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Creative specs

June 30, 2023

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Native ads creative specs

MSN Native

Overview

Native ads allow the advertiser to immerse their brand within the MSN sites to reach the right audience, at the right time, within the right context. This winning combination drives engagement, CTR, CPA, and more to enhance your campaign performance.

Getting started is simple. Upload an image, logo, copy, and URL into the AppNexus console (or integrated bidder) and the technology formats your content to match the unique look and feel of the publisher site whether it's displayed on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop.


Deliverables

Ad components
File Type
Dimensions
Max File Size
Main Image
GIF, JPEG or PNG
Aspect Ratio 1.91:1
200 KB
Logo
GIF, JPEG or PNG
Aspect Ratio 1:1
600 KB
Title
Text
25 characters max
 
Sponsor (Brand)
Text
< 25 characters
 
URL
Text
 
 

Creative best practices for Programmatic Native

  • Turbo-charge your call-to-action: Immediately highlight your main point with eye-catching wording to create urgency and drive engagement.
  • Choose compelling images: People, particularly shown experiencing an emotion associated with your headline, increase impact. Also, avoid text overlays on image assets.
  • Center main content: Avoid clutter and ensure important visual elements, particularly people, are centered in your image asset.
  • Be bold with color: Use vibrant colors to create focus and interest in your native ads.

Example

MSN Homepage PC Web

example of native ads on MSN homepage

Outlook Native

Overview

Native ads allow the advertiser to immerse their brand within the Outlook site to reach the right audience, at the right time, within the right context. This winning combination drives engagement, CTR, CPA, and more to enhance your campaign performance.

Getting started is simple. Upload an image, logo, copy, and URL into the AppNexus console (or integrated bidder) and the technology formats your content to match the unique look and feel of the publisher site whether it's displayed on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop.


Deliverables

Ad components
Type
Characters
Description
Text
No character limit
(first 40 characters display)
Title
Text
No character limit
(first 38 characters display)
Sponsor (Brand)
Text
< 25 characters
Icon*
JPG
Optional: (sizes)
150x150
300x300
100x100
50x50
URL
 
No character limit

* required for DV360 buyers.

Creative Best Practice - Turbo-charge your call-to-action: Immediately highlight your main point with eye-catching wording to create urgency and drive engagement.


Examples

Outlook PC Web

Outlook for PC Web


Outlook Mobile Web

Outlook for Mobile Web

Microsoft Audience Network

OVERVIEW

Microsoft Audience Ads allow you to immerse your brand within publisher sites to reach the right audience, at the right time, within the right context. This winning combination drives engagement, click-through rate (CTR), cost per acquisition (CPA), and more to enhance your campaign performance.

Getting started is simple.

  • For image-based ads: Upload an image, copy, and URL. Microsoft Advertising will format your content to match the unique look and feel of the publisher site, whether it's displayed on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop.
  • For Video & Connected TV ads: Upload your video creative, adhering to our video quality ratings that are outlined below. The quality of your video will determine where your ads can serve—the higher the video quality, the more premium placements you’ll be able to access. Note, Video & Connected TV ads are currently in open beta; so, they may not be available yet to all advertisers. Get in touch with your account team to know more.

IMAGE-BASED AD DELIVERABLES

Ad components
File type
Dimensions
Image
JPEG or PNG
Recommended: 1200x628 or higher.
Minimum: 703x368
Short headline
Text
30 characters max
Long headline
Text
90 characters max
Ad text
Text
90 characters max
Business name
Text
25 characters max
URL
Text
1024 characters max
Mobile URL
Text
1024 characters max

CREATIVE BEST PRACTICES FOR AUDIENCE ADS

  • Images are recommended to have no text or logo overlay for maximum flexibility.
  • Some publishers prohibit the use of embedded text within images.
  • Images can be cropped or used with headline overlays, which can result in issues if the image is text heavy.
  • If text is required (e.g., legally required/logo issues):
    • Consider moving the text to the headlines instead of including in the image.
    • Use fewer words.
    • Use smaller font size.
    • Keep text centered.
    • Be sure to leverage the preview tool in the UI.
  • Before submitting, ensure images and text look as expected in all ad preview formats using the preview tool in the UI and ensure that there’s no text overlay.
  • The image must be clearly relevant to the product or service being advertised.
  • Image assets used for Audience Ads share the same dimensions as Google Display Network, Facebook Audience Network, and Yahoo Gemini.

