Advertising Editor Advertising Intelligence

Getting started with Merchant promotions

Learn how you can promote products directly from your Microsoft shopping campaigns with Merchant promotions.
New to Microsoft shopping campaigns? Learn how to get started in this training course.
Note

Learn more about where Merchant promotions are available.

With Merchant promotions, you can promote products directly from your Microsoft shopping campaigns inventory with special offer tags. These tags appear at the bottom of your product ad as “special offer” links, helping to increase customer engagement. Merchant promotions are free to add to your product ads, with the usual charges for any clicks you get. Including Merchant promotions can improve the visibility of your ads, which can lead to more clicks and improve your ROI.

How do I get started with Merchant promotions?

The participation requirements for Merchant promotions are:

  • Microsoft Merchant Center store: If you don't have one, learn how to create a Microsoft Merchant Center store.
  • Microsoft Merchant Center catalog feed: Your Microsoft Merchant Center store must have at least one catalog feed file. Your feed file is a text delimited file that contains all the information needed to submit a promotion. For manual uploads, TSV or XML file formats are accepted. For FTP uploads (available in the United States only), TSV, TXT, or XML file formats are accepted. After you create a feed file, you will submit it to Microsoft Merchant Center. If you don't have a catalog feed file, learn how to create a feed file.

Once you've been approved, take a look at how to create a promotion below.

Why is my Merchant promotion not serving?

Even if a Merchant promotion is eligible to serve, they're not guaranteed to always serve. Whether an extension serves depends on a number of factors, such as:

  • The relevance and quality of your ad
  • The relevance and quality of the extension data provided
  • Ad space availability on the page
  • User signals, such as location, device used, etc.
  • Other extensions you enabled for your ad
  • Availability of extension data for competing ads

Our algorithms optimize and balance the needs of users, advertisers, and constraints of the search results page. Our algorithms choose the best layout for each ad by evaluating hundreds of possible combinations based on all available extension data, space allocated, and the positive impact it can provide for advertiser and user.

Best practice: Providing extension data allows our algorithms to evaluate all the possible layouts for your ad. It increases the chances of additional space being allocated, increasing clicks for your ad.

Option 1: Create multiple promotions by uploading a feed file

If you want to submit promotions in bulk, use a promotions feed file to submit multiple promotions with one feed from a spreadsheet. Take a look at the Merchant promotions feed specifications or view an example of a .TXT or .XML feed before submitting your feed. (You must use Edge, Chrome, or Firefox browsers to view the .xml feed example.)

  1. From the top menu, select Tools > Merchant Center.

    If you're using the new Microsoft Advertising navigation, from the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > Merchant Center.

  2. Select the store name > the Feeds tab.
  3. Select Create feed.
  4. Enter the Feed name.
  5. Select the Feed type, Country of sale, Language, and Default Currency (optional) from the preset lists.
  6. Select your Input Method and input the feed file accordingly.
  7. Select Create feed.

What you need to know:

  • If the promotion doesn't apply to all products, be sure to map the promotion ID to the correct set of products in the master feed.
  • The name of the file needs to start with Promotions_. If uploading via FTP, the file name of TSV, TXT, or XML files must match the file name specified for a catalog's settings. In the case of compressed text format, the compressed .TXT file inside the archive (.ZIP, GZ, GZIP, TAR.GZ, TGZ) must have the matching file name.
  • You can use Microsoft Advertising to upload the file manually.
  • You can use FTP to send the file programmatically. If you use FTP, make sure that the file name starts with Promotions_.

Option 2: Create a promotion

If you want to create a single promotion, create the promotion directly in Microsoft Merchant Center.

  1. From the top menu, select Tools > Merchant Center > Promotions.

    If you're using the new Microsoft Advertising navigation, from the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > Merchant Center > Promotions.

  2. Select Create > Promotion.
  3. Enter the Promotion ID.
  4. Select the Target country/region & language from the preset list.
  5. Choose the Promotion type:
    • Amount off: Offer a monetary discount. Enter the Discount amount and, optionally, Minimum purchase amount. (For example: $5 off a purchase of $50 or more.)
    • Percent off: Offer a percent discount. Enter the Discount percentage and, optionally, Minimum purchase amount. (For example: 15% off a purchase of $100 or more, or 15% off select products.)
    • Free gift: Offer a free gift. Choose your Gift type, and optionally, enter the Minimum purchase amount and Minimum quantity of products. (For example: Free makeup gift with a purchase of $45 or more.) For Gift type, choose from these options:
      • Free gift with value: This is your free gift offer's monetary value.
      • Free gift with description: This is a description of your free gift offer as you would explain it to potential customers.
    • Free shipping: Offer free shipping. Select a Shipping type, and optionally, enter the Minimum purchase amount and Minimum quantity of products. (For example: Free overnight shipping on purchases of $500 or more.)
  6. Enter the promotion Title.
  7. Enter the Promotion ID.
  8. Select the Promotion date & time.
  9. Provide a Redemption code, if applicable. You have the option to indicate to potential customers that the redemption code is only available on the Microsoft Search Network by selecting the Exclusive to Microsoft Network checkbox.
  10. Under Product applicability, select the products that are eligible for the promotion.
  11. Select Save.

Note:

  • A redemption code must be in English to redeem.
  • If the promotion doesn't apply to all products, be sure to map the promotion ID to the correct set of products in the master feed.
  • The promotion's date and time is based on your local time zone. Keep this in mind if you want to run the promotion in any other time zone.

How to edit an existing promotion

Once active, you cannot edit your promotion. You can only edit promotions that are listed as In Review or Rejected in the Status column of the Promotions grid in Merchant Center

From the top menu, select Tools > Merchant Center.

If you're using the new Microsoft Advertising navigation, from the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > Merchant Center.

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To edit an existing promotion, follow these steps:

  1. From the top menu, select Tools > Merchant Center > Promotions.

    If you're using the new Microsoft Advertising navigation, from the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > Merchant Center > Promotions.

  2. Select the checkbox next to the appropriate promotion > Edit.
  3. You will be required to specify the Promotion type if you have not yet done so.
  4. Update your promotion.
  5. Select Save.

Automated Merchant promotions and data crawling

In addition to the promotions you create in your feed file or in Microsoft Advertising, we'll crawl your website's data to find and display relevant Merchant promotions during ad delivery. Ad decorations like Merchant promotions can increase your product ads' performance. We'll automatically crawl your website's data to enhance your product offers unless you opt out of crawled data.

Opt out of crawled data

  1. From the top menu, select Tools > Merchant Center.

    If you're using the new Microsoft Advertising navigation, from the navigation menu on the left, select Tools > Merchant Center.

  2. Select the appropriate Microsoft Merchant Center store > Settings > Automatic updates.
  3. Under Crawled data, select the Block crawled data checkbox.
  4. Select Submit.

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