Microsoft Advertising ad group settings
Adgroup Details
Ad Group Name: An ad group name that is unique within the campaign. The maximum length is 128 characters.
Status: The display status of the ad group: Active or Paused. The default for new ad groups is Active.
Ad Language: (Search campaigns) The target language for ads.
Start date: The first date on which bids may be placed, as long as the campaign or ad group contains approved ads. The default for new campaigns and ad groups is the current day. To change the date for a campaign or ad group that hasn’t started, enter a date in the format MM/DD/YYYY or click
Once a campaign or ad group has started, you can pause it but can’t change the start date.
End date: The last date on which bids may be placed. The default is No End Date. To place bids until a specified date, enter a date in the format MM/DD/YYYY or click
Networks
Networks: (Search ads) How and where to place ads within the ad group:
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Only Microsoft Advertising and Yahoo! websites (the default): To place bids for ads on the search network.
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Only Microsoft Advertising and Yahoo! syndicated search partners: To place bids for ads on syndicated partner sites.
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Content network: Deprecated
Budget Options
Bid: The maximum cost per click (CPC) for an ad or cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) for an ad, as applicable for the ad network and campaign pricing model. Keyword-level bids override this value.
If an ad group with a CPC bid is in an optimized portfolio, then the specified bid is applied for one day. Afterward, the optimization capability places bids according to its own calculations.
Content Bid: Deprecated
Ad Group Targeting
Audience Target Method: (Audience ad groups) Whether to:
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Target and Bid: To show ads only to users associated with target audiences who also satisfy any other targets for the ad group.
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Bid Only: To show ads even to people who aren’t associated with target audiences as long as they satisfy other ad group-level targets. You can increase the chances that ads are shown to specific audiences, however, by setting higher bids for those audiences.
Location Targets: Specific user geographical locations to include or exclude as targets. By default, all locations are targeted. You can include and exclude users in any combination of locations. Exclusions always override inclusions.
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To target all locations, don’t select any locations.
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To include a location and its child locations, click the circle next to it once so that a blue checkmark (
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To exclude a location, click the circle next to it twice so that a red checkmark (
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To expand a location into its subcomponents (such as the states, prefectures, regions, or cities), click the location name.
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To search for a location, enter or paste at least the first three characters of the location in the input field.
For Microsoft Advertising ad groups in the audience network, bid modifiers for location targets aren’t optimized in standard portfolios with the “Auto-optimize Bid Adjustment Values” setting.
Devices: (Optional; not available for Google Ads performance max campaigns or Microsoft Advertising video or CTV video ads) Configure bid adjustments for different device types, as percentages of the keyword-level bid. For example, if the keyword-level bid is 1 USD and the bid adjustment for smartphones is 50%, then the smartphone bid is 1.50 USD. By default, no values are entered (bid adjustment=0), and all devices are bid at the keyword-level bid.
For Google Ads, valid percentages can include -100 for smartphones and tablets (to not bid for the device type), and from -90 to 900 for all device types.
For Microsoft Advertising, valid percentages can include:
- Smartphones and tablets: -100 (to not bid for the device type) and from -90 to 900
- Desktop: from 0 to 900
- The ad group-level settings override the campaign-level settings. However, if you exclude a device at the campaign level, then you can’t override the exclusion at the ad group level.
- If you assign this campaign to a standard optimized portfolio, then Search, Social, & Commerce automatically determines the base keyword-level bid to help the portfolio meet its objective. The ad network then adjusts the bid as specified for different device types.
- (For all campaigns/ad groups except for Microsoft Advertising ad groups in the audience network) If you assign this campaign to a standard optimized portfolio that’s configured to “Auto-optimize Bid Adjustment Values,” then the optimization capability changes the specified device bid adjustments at the ad group level, as long as the ideal value that it calculates falls within the minimum and maximum values specified in the portfolio settings and the ad group doesn’t exclude bidding for the device type.
Gender: (Audience ad groups; optional) Specific genders to include or exclude as targets: Male, Female, and Unknown. By default, all genders are targeted. Exclusions always override inclusions.
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To target all values, don’t select any values.
