Spring has been quite the busy season for Microsoft Advertising. First we heard about the news on RSA extensions adding an extra 60 days, then the search behemoth announced innovate new cash-back incentives ads. A handful of additions and upgrades have been announced in May, led by Auto-generated remarketing lists.

New auto-generated remarketing lists

You may see a new notification about audiences when logging into your Microsoft Advertising account. These new audiences are for those looking to “get started with remarketing, or you’re already using remarketing and want to optimize performance.”

Advertisers will have the ability to choose from the following preset audiences:

All Visitors. People who have visited your website in the past 30 days.

All Converters. People who have converted in the past 180 days.

Smart Remarketing. According to Microsoft these are “People who are likely to convert”. These audiences are powered by Microsoft Advertising’s audience intelligence with a goal of providing high conversion rates.

These breakouts make sense as they give advertisers flexibility to target (or remove) those commonly used audiences without requiring advanced technical knowhow. The smart remarketing sounds promising and may be worth a test by all advertisers if in fact the intelligence works as advertised.

Dynamic Search Ad rollout, subdomain support & exact domains

In other news, Microsoft’s Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are rolling out to Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela.

Advertisers will also be rejoicing as they’ll now have the ability to use DSAs on subdomains. The changes don’t stop there as Exact auto-target URLs are coming for more fine tuned “URL equals” targeting than the “URL contains” operator. This should make specific targeting much easier for advertisers.

Other Microsoft Advertising additions

A few other helpful enhancements releasing in May include:

• Manage images in Microsoft Advertising Editor
  You can now create new ads, upload images as well as delete/replace previous images.
• Microsoft Audience Network enhancements
  New bidding is coming including CPM pricing and smart bidding.

Why We Care. While most folks reading this now already have remarketing lists created, the ‘smart remarketing’ lists are a new tool to test. While the previous visitors and previous purchasers aren’t revolutionary, they may help new advertisers perform better on the platform.

Lastly, the ability to be able to use DSAs on subdomains is a much welcomed addition and the

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Microsoft Advertising has released new advertiser certification, new exams, new badges and a new learning center for advertisers today. Microsoft said they have “reimagined and relaunched”  Learning LabOpens in new window and Microsoft Advertising Certified ProfessionalOpens in new window (MACP) learning solutions making “them both more valuable and easier to use.”

New Microsoft Advertising Certification

New exams. Microsoft has moved from having one exam to three new exams, which focus on different offerings within Microsoft Advertising. These are “50-question certification exams that explore different areas within Microsoft Advertising,” the company said.

New badges. When you pass these exams, you qualify for four different certification badges.

These include:

• Microsoft Advertising Search Certification
• Microsoft Advertising Native & Display Certification
• Microsoft Advertising Shopping Certification
• Microsoft Advertising Certified Professional

The first three are specific to verticals within Microsoft Advertising, but if you pass all three exams in all areas, you then qualify for the Microsoft Advertising Certified Professional badge.

What they look like. Here are screenshots of those badges:

If you were MACP certified as of April 2022, read Microsoft’s FAQs to learn more about how to access your legacy PDF certificate and claim your new Microsoft Advertising Search Certification digital badge.

New Microsoft Advertising Learning Lab

Microsoft said they have redesigned the Microsoft Advertising Learning Lab to “make it modern and simple.” Here is what is new in the Learning Lab:

1. Learning Paths: These bring together key concepts you need to develop your skills as a digital marketer with Microsoft Advertising for each topic in one place. This includes learning courses, a preparation course for each exam, and the exam.
2. Events: Attend live virtual eventsOpens in new window led by Microsoft Advertising experts or watch the recent ones on-demand.
3. Your Dashboard and Trophy Case: You can see the badges you’ve earned and the courses you’ve taken all in one place.

Why we care. Those of you who run Microsoft Advertising campaigns will want to review this new learning center and see how they can obtain these new certifications. If you have had certification in the past, you may need to revise those with these new criteria.

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Climbing the corporate ladder isn’t always the most straightforward process, especially for paid search marketers. Professionals seeking to grow their careers need to map out a path, accounting for their unique roles within their organizations.

