Opt out Microsoft audience ads

Hello Ramprasad,

Thank you for using our Microsoft Advertising Learn Q&A Platform! 

I understand that you are aiming to have greater control over your ad distribution settings and delivering on the audience network via select partner sites. I hope the extended response provided here will be of use to you.

The Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) aims to provide an alternative to traditional search marketing campaigns by offering advertisers the ability to target people through things such as Audience Ads, In-market Audience lists, or Custom Audiences. To simply put it, the audience network does not require keywords to trigger ads. It is based on audience signals to determine when an ad should appear. Audience signals are unique attributes such as age, gender, LinkedIn information, remarketing data, etc. Audience network ads do not appear on the search engine results pages. Instead, they appear on native placements such as MSN, Outlook, Edge, and search partners. These are known as Audience Ads.

Regular search campaigns are also automatically enabled to serve on the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN). With increasing pressure to do more with less, savvy marketers can tap into the power of search intent and use it to enhance overall performance across channels. Fueled by the rich intent data from search, the Microsoft Audience Network provides an effective way for you to connect to your potential customers with intent and reach them across the web. With powerful signals—which include search and web activity—you can deliver highly relevant messages to an audience who is ready to convert. When you come to Microsoft Advertising, you can leverage both the Microsoft Search Network and the Microsoft Audience Network. Together, these two networks reach more than a billion people delivering strong return on investment (ROI) through artificial intelligence (AI) and rich first-party data. Now, we’re making it even easier for you to find your best customers wherever they are and meet them in the moments that matter. To learn more about success factors, please check out the blog post below:

• Maximizing the power of search intent with Microsoft Advertising

Audience delivery through search coupled with effective Audience campaigns can boost your ads online. Our engineering teams are constantly monitoring our traffic quality metrics and are committed to the following promises:

• Better performance: Autobidding optimizes performance to the campaign goal respectively, for both search and audience networks. This is a major change, as we optimized in aggregate towards the campaign goal before – but now performance is maximized in both the search and audience network individually by slice.
• Comparable CPA and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Campaign CPA and ROAS will be comparable between search and audience. Some variations may exist due to various factors but there will be no more egregious gaps.
• Traffic stability: We continually make improvements to reduce spikes or volatility.

You are encouraged to monitor your delivery to the audience network by running website URL reports frequently, to see how you have been performing on websites within the audience network. Running a Website URL (publisher) report shows the impressions, clicks, spend, and conversions for websites on the Microsoft Search Network and the Microsoft Audience Network. This data can be sorted by website URL, account, campaign, and ad group. You can run this report in order to see which website URLs are or aren’t performing well enough for your campaign or ad group target settings. For example, if ad impressions at those URLs yield a low click-through-rate, then you might decide to exclude those websites from your campaign.Regular search campaigns are also automatically enabled to serve on the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN). With increasing pressure to do more with less, savvy marketers can tap into the power of search intent and use it to enhance overall performance across channels. Fueled by the rich intent data from search, the Microsoft Audience Network provides an effective way for you to connect to your potential customers with intent and reach them across the web. With powerful signals—which include search and web activity—you can deliver highly relevant messages to an audience who is ready to convert. When you come to Microsoft Advertising, you can leverage both the Microsoft Search Network and the Microsoft Audience Network. Together, these two networks reach more than a billion people delivering strong return on investment (ROI) through artificial intelligence (AI) and rich first-party data. Now, we’re making it even easier for you to find your best customers wherever they are and meet them in the moments that matter. To learn more about success factors, please check out the blog post below:

• Maximizing the power of search intent with Microsoft Advertising

Audience delivery through search coupled with effective Audience campaigns can boost your ads online. Our engineering teams are constantly monitoring our traffic quality metrics and are committed to the following promises:

• Better performance: Autobidding optimizes performance to the campaign goal respectively, for both search and audience networks. This is a major change, as we optimized in aggregate towards the campaign goal before – but now performance is maximized in both the search and audience network individually by slice.
• Comparable CPA and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Campaign CPA and ROAS will be comparable between search and audience. Some variations may exist due to various factors but there will be no more egregious gaps.
• Traffic stability: We continually make improvements to reduce spikes or volatility.

You are encouraged to monitor your delivery to the audience network by running website URL reports frequently, to see how you have been performing on websites within the audience network. Running a Website URL (publisher) report shows the impressions, clicks, spend, and conversions for websites on the Microsoft Search Network and the Microsoft Audience Network. This data can be sorted by website URL, account, campaign, and ad group. You can run this report in order to see which website URLs are or aren’t performing well enough for your campaign or ad group target settings. For example, if ad impressions at those URLs yield a low click-through-rate, then you might decide to exclude those websites from your campaign.

