Editor support for Video ads and other updates for June

Welcome to the June edition of the Microsoft Advertising product roundup! At Microsoft Advertising, we’re always committed to building the Microsoft Advertising platform with clients at the center. It’s not about what we want to build, it’s about what we think will make your jobs easier and what you are saying is essential to your success. For this month’s roundup, we’ll share our product releases that help advertisers drive more results and reach more customers with less effort.

This past month we’ve already shared a number of updates, including how you can revolutionize your ad operations with AI-powered CoPlanner, scaling your retail media program, and—for publishers—accessing a powerful global marketplace with Microsoft Monetize. Lastly, don’t forget that Cannes is coming in just a few short weeks!

Let’s get on to the product updates for June:

This month’s top story: Video and Connected TV ads now supported in Microsoft Advertising Editor 

With Video and Connected TV ads you can engage your audience with compelling video content that highlights your brand's story and seamlessly connect with viewers across Microsoft properties and a network of publisher partners. Whether they're browsing the web, indulging in online videos, or enjoying their favorite series on popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Max, Hulu, Roku, and discovery+, your message will be front and center.

You can now manage your Video and Connected TV ads in bulk using Microsoft Advertising Editor. With this update, you can create your campaigns and upload your video creatives directly in Editor. To get access to this feature, make sure that you have updated to the latest version and select “get changes”. Note that when using Editor to manage these campaigns, device targeting for your campaigns will be created automatically based on the campaign type you are creating (i.e. video or connected TV).

Netflix Inventory for Connected TV ads

We are also excited to announce that Netflix inventory is now accessible to advertisers running Connected TV campaigns in the United States, in addition to Canada, Brazil, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia.

For advertisers aiming to make a significant impact with their campaigns on Connected TV, this presents an exciting opportunity. You can now place your brand in front of highly engaged audiences as they enjoy Netflix's vast array of award-winning series and films. This is your chance to create a memorable brand experience.

If you are targeting any of the markets mentioned above, to be eligible to serve on Netflix, simply accept the Netflix inventory policy in your ad group settings. This can be done by editing an existing campaign or when setting up a new CTV campaign in Microsoft Advertising. You should also ensure that your video creative quality meets the requirements for Netflix. Please note that while accepting the terms and conditions gives you the chance to serve ads on Netflix, delivery is not guaranteed. To track where your ads are being served, the Website URL publisher report is available in the Microsoft Advertising Platform.

Create and customize banner assets for display ads with Generative AI

As covered in recent posts, Copilot in Microsoft Advertising allows you to easily create and customize a variety of assets with the power of generative AI. For Performance Max campaigns, Responsive Search ads, Native ads, and now Display ads, you automatically get recommended image and copy assets based on your landing page URL, saving you valuable time and effort in campaign creation.

As of this week, the ability to create banner assets for display ads is now available with generative AI.

Coming soon you'll be able to leverage Copilot for AI-recommended assets in Video ads as well. Stay tuned in the future for more updates on how we’re making Copilot your new AI companion for digital advertising.

Upgrading smart shopping campaigns to Performance Max

All advertisers with smart shopping campaigns have now received email communications about the upcoming upgrade of smart shopping campaigns to Performance Max, which should happen in the coming months. Setup, reporting, and performance history will remain unchanged after this transition, but there will be a 1-2 week campaign learning period after the upgrade.

If you’d like to upgrade your Smart Shopping campaign to Performance Max earlier, you can select Edit Upgrade to Performance Max.

Microsoft Advertising Platform now available in six new languages

Last month, we also covered all the updates of our sleek new user interface in Microsoft Advertising online, and we’re delighted to share advertisers can now enjoy this new experience in six new languages on our platform: Thai, Turkish, Korean, Russian, Dutch, and Filipino.

To change your language in the Microsoft Advertising platform, from the navigation menu on the left, hover over Settings and select My settings. Next to Display language under User information, select the language you prefer and hit Save.

Summer Games 2024 audience opportunities

Lastly, one of the world’s biggest sporting events is taking place in Paris this year and people are getting ready to support their countries in all the events. This presents an exciting opportunity for advertisers to become part of the narrative and tell their brand story, showcase their brand values, all while striving towards driving business growth by leveraging these key moments to promote your products to highly relevant audiences. With over 49M people using Microsoft Start^* to stay up to date with their sports news, it is time to start thinking about how you can reach this engaged, global audience with the right message, at the right time.

To help you achieve this, we have developed the Summer Games 2024 in-market audience so that you can target an audience that is passionate about sports and algin your brand with the surrounding media coverage. Powered by Microsoft audience intelligence consisting of billions of data points such as searches, clicks and page views, this audience will help you to reach users in the moment that matters.

Start using the Summer Games 2024 in-market audience (Sports and Fitness/Sports/Summer Games 2024) today on your search, native, display and video campaigns and maximize impact across the full funnel and across all ad formats to connect your story across multiple touchpoints.

Conclusion

That's all for this month's roundup blog. We'll take a pause for the month of July and then come back on August 6 with another recap. In the meantime, be sure to stay tuned to all the other great posts and announcements coming from Microsoft Advertising. Take care!

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