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Microsoft Advertising - Microsoft Audience Network (Rampant Click Fraud)

Nick Krueger 0 Reputation points
2025-07-30T20:50:06.7266667+00:00

I have recently created several Search campaigns, seeking to take advantage of the Linkedin Profile Targeting option for better performance over what we have seen using Google Ads, only to find our Campaign budgets immediately consumed (in less than 30 minutes) by a flood of clicks from a multitude of apparent 'AI Slop' websites in the Microsoft Audience Network (a handful listed below for example).

expertsfind.com
answerscope.net
lifecracker.com
info.direct
wisedime.com
searchsoc.com
clissicily.com
todaysbest.tips
buzzvideo.xyz
searchnut.net

And upon further research there are literally tens of thousands more. It is an endless list of fake websites driving fake clicks from bots quickly consuming Campaign budgets.

And Microsoft Advertising (Unlike Google Ads) does not provide an option to not display ads on this awful 'Audience Network'.

Instead, you have to edit each Ad Group and under Settings/Advanced-Settings/Ad distribution change from 'The entire Microsoft Advertising Network (recommended)' to 'Microsoft sites and select traffic'.

And even at that, there is no guarantee that what are supposed to be SEARCH ADS displayed in response to a keyword search by a Bing user will not instead somehow be shown as some unknown and unverifiable type of display ad on thousands of fake websites resulting in fake clicks that quickly drain your Campaign's budget without a single actual search ad being shown.

And even after creating an exclusion list containing literally thousands of well known fake websites in the Microsoft Audience Network, there is an endless number, many thousands more than the limit of 5,000 Microsoft Advertising will allow you to put in a single exclusion list. Daily identifying new offenders and adding them to the exclusion list is just an endless game of whack-a-mole - meanwhile, your campaigns hemorrhage real money with nothing to show for it.

I can honestly say I am absolutely thunderstruck by how corrupt and nakedly fraudulent the current implementation of search advertising is on the Microsoft Advertising platform. It is so execrable that I want to believe I am simply missing or misunderstanding something.

So that is my question. Without wasting my (and other users') time on the boilerplate, "Microsoft Audience Ads is a performance marketing solution for advertisers who want to connect with their ideal audience", which does NOT address the issue - what am I fundamentally missing here?

I am simply trying to create and run campaigns, targeting specific keywords matching searches by users matching the Industry and Job Function personas selected under Demographics - an expectation created by Microsoft's own advertising about LinkedIn Profile Targeting. Nothing in today's experience of how this horrid Audience Network works, and the flood of unqualified traffic it generates, matches that objective. The people I'm trying to target aren't even getting a chance to do a search on Bing and see a relevant ad, because the Campaign budgets have already been exhausted by fraudulent traffic from a piranha-like school of fake sites like 'lifecracker.com' and 'wisedime.com' - which will NEVER be visited by our target audience.

HOW is the Microsoft Advertising platform EVER supposed to generate a positive ROI or ROAS when the hygiene of its network is so diseased?

How can it be this bad? What am I misunderstanding here?

Microsoft Advertising | Ad delivery | Audience placements

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  1. MS Advertising - John Mark 0 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-07-31T17:09:47.48+00:00

    Hi Nick,

    Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Advertising Learn Q&A Platform! My name is John, and I will be assisting you with this query.

    I understand that you're encountering some frustrating issues with your Microsoft Advertising campaigns, particularly regarding low quality or possibly invalid traffics within the Microsoft Audience Network.

    Microsoft (Advertising) is committed to delivering world-class service to advertisers and publisher partners. We’re dedicated to protecting our marketplace from click fraud, conversion fraud, phishing, malware, and maintaining traffic quality standards.

    Invalid clicks are a serious issue for advertisers. We systematically analyze clicks to determine their validity, and, when possible, remove invalid clicks before they are reported to you (removed clicks will never be charged to the advertiser).

    If potentially invalid clicks are detected, members of our team will flag the case, examine the affected account(s), and issue refunds where appropriate.

    Within the Microsoft Advertising Network, your Search ads can be displayed on Microsoft sites and select traffic, syndicated partner sites (search partners), or both. Searches are on a partner-hosted experience where Bing provides the search and the ad results. This includes Microsoft audience network. More information on a separate post that we answered about Microsoft audience network

    Vetting partners with human verification

    Between Microsoft Advertising and the Microsoft ecosystem of security and privacy products, we follow a rigorous approval process. We proactively vet and approve all prospective partners for reputation and more before they can participate on our network. (This could include the websites that you mentioned above)

    Search Partner candidates go through an in-depth process where a dedicated team reviews implementation, type of traffic, market, volume, and more. If approval is granted - and not all are approved - only then can they serve ads. Within the vetting process, we differentiate ourselves from other advertising platforms in that we also involve human verification to review domains coming into the network before they are live.

    We maintain high standards of quality and brand safety for our platform and our partners. We use advanced tools and techniques to monitor, detect, filter, and optimize the traffic on our network. We work closely with Microsoft’s cyber security center and other Microsoft products to ensure quality solutions. We also update our systems regularly to improve our filtration, partner assessment, and traffic validation methods.

    Partner quality management: We monitor and manage the quality of our partner traffic as well. We also take swift and serious action to resolve any traffic issues that don’t meet our high-quality standards.

    For more information regarding traffic quality, click measurement systems and our accreditation with Media Rating Council (MRC) you can check these resources:

    Traffic Quality Center

    Microsoft Advertising click measurement: Description of methodology

    Note: Despite our best efforts, we can’t guarantee every instance of low quality, fraudulent activity or suspicious traffic will be caught so reports like this is highly appreciated and we will investigate this thoroughly

    I hope the information provided here will at least partly answer your question.  If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our support. I have also sent you a private message asking for further details. You are more than welcome to respond to me so I can begin the investigation on my end.

    Regards,

    John | Microsoft Advertising Support Specialist | 800-518-5689

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