We recommend running your ads on the Audience Network for some time in order to see how your overall performance is trending.  If you find, after optimizing your campaigns, that you are still unable to obtain your desired performance, the following steps can be taken to minimize delivery to the Audience Network:

Given your setup, with a Standard Search campaign created, ad distribution set to "Microsoft sites and select traffic," Phrase Match and Exact Match keywords in use, an extensive negative keyword list applied, and conversion tracking configured, your campaign is well positioned to attract relevant traffic while minimizing unwanted clicks. You can expect your ads to appear across Microsoft-owned properties and selected partner traffic sources, giving you access to additional reach while maintaining keyword targeting control. The combination of phrase and exact match keywords, together with a robust negative keyword strategy, helps improve traffic quality and relevance. With conversion tracking in place, you can accurately measure performance, optimize bids and targeting, and make data-driven decisions to improve campaign results. Here’s what you can expect and what you can control.

Your ads will appear on Microsoft sites (Bing, MSN, Outlook.com) and select partner traffic with performance similar to Bing. You cannot individually exclude MSN, Outlook.com, or Outlook mobile apps from search ad placements within this setting. The sites are reported in aggregate, and individual domain exclusions are not possible for select traffic. Audience ads (native placements on MSN, Outlook, Edge, etc.) are not delivered unless you specifically run Audience campaigns. Using Phrase Match and Exact Match keywords ensures your ads are triggered only by relevant, high-intent search queries. Negative keywords further refine this, preventing your ads from showing for irrelevant queries. By not running Audience campaigns, you avoid native/display placements on MSN, Outlook, Edge, and partner sites. Search ads may still appear on MSN and Outlook.com as part of Microsoft sites and select traffic, but only in search contexts (not display/native placements).

If you have legal or brand safety reasons to opt out of specific domains within select traffic, you can send a request to Microsoft Advertising Support with your specific business justification. Your current setup is optimized for high-intent search traffic and qualified B2B leads. You cannot fully exclude MSN, Outlook, or Outlook mobile apps from search ad placements, but you are not running Audience/display ads unless you create Audience campaigns. For further exclusion of specific domains within select traffic. For more details, please refer to the following help documents:

What is the Microsoft Advertising Network?

Ad distribution settings

About ad distribution

Learn about using negative keywords to get to the right customers

What are Search ads?

Please keep in mind that adding Microsoft-owned domains (such as msn.com, outlook.live.com, outlook.com, bing.com) to the Website Exclusions list will not block your ads from appearing in Bing Search or other Microsoft Search results. Excluding bing.com only blocks Audience ad placements to Bing.com, not Search ad placements. It is not possible to block Search ad placements to Bing.com. For Search campaigns, Microsoft sites and select traffic (including Bing, MSN, Outlook.com) are reported in aggregate and cannot be manually excluded for delivery. Website Exclusions are primarily intended for Audience Network placements. For Search ads, domains included in the "Microsoft sites and select traffic" category cannot be manually excluded. Even if you add these domains to the exclusion list, ads will still serve on these sites for Search campaigns. Audience campaigns can apply website exclusions as normal, but Microsoft sites (such as msn.com, outlook.com, etc.) cannot be excluded from Audience campaigns either.

To limit Audience Network delivery, it is generally recommended to use ad distribution settings at the ad group level: Select "Microsoft sites and select traffic" to prioritize Search placements. Ad distribution settings are managed at the ad group level, not account or campaign level. Not running dedicated Audience campaigns, as Search campaigns may be extended to Audience placements. Applying website exclusions for Audience campaigns, but note that Microsoft sites cannot be excluded. Using brand suitability controls to exclude sensitive content categories, which can help control where your ads serve across the Microsoft Advertising Network, including Microsoft sites. There is no direct opt-out or bid adjustment for Audience Network delivery that is universally available. You need to contact support for further assistance there.

Our support teams are happy to discuss your account in more detail via phone, chat or email to provide review assistance, please see our support page to reach out! 

I hope the information provided here will at least partly answer your questions.  If you have any additional questions please do not hesitate to reach out to our support. I have also sent you a private message asking for further details. You are more than welcome to respond to me so that I can begin the investigation on my end.

Kind regards, 

Vahid | Microsoft Advertising Support Specialist | 800-518-5689