Ad types that you can create with Microsoft Advertising

Learn about the variety of options you have for your ads.

An ad is an individual online advertisement displayed to a potential customer. You'll often see ads referred to in the context of an ad group or a campaign. An ad group contains one or more ads and keywords, while a campaign contains one or more ad groups.

Note

Microsoft Advertising also has several ad extensions that you can use to enhance your ads. To learn more, see About ad extensions and Enhance ads with automated extensions

Note

To maximize impressions across all ad formats, your ad descriptions might not always be shown in your ads.

Ad types

App Install Adsexpando image

App Install Ads are similar to text ads but provide direct links to your apps with a button, sending customers directly to the applicable store to download the application. This is an ideal solution for advertisers wanting to manage and drive downloads of their apps, rather than website traffic.

App Install Ads automatically detect the customer's mobile device and operating system, sending them to the corresponding Apple App Store or Google Play. You can also track conversions with the same conversion tracking partners as App extensions: AppsFlyer, Kochava, Tune, Singular, Adjust, and Branch.

To learn more, see App install ads: Drive app downloads

Expanded Text Adsexpando image
Important
  • After February 1, 2023, you will no longer be able to create new or edit existing expanded text ads. For more information, see About responsive search ads.
  • Existing expanded text ads will continue to serve, and you can still view reports on their performance.
  • You can still pause, enable, or remove your expanded text ads.
  • Learn more about this change

The expanded text ad consists of several parts:

Ad part and character limitExample (see above)
Ad title (supports three headlines, up to 30 characters each, separated by a space, vertical bar, and space (" | ")).Flowers for any occasion | Delivered right to your door!
Ad text (supports two descriptions, up to two 90 characters each).

To maximize impressions across all ad formats, the descriptions might not always be shown in your ad.
Sustainably grown flowers on sale and ready to ship within 4 hours.
Display URL (Domain and subdomain automatically generated from your final URL, plus two customizable URL paths). www.contoso.com/Seattle/Flowers
Final URL (2,048 characters). www.contoso.com/Floral/SeaWa/default.aspx

An example of an Expanded Text Ad.

When you create your ad, Microsoft Advertising shows you a preview of what your ad will look like on computers, mobile devices, and tablets on Bing search results pages. This could change depending on how Bing formats your ads. Bing does experiment with ad formats to provide the best ad experience possible to customers.

Learn how to create an Expanded Text Ad

Dynamic search adsexpando image

Dynamic search ads look just like Expanded Text Ads, but they're automatically targeted to relevant search queries based on the content of your website, and are dynamically created to respond to these search queries. Using them will:

  • Create targeted and relevant ads automatically: New, dynamically-created ads for every search query based on your entire website, or on specific pages or categories of your site.
  • Reduce your workload: No need to maintain keyword lists, manage bids, or update and customize ad titles.
  • Find missed opportunities: Automatically adapt to new queries to drive additional conversions.

To learn more, see About dynamic search ads.

Microsoft Advertising in Bing Smart Searchexpando image

An example of a Bing Smart Search ad.

Bing Smart Search ads are similar to text ads on the BingAOL, and Yahoo search network sites, but formatted for the modern touch experience and displayed in the Windows 8.1 Smart Search results. When possible, these ads will include a preview of your landing page.

Microsoft Advertising in Windows 8.1 Smart Search are available in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada (English). To learn more, see Microsoft Advertising in Bing Smart Search.

Audience adsexpando image

Audience ads appear to your ideal audience based on our understanding of potential customers' interests and consumer intent signals. These signals are combined with Microsoft AI and optimization to determine which ads to display, providing highly relevant content to individuals. Audience ad types include native ads, display ads, and video ads. Audience ads can appear on sites like MSN, Microsoft Start, Microsoft Edge, Outlook.com, and publisher partners.

To learn more, see What are audience campaigns?.

Multimedia Adsexpando image

Multimedia ads capture a potential customer's attention with large visual imagery that showcases your brand and products to increase traffic and sales on your website. Multimedia Ads will be shown in distinct mainline and sidebar ad positions and will not replace your text ad placements.

To learn more, see Multimedia ads

Product adsexpando image

Products ads include custom images from your own product catalogs (created in Microsoft Merchant Center), plus specific promotional text, pricing, and seller details. For more information about Product ads, check out What are product ads?

An example of a product ad.

For more information about Product ads, check out What are product ads?

Responsive search adsexpando image

Responsive search ads make creating ads easier by eliminating the need to figure out which headlines and descriptions work well together.

You provide up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions; and using these, Microsoft Advertising will mix and match the most optimal combinations to create effective ads for potential customers. The best performing ad combinations are automatically identified and reported to you, while ineffective ads aren't shown again.

Adapting your ad's content to match what potential customers are searching for can help to improve your campaign's performance.

Learn more about responsive search ads.

Vertical adsexpando image

Vertical ads are powered by dynamic data feeds to generate ads with high-quality placements. With no keyword requirement, Microsoft AI dynamically generates these personalized ads, yielding more volume, increased click-through rates (CTR), and lower cost per click (CPC) rates.

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