Paid Media News & Opinion #101

Microsoft releases major targeting strategy updates and more for Ads

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> What’s happening

November is off to a big start for Microsoft Ads and Copilot, with several updates for improving the workflow and performance of Microsoft campaigns.

Video campaigns – now have the ability to: choose bid strategy (including Manual CPC and smart bidding like tCPA); layer audience targeting (including in-market, dynamic retargeting, LinkedIn profile targeting, and more); and import Video campaigns directly from Google Ads.

Impression retargeting – allows advertisers to utilise audiences who have seen ads on video and display campaigns. This form of targeting for Video is currently being piloted.

Audience targeting for CTV – is now available, allowing for more specific audiences (such as in-market through to remarketing) that are available in other campaigns to be used for Connected TV ad campaigns. This means inventory such as Netflix is now targetable by more than simply user location and genre as it was before.

There are also updates for Shopping Audience campaigns – where the UI has been improved and product groups added, similar to Standard Shopping campaigns – and Copilot improvements to make the ad experience more “user-centric”.

> Why we care

Microsoft Ads has been trailing behind Google Ads in many areas, particularly with Video campaigns, as they essentially rival YouTube, the biggest website on the planet! These new targeting updates and ability to have more strategic control on bidding could really bridge the gap between the two platforms.

For CTV, Microsoft Ads targeting options were fairly basic and lacked the depth that Video campaigns on Google Ads – which, if you weren’t aware, you can set up to be CTV only – that make them so powerful. The import feature is a great addition although apparently you’ll have to reupload the actual video creative again to Microsoft Ads.

For advertisers that want to leverage the Microsoft-only capabilities, such as LinkedIn profile targeting, this is quite an exciting set of updates that could be quite valuable. For everyone else, it’s worth looking into if you’re wanting to squeeze some extra juice out of your overall paid media strategy.

Google Ads starting to highlight competitor bidding in optimisation score

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> What’s happening

Google Ads has updated it’s optimisation score to highlight when competition is impacting performance and impression share. In an example screenshot seen in an account on LinkedIn, there’s a message that says “Some of your campaigns lost impression share due to competitive pressure from amazon.com”, with the lost impression share stats listed just underneath.

> Why we care

The impact of competitors on campaign performance can be significant, but it’s also difficult to identify without a reasonable amount of time spent digging for that information. It’s extremely useful to have this information flagged automatically by Google, as it’s a shortcut to finding the answer for some change in performance.

You’ll still want to dig deeper into the why and what you can do about it, but this is a great prompt to point you in the right direction for your additional analysis.

Google Ads rolls out brand guidelines for PMax campaigns

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> What’s happening

Google is rolling out new brand guideline customisation features for Performance Max campaigns, enabling advertisers to tailor ad creative. This update lets marketers indicate which brand assets - like brand colours and fonts - should be prioritised in their ads, giving campaigns a more cohesive and brand-consistent look.

The brand guidelines feature (within Performance Max campaign settings) has been released in select accounts and we expect to see it within all accounts soon.

> Why we care

Diversifying ads means creative will not look as monotone, especially when it comes to automated display ads. Brand guidelines ensure consistency, professionalism, and recognition. They help build trust and customer loyalty by presenting an image that’s easily recognisable.

What else we've been talking about:

• Google fixes supplemental feed limitation in Merchant Center Next

• How a Google breakup could change the PPC industry

• Google adds ad inventory curation, programmatic tools for agencies

• Travel 2040: 2.4 billion reasons to get excited about the future of travel