll says 33% of you will block Google from doing so.

Microsoft Advertising announced a slew of new features including new customer acquisition goals as an open beta, Share of voice (SOV) metrics, Asset group-level URL options and tracking templates, increased Search Theme limit, enhanced asset group import, Content Targeting now generally available, Location targeting improvements and Autogenerated assets in Responsive Search ads. Here is what was announced in a quick bulleted list: New customer acquisition goals is now an open beta for advertisers using purchase goals

Google completed the December 2025 core update this week and it hit some news publishers incredibly hard. I posted the annual Google algorithm update infographic. Google's Frankenstein AI-recipes are a complete horror. Google questioned the need for ccTLDs for international SEO. Do not create multiple Business Profiles for each department listing on Google. Google AI Overviews is testing speaker icons in the US.

Microsoft finally has added custom columns to the UI but unfortunately the most important 'segment by conversion action' is still missing.

Microsoft Advertising is testing using three dots, instead of the arrow down, for the sponsored ads URL in the Bing search results. We've seen Bing test three dots before but they were horizontal, the new test are vertical three dots. I cannot replicate this but Sachin Patel spotted it and posted a screenshot on X - here is his screenshot:

Starting August 4, 2025 TCPA/TROAS won't be available as separate bidding strategies in Microsoft Ads. Instead, they will be optional goals you can set for your Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value campaigns.

Microsoft Advertising's new approach to policy enforcement allows ads to remain active even when individual assets are disapproved, enhancing flexibility for advertisers.