Updates to our network policies

In our commitment to transparency and safety for everyone who uses our products and services, Microsoft Advertising will be rolling out some new policies. These intend to provide greater visibility into the enforcement of our network policies, to help further protect users of our products and services, and to ensure alignment with upcoming regulatory changes.

We are also making updates to our policy pages to improve usability by moving content to different pages or adding examples and clarity where needed. On this page, you will find additional information about these recent and upcoming changes, which will be rolling out on our policy site over the next couple of months.

Transparency updates

• Beginning 1 July 2023, we will implement a new policy that outlines different impacts to your advertising account including:
  • Ad and ad component disapprovals such as keyword, ad copy, or landing page
  • Store or product disapprovals
  • A three-strikes policy for repeated policy violations
    • Currently, our policies disallow repeat violations, this provides more detail and structure to that policy.
  • Egregious violations that may result in immediate suspension of services.
    • This is already part of our policy enforcement; the updates provide additional details about what falls into this category.

Recently implemented policy updates

• Advertising for vitamins and supplements is now allowed on the Microsoft Audience Network.
  • Ads cannot claim to complete a task such as cleansing the liver.
  • Landing pages must be product pages, they cannot be advertorials or videos.
• Gambling advertising is now allowed on the Microsoft Audience Network in markets allowed by our policies.
  • Advertisers must be licensed in any market they will target with ads.
  • Advertisers must have gone through the gambling enablement process and obtained approval for the markets they will target.

Changes beginning 1 July 2023

• Gambling advertising will no longer be allowed in Belgium.
• Gambling advertisers serving ads in the Netherlands will need to ensure their campaigns are targeting only users over the age of 24.

Changes beginning 1 August 2023

• Gambling advertisers targeting Ireland must utilise time targeting options in their campaigns to ensure ads are not serving between 5:30 AM and 9:00 PM. Please note this update is due to pending regulation, if this regulation update goes into effect prior to 1 August, advertisers will be required to comply upon effective date.
• We will no longer allow advertising for clinical trials or experimental treatments globally.
• Adult advertising will no longer be allowed in Hungary or Poland.

Structural page updates

• While some markets may appear to have been removed, all markets are still available; they will follow the policies for the markets to which they are aligned.
• To create better alignment with similar policies, some content is being moved to different pages.
• Additional clarifications and examples are being added for greater clarity on some of our policy pages.
• Publisher preferences such as those for MSN, Outlook, and Xbox for example, are being removed from the policy pages and will be maintained within a new help document. This document will be linked from the policy page navigation menu.

For additional details on these and other Microsoft Advertising Network policies, please visit our policy site. Please note that some policy updates will not be reflected until after 1 July 2023.

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