How do I opt search ads completely out of the audience network ads?

Question

How do I opt search ads completely out of the audience network ads?

Anonymous

The search help center has outdated instructions. There used to be an option to decrease bids at the ad group level but this is no longer visible in the Microsoft ads interface.

We tried to update them at the ad group level in the editor and posted them, but when we go to 'get changes', nothing has been updated. The bid adjustment is still listed as blank.

In the editor, there is a bid adjustment option at the campaign level but it is grayed out and we are unable to select or change it.

This is happening only to new campaigns that we have launched. We copied over the settings from our current campaigns but the bid adjustment settings for audience network did not copy over.

Now, our new brand campaigns have a ton of impressions, and CTR below 1% which is messing with our KPI's and we can not seem to get the audience network off.

If I can't figure this out by friday, I am turning off the new campaigns until this is resolved.

So any help would be greatly appreciated.

We have reached out to our rep as well but we are still waiting to hear back.

thanks

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2 additional answers

Answer 1

Hello Sharon Hogue,

Thank you for your questions asked on the forum, as it can be beneficial to our other clients.

Please see the answers below:

• For the campaigns that are currently still showing the 100% ad group bid adjustments, for now, will they continue to be opted out?

For the time being yes, but the function will be deprecated for all accounts in the next half year or so. When the -100% us present you can use it, however, it shall not stay in your account, and when it is removed your ads can show on the network.

What happens to customers who had previously Opted-Out of Audience Ads on Campaigns?

Advertisers who may have used -100% bid modifiers to previously prevent Audience Ad delivery will find that their Search ads are now eligible to serve on the Audience network.

• For those campaigns, will the setting we see be removed? or is there timing on when updates will be made?

At the moment, no exact timing, as it is being launched globally but the AI is slowing working through all accounts. The setting will be removed when the AI reaches that account.

• Is there a formal announcement of this with specific details?

Nothing more formal than it being mentioned on the help page saying the feature is being removed.

https://help.ads.microsoft.com/apex/index/3/en/56674

• We do see a setting for audience ads at the campaign level in Bing editor- will that ever be available for us to use? some of our accounts still have the option to add audience ad bid adjustment at the campaign level - for this particular client, it is no longer there so just curious.

After the option has been removed from all accounts it will also be removed from editor. At this time, editor does have the option, but it will not upload to the accounts that do not have the negative bid adjustment function.

• Is there any way to cap the impressions our ads are getting from audience ads?

There is not no. You can use opt out functions to remove the URLs you do not want the audience ads to show on, this is the best way to control the amount of audience ads.

Please look over the FAQ I posted above, as this has reasons why this change is a good thing.

• Is there a site URL/publisher report specific to audience ads so we can add them as site exclusions if necessary?

You can just run the normal publisher report, making sure to have the column (that I believe is there by default) which will let you know if it showed on the audience network or the search network.

I hope I was able to answer your questions. I will send you a private message to assist you further if needed.

Sincerely,

Dagmara | Microsoft Advertising Support | 1(800)-518-5689

Answer 2

Hello Sharon Hogue,

Thank you for contacting the Microsoft Advertising Community forum!

I am sorry to hear you facing challenges with our new feature. Please let me explain. With Multi Chanel Management we will be removing the current bid modifiers for Audience Ads in Search Campaigns. Instead, customers can leverage standard automated bid tactics to better optimize their campaigns and benefit from our automated bid features.

Search Campaigns will have the function that Audience Ads will be eligible to serve in them and on the MSAN network.

In simplest terms, this means that the ability to opt out of Audience Ads at the campaign or ad group settings level is being removed. And ALL Search Campaigns will show Audience Ads generated by the AI.

This feature will help drive better ROI and audience reach, and positions Microsoft Advertising as a multi-channel solution for meeting advertiser goals across both search and native ads.

Advertisers wanting to specifically optimize for MSAN can still run dedicated Audience Ads. Search ads which run on Audience Networks will not be in competition with any Audience Ads the advertiser is also running. We will choose the best ad to deliver based on bid and relevance.