“The most important thing is to look at your current position,” said Pascal Skropke, CMO of Design-Bestseller, at SMX Next. “Not everybody has the opportunity to work at a fast-growing e-commerce company or startup.”

He added, “Look at where you are and find out if it’s possible to take steps within your company — and understand what your company needs to succeed.”

Skropke says marketers seeking to climb this ladder should establish an “anchor point” within their company — the cross-section of their company’s needs and their career goals. One of these points is the issue of campaign advertising measurement — the lack of direction, accurate data models, and resources for many brands in the digital retail space.

Here are some of the key measurement challenges paid search marketers can help their companies with.

Address issues in advertising spend and ROI

“Performance advertising is killing it for most retailers,” said Andreas Reiffen, founder and CEO of Crealytics, in the same presentation. “At the same time, we see legacy retailers falling behind.”

Despite impressive increases in compound annual growth rate for online retailers such as Etsy, Boohoo, and Farfetch (44%, 55%, and 64%, respectively,), more traditional retailers are falling behind, even in the e-commerce sphere. Reiffen noted that although some of these legacy brands are meeting their KPIs, their slow overall growth could be a major issue down the road.

“The question we need to ask ourselves is, ‘Why am I seeing great results when the company isn’t growing?’” said Reiffen. “The issue we are all facing today is that the measurement is broken. The methodology that we use to track conversions and conversion values — one click, last click, or many clicks — is misleading us because people don’t necessarily buy when they click on ads.”

He added, “They might have happened to click on ads when they purchased, but there’s no direct correlation.”

Inaccurate measurement models can disrupt return on ad spend (ROAS) projections, making it that much harder for legacy brands to stay competitive.

Paid search marketers and managers can help executives of legacy-style brands address these discrepancies by optimizing paid advertising spending — adopting more accurate tracking models and allocating spend more effectively. This can help marketers establish more authority within their brand and encourage executives to lean on them for their expertise in the future.

Establish accurate data analytics systems

“We’re seeing big companies like the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey building departments for data analytics,” said Skropke. “This is a sign that analytics is not just something that the data nerd is working on, but something that’s now on C-level.”

Data matters, not just to search marketers, but to all those in brand leadership positions. The sooner search marketers can encourage their managers and company executives to consult paid media analytics when making business decisions, the more respect they’ll garner from those same decision-makers.

“If you work in a paid search manager role on an operation level, it’s rare that you would be asked to do these things,” said Reiffen. “But it’s a major problem that is present now on the C-level.”

He added, “Measurement is the most important thing to get right, so that’s where we see a good opportunity to step up and challenge the numbers.”

Create a growth strategy and align target market goals

Inaccurate measurement clearly causes issues in advertising ROI and data analytics. Unfortunately, it can also disrupt brand growth by derailing target market strategies.

“Wrong targeting leads to poor results,” said Skropke. “So, we should always ask what’s driving the value for the business. Is this the top-line revenue or is it the profitable acquisition of new customers?”

Whether it’s targeting a disproportionate amount of existing customers or pushing products that have lower than average profit margins, C-level executives will inevitably get parts of the targeting and growth strategy wrong. This is where paid search managers can share their expertise and help leadership set clear, actionable goals.

“So, where’s the opportunity here?” asked Reiffen. “It’s in taking the time to explain this, giving [leadership] examples.”

He added, “Start stepping up and explaining that it’s the targets themselves that are limiting performance.”

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Microsoft Advertising has updated its reporting dashboard, the company announced Tuesday. The updates include easier access to recent reports, real-time report previews as well as formatting options and shortcuts.

Microsoft Advertising’s new reporting dashboard is now available in all markets and all languages.

Easier access to recent reports. Advertisers can now select recently run reports from the drop-down menu and use default or customized reporting options, as shown below.

New preview options. Real-time report previews, which adjust as you create and modify your columns and filters, are now available. Microsoft Advertising has also improved report load times, according to the announcement.

Additional formatting options and shortcuts. This update also includes new capabilities around conditional formatting, inline edits, sharing, scheduling, saving, scope changes and common Excel shortcuts.

Why we care. These updates are aimed at streamlining your workflow by making reports easier to customize and access.

