Microsoft Ads: Campaign types explained

If you're thinking about running Microsoft Ads but feeling a bit lost with all the different campaign types, you're not alone. Choosing the right campaign for your specific marketing goals can make or break your ROI, so it’s vital to be clued up on what’s best for you.

The good news? Once you know what each one does (and when to use them), it’s a lot easier to get your ads working harder for you. In this guide, we’ll walk you through all the main Microsoft Ads campaign types, so you’re ready to make the most informed decision for your next campaign, and level up your ROI in the process.

• Overview of Microsoft Ads
• Search campaigns
• Audience Ads
• Shopping campaigns
• Performance Max campaigns
• How to choose the right campaign type?

Overview of Microsoft Ads

The inexperienced marketer may believe Google holds all the cards when it comes to PPC marketing, but Microsoft Ads have a surprisingly strong reach. They’re especially adept at connecting with a unique audience, often older and with higher disposable incomes compared to Google’s audience.

The surprisingly broad reach of Microsoft is thanks to its integration across Bing, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft Edge, LinkedIn, Outlook, and MSN. When planning your next campaign, creating a Microsoft Ad campaign is a great chance to tap into the reported 724 million monthly search users globally.

There are also bonus features to moving beyond Google in your PPC targeting, as Microsoft supports highly granular audience targeting with options like LinkedIn profile targeting, customer match, and dynamic remarketing.

So what are the key campaign types available? They boil down to 5 essentials that cover multiple styles of advertising:

• Search Campaign
• Audience Campaign
• Smart Campaign
• Shopping Campaign
• Performance Max Campaign

Search Campaigns

Explanation
These are text-based ads that appear alongside search engine results when users search for relevant keywords.

When creating these campaigns, you’ll use keyword targeting to match user intent with your ads.

When to use
Search ads are ideal for lead generation, online sales, and driving website traffic. They’re best for targeting users actively searching for specific products or services. More engaged users with intent or curiosity behind their browsing. You can also use Search campaigns across earlier stages of the funnel; when users are casually browsing to learn more about what options are available to them in your industry.

Strengths

• High intent audience.

• Clear and measurable ROI.

• Extensive targeting options including device, location, and demographic targeting.

• Easy to manage and optimise based on performance metrics.

Limitations
The CPC (cost-per-click) for many keywords can be incredibly high, forcing marketers to get creative and find space for larger campaigns that incorporate long-tail keywords as a backup strategy. Either that, or prepare to spend a lot in some industries where the CPCs are high across the board.

In this visual, video-driven online mediascape, you’re limited to users actively searching,  potentially missing broader awareness opportunities. This could be countered with a 2nd campaign type running alongside your Search campaign.

Best Practices

• Conduct thorough keyword research. The aim is to become an expert in your audience, so you know exactly how they are looking for your products and services.

• Make use of negative keywords to avoid irrelevant clicks.

• Write compelling ad copy that includes a strong call to action.

• Use ad extensions like site links, callouts, and structured snippets for higher visibility.

• Regularly test ad variations to see what’s working, and what’s wasting ad spend.

Audience Ads

Explanation
Audience campaigns are native ads displayed across the Microsoft Audience Network, appearing on sites like MSN, Outlook, and Microsoft Edge. Their targeting is based on user behaviour, interests, demographics, and LinkedIn profile data. These ads are also responsive, meaning you can use media assets and chosen ad copy to attract customers.

When to use
These ads are suitable for brand awareness, remarketing, and reaching users at different stages of the buying journey. You’ll find them useful for promoting content, nurturing leads, and expanding reach beyond search.

Strengths
Access to premium placements across trusted Microsoft properties.
Advanced targeting capabilities including LinkedIn targeting for B2B audiences., (this is essential for sourcing new leads in B2B).
Supports rich ad formats like image and video ads, so your ads are naturally integrated into existing content online.

Limitations
You should expect lower direct conversion rates compared to your Search campaigns, but that’s hardly a platform-specific concern. Just be sure to run multiple ad campaign types to prevent missing out on any useful audiences.

As with any visual campaign, audience responsive ads require strong creatives to engage users in a non-search context. The best approach here is to work with a highly skilled team to create graphics that truly stand out. 

Best Practices

• Use high-quality images and clear messaging.

• Segment audiences carefully and tailor ads to each segment.

• Set realistic KPIs focused on engagement and brand interaction, not just conversions, as these ad types can have a different interaction profile compared to Search.