Advertisers who may have used -100% bid modifiers to previously prevent Audience Ad delivery will find that their Search ads are now eligible to serve on the Audience network.

If you want to prevent your Search ads from showing on MSAN, they can do so using the following processes, depending on which sites they want to opt-out of:

Opting out of Microsoft Owned & Operated (O&O) sites

Go to Settings.
Go to the Exclusions section.
Enter msn.com, outlook.live.com, outlook.com, and bing.com.
Select Save.

Opting out of Premium Publishers

Run a Website URL Report to identify the sites they don't want to show on.
Go to Settings.
Go to Exclusions.
Enter the websites which they wish to exclude.
Select Save.

Note: Websites included in the Microsoft sites and Select Traffic category cannot be manually excluded for delivery.

Opting out of Syndicated Search Partner Network

Navigate to the Ad-Group level and go to Settings.
Go to Other Settings> Ad Distribution.
Chose Microsoft sites and select traffic.

FAQ

Q: Why are you making this change?

A: Our automated bidding now covers Microsoft Audience Network traffic, so our machine learning algorithms will deliver better performance to advertisers based on the bid strategy they select. Optimizing campaign exposure to native (audience) ads not only delivers additional sales with the same performance, but it also increases the effectiveness of search campaigns by creating awareness throughout the decision journey. With this transition, advertisers can scale up campaigns to make them multi-channel, reach their target customer throughout their decision journey, from exploration to conversions, while maintaining the same performance goal they set for search.

Q: Will my costs go up?

A: Although automated bidding may adjust to meet campaign goals, we do not expect overall CPA or CPC to increase.

Q: I already have dedicated Audience campaigns. What's the benefit of this change for me?

A: Audience campaigns are designed to give you more control to select a dedicated budget and highly targeted approach. That allows specific teams to execute their own marketing strategy and meet their own campaign objectives. However, through search campaigns you will automatically get additional volume and conversions through the Microsoft Audience Network that meet the performance target you have designated for search. This allows you to use a single budget and bid strategy for ease of management and unified performance across channels. These two campaigns (extending search campaigns to native and creating separate audience campaigns) are designed to work as a complement to each other and you won't be competing or disrupting each other's strategy when both are active.

Q: I tried this previously and it didn't perform well. Why are you forcing me to try it again?

A: Previously the system only used a very broad network-wide bid modifier setting; this was sub-optimal for optimizing the performance across all traffic. Now we are rolling out a machine-learning based automated-bidding algorithm that is designed to bid at a per user/per auction level to deliver you the same performance target that you set for your search campaigns.

Q: Why can't you just opt me out for good? I don't want to have to monitor publisher reports!

A: Using our Opt-out process, we can help you ensure you are not receiving unwanted traffic from the Audience network. Because we routinely update and expand our syndicated partner network, however, we recommend routinely checking your Publish URL report to ensure you are not delivering on any domains that may be added in the future.

I hope you find this reply informative. I will send you a private message to assist you further if needed.

Sincerely,

Dagmara | Microsoft Advertising Support | 1(800)-518-5689

Answer 3

Hi-

Thanks for your response.

I do have a few follow-up questions if you have any details, that would be awesome.

• For the campaigns that are currently still showing the 100% ad group bid adjustments, for now, will they continue to be opted out?

• For those campaigns, will the setting we see be removed? or is there timing on when updates will be made?

• is there a formal announcement of this with specific details?

• we do see a setting for audience ads at the campaign level in Bing editor- will that ever be available for us to use? some of our accounts still have the option to add audience ad bid adjustment at the campaign level - for this particular client, it is no longer there so just curious.

• Is there any way to cap the impressions our ads are getting from audience ads?

• is there a site URL/publisher report specific to audience ads so we can add them as site exclusions if necessary?

thank you so much for the above information. It was very helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to follow up so quickly.

have a good day!

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How do I opt search ads completely out of the audience network ads?

2 additional answers