Since reports are typically generated for clients on a regular basis (and using the same template) being able to select a recently run report can help practitioners save time — particularly those that work at agencies. Similarly, the new report preview capabilities may also help cut down on unnecessary steps while generating reports.

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Russia’s actions in Ukraine have prompted ad suspensions from nearly every platform that search marketers rely on to reach Russian audiences. At first, companies such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook started by restricting ads from Russian state media, but as the conflict continued, many have expanded those suspensions to include all ads that would be served to users in Russia.

Below is a list of platforms and their current policies with regard to the conflict in Ukraine. We will update this resource as platforms update their policies.

Search engines. Google and Microsoft Bing, the two leading search engines globally, have both suspended all ad sales in Russia.

• Google: On February 27, Google suspended ads from Russian state-owned media outlets. On March 3, the company expanded the suspension to include all ads serving to users in Russia.
• Microsoft: On February 28, Microsoft banned ads from Russian state-owned media outlets. On March 4, the ban was expanded to include all new sales of Microsoft products and services (not just ads) in Russia.

Microsoft Advertising powers ads on Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo! and AOL, so brands currently cannot advertise to users in Russia on those platforms either. While Apple doesn’t operate a search engine, it has suspended Search Ads on the App Store in Russia.

Yandex, which is headquartered in Moscow and the second-most-popular search engine in Russia, is still operating normally.

Social media platforms. Most social media platforms have also rolled out ad suspensions similar to the ones mentioned above.

• Meta: Facebook’s parent company paused ads targeting users in Russia on March 4. Several days prior, the Russian government announced that it would block its citizens from accessing Facebook, so ads may not have reached users anyhow. The company has not announced whether these changes will also apply to Instagram, but Meta has banned Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on any of its platforms.
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft and is therefore included in the company’s ban on sales of its products and services in Russia.
• Twitter: On February 25, Twitter paused ads serving to users in Ukraine and Russia, citing the need to “ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it.”
• Reddit: On March 2, Reddit announced that it is not accepting advertisements “that target Russia or originate from any Russia-based entity, government or private.” The platform has also blocked links from all domains ending in “.ru,” Russia’s country code top-level domain.
• Snap Inc.: Snapchat’s parent company has stopped all advertising running in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, the company announced on March 1.
• TikTok: TikTok has restricted access to Russian state-controlled media accounts, but it appears it has not stopped serving ads to users in Russia.

Why we care. Platforms are responding to the conflict in Ukraine by halting ads as a means to cut down on noise and misinformation, promote the right sources of information and avoid potential brand safety issues. Unfortunately for brands and their audiences in Russia, this also means that there are fewer channels they can use to reach those customers. Knowing which channels are still available to you can help mitigate the impact of these ad suspensions. 

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Microsoft Advertising has announced Professional service ads, a new ad format designed for service providers such as insurance agents, realtors and so on. Professional service ads are currently available as a pilot in the U.S. and Canada.

Professional service ads can also be used to promote regional offices, branches or even national brands that provide relevant services. The format is available to comparison sites as well.

Why we care. This ad type may offer greater efficiency for service providers. In the early stages of this pilot, advertisers using Professional service ads were able to increase conversion rates by about 60% when compared to regular text ads, according to Microsoft. The average CPA decrease was 67% compared to overall performance in advertiser campaigns, the company said. But performance can vary, so it’s important to test the waters for yourself to see whether this is the right vehicle for your campaigns.

Some may see this as a competitor to Google’s Local Service Ads (LSAs) — while Product service ads may show for similar queries, there are some major differences to be aware of. For example, advertisers must be certified as “Google Guaranteed or “Google Screened” to participate in LSAs, which involves licensing, insurance and background checks. There is no such requirement for Microsoft’s Product service ads.

The format is new, but not really. Microsoft Advertising has been on a streak, releasing automated, vertical-specific ad types that leverage feed data to match offers to searches. The company now has ad formats for cruises, cars, tours and activities, credit cards and health insurance. 

Like those other ad types, Professional service ads will appear in the right-hand rail of Bing search results, alongside mainline text ads.

Microsoft plans to expand on Professional service ads. “We’re expanding to tax services and new markets, but expect to see more professional services, both in and outside of the financial service industry, coming to Microsoft Advertising in the future,” the company wrote in the announcement. 

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