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Microsoft Advertising Network policies

General ad requirements

June 30, 2023

Requirements

  • Write clear, factual ads that accurately describe what is offered on your website.
  • Do not use offensive or inappropriate language.
  • Do not include unproven claims or unauthorized endorsements in your ads or on your landing pages.
  • If your ad contains competitive claims, make sure that your site, ad title and ad text all comply with our Intellectual property policies.
  • Do not utilize language that implies urgency such as “do this immediately”, “supplies are running out”, “offer won’t last”.
  • Do not utilize language that implies company or celebrity secrets such as “companies don’t want you to know”, “you will never guess who she is in a relationship with”.
  • Do not repeat words or phrases (example, “Sale, sale, sale…”).
  • Do not include unnecessary symbols to draw attention to ad copy (example: Ca$h, “¤”, or word art). All characters and symbols should contribute to the ad’s message.
  • Ensure that your ads and landing pages comply with all Microsoft Advertising policies.
  • The advertiser must be clearly identified in the format appropriate for the ad served.

SEARCH

  • Always write a short description that accurately describes what site visitors will find at your site. Concisely written ads are more interesting and attractive to prospective customers and give them a better experience and generally better results.
  • Clearly explain how your offer specifically relates to the keywords you have chosen. To potentially improve your click-through rates, include the keyword in your title and description where possible.
  • The use of phone numbers in ad copy or call extensions must comply with our policies. You can only use Call Extensions or Local Extensions to add a phone number to your ad copy in the following markets: US, CA, UK, HK, TW.

DISPLAY

  • Display ads may not use logos, graphics, typography or other content or elements designed to blend in with or look like site content. Display ads cannot appear to be part of the site/section UI and imitate the look, feel or functionality (example: An ad on MSN should not look like an MSN featured story or have links that mimic editorial links).
  • The use of multiple fonts in an ad should be limited to no more than three, and should be consistent throughout the creative (i.e., one font per ad text category – heading, call to action, body).
  • Use of uncommon fonts or multiple font colors for the sole purpose of drawing attention or distracting the user, (such as No One Beats Our Deals! or Independence Day Sale), is prohibited.
  • The font type guidelines above do not apply to corporate or product branding / logos, fonts within creative images, or legal / required disclosure text within the ad.
  • No interfering background: clean text required.
  • No drop shadow or glow on ad text
  • Depending on location, certain publishers may require adherence to specific font size guidelines, to safeguard the user experience (example: Xbox Console).

NATIVE

  • The use of multiple fonts in an ad should be limited to no more than three, and should be consistent throughout the creative (i.e., one font per ad text category – heading, call to action, body).
  • Use of uncommon fonts or multiple font colors for the sole purpose of drawing attention or distracting the user, (such as No One Beats Our Deals! or Independence Day Sale), is prohibited.
  • The font type guidelines above do not apply to corporate or product branding / logos, fonts within creative images, or legal / required disclosure text within the ad.
  • No interfering background: clean text required.
  • No drop shadow or glow on ad text. 
  • Depending on location, certain publishers may require adherence to specific font size guidelines, to safeguard the user experience (example: Xbox Console).

Duplicate ads

SEARCH

To provide the best possible user experience, Microsoft Advertising reserves the right to disallow specific ads or sites for offering a redundant user experience if the search results are too homogeneous. For example, we may disallow ads that link to websites whose content is too similar.

Multiple ads from the same advertiser may be displayed if the target site for each ad has:

  • A separate, distinct brand
  • A unique look and feel
  • Different products or services
  • To comply with these policies:
    • Make sure that your ad does not duplicate any of your other ads.
    • Do not submit multiple ads that link to sites whose content or design is very similar.