SAFE AREA

Publishers place “sponsored” or “ad” icons typically near the bottom of the image along with the headline and business name text. This should be considered when choosing image content.

Audience ads allow individual image cropping to support all aspect ratios for each ad experience. Using the preview tool is important to validate each ad experience. If your ad isn’t showing as expected in each aspect ratio, you can re-crop it.

Ad preview tool.

Ad Variants

Audience Network Wide Image (1:91:1)

 Wide image ad.

Microsoft Edge single carousel (1:78:1)

Single carousel ad.

MSN in-article ad (1.5:1)

In-article ad.

MSN small headline (1.33:1)

Small headline ad.

Audience Network Square Image (1:1)

Square image ad.

Outlook.com web desktop (text)

Outlook web desktop text ad.

Outlook.com mobile web (text)

Outlook web mobile text ad.


Example

MSN homepage PC web

MSN Homepage ads.


VIDEO BASED AD DELIVERABLES

With Video & Connected TV ads, advertisers can reach their audience across a wide range of online video and Connected TV inventory. To access more premium online video and CTV inventory, advertisers need to upload higher quality assets.

Video assets are categorized in three ways: Fair Quality, Good Quality, and Excellent Quality.

Once you upload your videos to Microsoft Advertising, the system will determine which quality standards your video meets using a three-star rating—with three stars being the highest.

Use the below guidelines to understand what the requirements are for each of the different video qualities. If you wish to advertise on our most premium inventory, ensure that your video meets the Excellent Quality requirements.

*Denotes a required attribute, all other attributes are recommended for best results.

Attribute Fair Quality

One-star icon.
Good Quality

Two-star icon.
Excellent Quality

Three-star icon.
File size limit 2 gigabytes for video creatives (max size) 2 gigabytes for video creatives (max size) 2 gigabytes for video creatives (max size)
Video file type* MP4, MOV, WEBM, MKV, VOB, OGV, OGG, AVI, QT, WMV, RM, ASF, M4P, M4V, MPG, MP2, MPEG, MPE, MPV, M2V, 3GP, 3G2, SWF, TS MP4, MOV MP4 format is preferred. MP4, MOV MP4 format is preferred.
Video bitrate* 2,500+ kbps 8,000+ kbps 15,000+ kbps for MP4 42,000+ kbps for MOV (720p) and 80,000 kbps (1080p) for MOV (Apple ProRes)
Video resolution* 960 x 720 1280 x 720 1440 x 1080 1920 x 1080 1280 x 720 1920 x 1080 1280 x 720 1920 x 1080
Video duration* The duration must be between 6 and 60 seconds. We recommend videos to be one of the following: 6 seconds (minimum), 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 60 seconds (maximum) The duration must be between 6 and 60 seconds. We recommend videos to be one of the following: 15 seconds, 30 seconds. The duration must be either 15 or 30 seconds.
Video frame rate 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30 fps 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30 fps 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30 fps
Audio bitrate 128+ Kbps 192+ Kbps 192+ Kbps
Audio format Audio sample rate: 44.1 or 48 Khz Audio sample rate: 44.1 or 48 Khz Audio sample rate: 48 Khz
Aspect ratio 4:3, 16:9 16:9 16:9
Audio sample size N/A N/A 16 or 24 bits
Audio channels N/A N/A Two (stereo)
Audio codec N/A N/A PCM or AAC-LC
Track conformance N/A N/A File should contain only 1 video and 1 audio track
Duration conformance N/A N/A Video and audio track durations should match with tolerance of 500 ms

Examples

Video ads. Display ads.