• Regularly update creatives to prevent ad fatigue, users get bored easily seeing the same content!

Shopping Campaigns

Explanation
The clue’s in the name for these ads; product-based campaigns that display images, prices, and product details at the top of search results. These connect to product feeds through Microsoft Merchant Center.

When to use
Shopping ads are best for e-commerce businesses selling physical products online. If you’ve got a service to sell, you’ll be better off with Search ads. But Shopping campaigns are really effective for showcasing products visually to high-intent audiences, and are often used as part of the browsing experience for users before they click through to specific sites.

Strengths

• Highly visual and informative ad format that is highly legible and accessible to users.

• Higher click-through rates due to attractive product displays, and the appeal of browsing for fun online.

• Easy integration for existing Google Merchant Center feeds, so you’re not spending hours manually creating large campaign build-outs.

Limitations
The complications with Shopping ads come with the feed itself. Unsurprisingly, it requires a well-maintained and optimised product feed, so spend time sorting out any knots before building your first Shopping campaign.

While you can upload heaps of images to your products, you still have limited creative control over how products appear. The key here is to ensure you use high quality photographs as your starting point.

Best Practices

• Ensure your product feed is accurate, up-to-date, and optimised with relevant keywords.

• Use high-quality images and competitive pricing.

• Make use of promotions and ratings where possible to increase appeal.

• Monitor feed errors and resolve any issues quickly to avoid disapprovals.

Performance Max Campaigns

Explanation
Ready to step into the future of Microsoft Ads? Smart Ads are being sunsetted to make way for Performance Max campaigns. These are goal-based campaigns that use AI to deliver ads across all Microsoft networks: Search, Audience, Shopping, and Display.

Each campaign has the focus of maximising performance against a set conversion goal of your choosing.

When to use
These are ideal to use when you want to maximise leads or sales across multiple channels. It’s also useful for multi-channel delivery at speed. Basically, if you’re looking to create something broad, that spans multiple channels and audience segments, Performance Max could help you out. 

We like the idea of delicately using this ad type for experimentation, too. It could be a good way to test multiple campaign types against one another so see what your audience best responds to. Just be sure to set your budgets firmly and keep a very close eye on your results.

Strengths

• Your unified campaign type simplifies cross-network advertising.

• AI-driven real-time automation across placements, audiences, and creatives.

• Saves time while scaling reach and performance.

Limitations
The primary issue here is limited manual control and transparency. You’ll really need to keep an eye on where the budget is being spent and take a close look at all metrics from the campaign, as it’ll be less obvious why certain ads aren’t performing well compared to the metrics you can gather from a Search campaign, for example.

Your overall ad performance is heavily dependent on the quality of supplied assets (text, images, videos). But providing you’re sourcing good quality media, you can start off on a strong foundation.

Best Practices

• Provide high-quality, diverse creative assets to train the system better.

• Set clear, conversion-based goals.

• Use IndexNow to ensure your Performance Max ads are actually reaching the most relevant sites and are being placed accordingly.

How to choose the right campaign type? Combining Campaign Types

So how do you choose what campaign type is right for you? They all have major positives and it can seem like they all have potential. The key is to start by defining some clear marketing goals: awareness, consideration, or conversion. 

What’s most useful and important to your business? What stage of the funnel are you looking to target with this campaign? Remember, you don’t need one campaign to cover every eventuality. Multiple campaigns can cover different stages, audience segments and marketing goals.

Match campaign types to user intent stages:

• Search campaigns for high-intent searches.

• Audience campaigns for top-of-funnel brand awareness and remarketing.

• Shopping campaigns for showcasing and selling physical products.

• Smart campaigns for simple, low-effort advertising needs.

• Performance Max campaigns for broad, AI-driven optimisation across networks.

Combine campaign types strategically:

Ultimately, the most air-tight campaigns and marketing strategies cover all bases. Pair Search and Audience campaigns for full-funnel coverage.

Use Shopping and Audience campaigns together to retarget users who viewed products but did not convert, and layer Smart or Performance Max campaigns to maintain consistent presence with minimal management.

Closing Notes

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to Microsoft Ads, and honestly, that’s a good thing. The different campaign types each have their place; it’s all a question of pairing the campaign type with your marketing goals to get the very best results.

It’s important to take your time when crafting the ultimate campaign. Don’t be afraid to experiment with AI opportunities, and consider combining different campaign types strategically for the most cohesive coverage online.

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