Microsoft Advertising Expands AI-Powered Campaign Features
Microsoft Advertising has rolled out several updates to its platform, including AI Visibility Insights, PMax Testing, and Creative Preview Updates. The company introduced a monthly product newsletter on LinkedIn, bringing together existing features with new capabilities across AI reporting, Performance Max testing, and creative review.
The August update expands Microsoft's AI Visibility reporting in Clarity with Topic Insights, which groups AI citations by subject. Advertisers can now see which topics AI systems associate with their brand, how frequently those topics appear, and where they may have gaps in coverage. The feature builds on earlier AI Visibility reporting by adding another layer of analysis.
Microsoft also outlined several AI reporting metrics that advertisers will see inside the new reports, including Grounding queries, Citation share, and Share of authority. Advertisers can apply those insights to paid search by comparing grounding queries with existing search terms, identifying opportunities for new keywords and negative keywords, and adjusting landing pages or ad creative based on competitive AI citation data.
The updates also focus on measuring the impact of AI-powered campaign automation through Performance Max experimentation. The company released two recently experiment types designed to help advertisers evaluate whether Performance Max improves results: Uplift experiments measure the impact of adding Performance Max alongside existing campaigns, while Upgrade experiments compare existing Search or Shopping campaigns against Performance Max after migration.
Microsoft's newsletter also included practical guidance for setting up those tests. The company recommends having at least 30 conversions during the previous 30 days before running experiments and keeping bidding targets, product groups, and campaign settings consistent between test and control groups.