Blog post
It's time to press play! Drive performance with Video Ads
Captivating and engaging your target customer in today’s world is a difficult task. Consumers are doing more research and are constantly surrounded by ads and information. The decision journey is getting longer and reaching potential customers with the right message at the right moments is more important than ever.
To help you reach your audience in new ways, we’re excited to announce that Video Ads on the Microsoft Audience Network are generally available in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
Video Ads on the Microsoft Audience Network complement your existing search and image ad strategy. Activating across a variety of compelling formats helps you reach potential customers as they move across their decision journey, reinforcing your message and encouraging them to take action.
Drive deeper connections with your ideal audience
Video Ads on the Microsoft Audience Network help you drive deeper connections with a highly relevant audience. You can leverage what we know about our audience to engage your ideal customers where they’re browsing, shopping, and spending time across Microsoft sites.
Fueled by powerful intent data like searches, web activity, browser behavior, and more, our Video Ads can help you captivate your audience in an immersive format, while moving potential customers closer to purchase. Microsoft is the only platform with access to all this rich intent data on video assets, which means that you can drive improved performance with Video Ads on the Microsoft Audience Network.
+50%
conversion rate
with search + video ad
exposure vs search only1
This is what your Video Ad would look like on the search engine results page.
Connect to an active audience you can’t find anywhere else
Reach an audience spending time on Microsoft sites
- 1 in 3 users stay on MSN and Microsoft Edge to get the content they need.2
- 72 minutes is the average time spent by a visitor on Microsoft Edge per month.3
Reach an audience that cannot be accessed anywhere else
- 39% of users watch videos on MSN but not on YouTube.4
- 57% of users watch videos on MSN but not on Facebook.4
Flexible offerings to match your needs
Our flexible bidding options mean that you can choose what best suits your goals, and only pay when people watch or engage with your Video Ad.
| Goal | Bidding | What is it? | How is it counted? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reach / Impression | CPM | Bid per 1000 viewable impressions on your video | A viewable impression is counted when a viewer watches 2 seconds of continuous play when video is >=50% in user’s view, or clicks on your ad, whichever comes first. |
| Video views | CPV | Bid on a single video view | A video view is counted when a viewer watches at least 15 seconds of video, or clicks on your ad, whichever comes first.. |
| Website visits | CPC | Bid per click on your video | A video click is counted when a viewer clicks on the video and lands on your website. |
Ready to get started?
Here are some set up tips and best practices to get you up and running:
Setting up for success
- Upload your Video Ads directly to Microsoft Advertising or leverage our Facebook Import tool.
- Set up your audience targeting to boost your audience campaigns’ performance. You can choose from Remarketing, Dynamic Remarketing, In-Market Audiences, LinkedIn Profile Targeting, Similar Audiences, Customer Match, or Custom Audiences.
Landing the right message
- Catch your audience’s attention in ten seconds or less. Although your ads can run longer (6-120 seconds), the first 10 seconds are critical to land your message.
- Feature your product or brand message early on to make sure people remember it.
- Design for sound off. Our Video Ads are auto-play and sound off, so use text and graphics whenever possible.
- Adapt your message to the customer journey. To drive action with your customers, use Video Ads to provide more information about a product or service and drive to sign up or purchase pages.
- Be creative! See what works for you—try different video lengths, intro text copy, headlines, or landing pages to see what resonates best with your audience.
Launching a Video Ads campaign on the Microsoft Audience Network is quick and easy! Take a look at our step-by-step overview of how to get started: About Video Ads (microsoft.com).
In addition to Video Ads on the Microsoft Audience Network, we offer Video Ads on the Microsoft Search Network through Video Extensions. Add video assets to your search ad campaigns to enrich how you showcase your products, demonstrate your services, or promote your brand messages to potential customers across their decision journey.
Help us improve Microsoft Advertising
Your comments and feedback are integral to shape and improve our product. You can use the Microsoft Advertising Feedback portal, in-product feedback, Twitter, or Instagram, and as always, contact Support.
[1] Microsoft internal data; results may vary for each advertiser based on campaign settings, targeted audiences, and other factors. Lift metrics represent an average of all Tech & Telco advertisers with completed video-only ad lift studies to date (Sept. 2022). These advertisers may be a non-representative sample of all advertisers on the marketplace. Lift measured between exposed users and a control group of eligible unexposed users, with lift represented on a per-user basis. Average user count per advertiser study = 6.3M
[2] Microsoft internal data, global data.
[3] comScore, Microsoft News, January 2021.
[4] comScore US video Metrix Multi-Platform, August 2018. comScore US multi-platform monthly data: MSN Audience & Duplication, % Reach Duplicated 2+ more sites, May 2018. comScore US Video Metrix Desktop, July 18.