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To include a value, click the circle next to it once so that a blue checkmark (
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To exclude a value, click the circle next to it twice so that a red checkmark (
Age: (Audience ad groups; optional) Specific age categories to include or exclude as targets: 18-24, 25-34, 35-49, 50-64, 65+, and Unknown. By default, all ages are targeted. Exclusions always override inclusions.
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To target all values, don’t select any values.
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To include a value, click the circle next to it once so that a blue checkmark (
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To exclude a value, click the circle next to it twice so that a red checkmark (
Industry: (Audience ad groups; optional) Specific industries to include or exclude as targets. By default, all industries are targeted. Exclusions always override inclusions.
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To target all values, don’t select any values.
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To include a value, click the circle next to it once so that a blue checkmark (
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To exclude a value, click the circle next to it twice so that a red checkmark (
Job Function Targets: (Audience ad groups; optional) Specific job functions to include or exclude as targets. By default, all job functions are targeted. Exclusions always override inclusions.
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To target all values, don’t select any values.
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To include a value, click the circle next to it once so that a blue checkmark (
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To exclude a value, click the circle next to it twice so that a red checkmark (
URL Options
Tracking Template: (Optional; not available for all entities) The tracking template or tracking URL, which specifies all off-landing domain redirects and tracking parameters and also embeds the final/landing page URL in a parameter. Example: {lpurl}?source={network}&id=5 or http://www.trackingservice.example.com/?url={lpurl}?source={network}&id=5 to include a redirect.
For Adobe Advertising conversion tracking, which is applied when the campaign settings include “EF Redirect” and “Auto Upload,” Search, Social, & Commerce automatically prefixes its own redirect and tracking code when you save the record.
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For supported parameters to embed the final URL, see the Microsoft Advertising documentation on parameters to indicate the final URL.
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You can optionally include URL parameters and any custom parameters defined for the campaign, separated by ampersands (&), such as {lpurl}?matchtype={matchtype}&device={device}.
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You can optionally add third-party redirects and tracking.
- The tracking template at the most granular level overrides the values at all higher levels. For example, if both the account settings and the keyword settings include a value, then the keyword value is applied.
- You can update your tracking templates at any level without resubmitting your ads for approval.
Custom Parameters: (Optional; applicable to audience campaigns only for Microsoft Advertising) Name and value pairs for up to three custom parameters. The maximum length for names is 16 alphanumeric characters; the maximum length for values is 200 characters, including embedded parameters.
You can include your custom parameter names in the tracking templates for the entity and its child entities. When a user clicks a relevant ad, the ad network replaces the parameter name with the defined parameter value. For example, if you create a customer parameter {_color}=red and your tracking template includes http://tracker.example.com/?color={_color}&u={lpurl}, then “red” is inserted in the color parameter when a user clicks an ad.
Custom parameters at the ad group or (Microsoft Advertising only) ad level override campaign-level
custom parameters with the same name.
Adgroup Frequency Cap Settings: (Optional) The number of times a customer will be served ads from the ad group. Enter a value and select the time unit (Hour, Day, or Week).
Negative Keywords
Negative Keywords: (Optional) Any keywords that, when queried, don’t trigger an ad. Use the following syntax, without a minus sign (-):
- Negative broad match:
keyword(not supported by Microsoft Advertising) - Negative phrase match:
"keyword" - Negative exact match:
[keyword]
Separate multiple values with commas, or enter them on separate lines. You can enter or paste up to 2000 negative keywords in one operation.
- The maximum length per keyword is 100 characters.
- You can set negative keywords at the campaign and ad group levels from either the campaign and ad group settings or from the Keywords > Negatives view. Campaign-level negatives are applied at the ad group level.
- Changing a Microsoft Advertising keyword deletes the existing keyword and creates a new one with a new keyword ID. Changing the match type, however, doesn’t delete the existing keyword.
Negative Websites
Negative Websites: (Campaigns on the display/native network only; optional) Sites on the display network on which you don’t want your ads to be displayed. Enter a valid URL, such as www.example.com. To specify multiple strings, separate them with commas or enter them on separate lines.
For information about availability, see Microsoft Advertising help on “Prevent ads from appearing on specific websites.”