Microsoft Advertising will be rolling out Similar Audiences, the ability to import Google Merchant Center stores and an expansion of its Audience Network to include France and Germany, the company announced Tuesday.
Similar Audiences rolls out domestically. The Similar Audiences feature, which finds new customers by looking for searchers similar to the ones on your remarketing lists, will be rolling out to U.S. advertisers later this month.
To use Similar Audiences, you need to have at least one remarketing list with 300 or more users. Microsoft Advertising reevaluates your Similar Audience list daily so that there’s no overlap with your original remarketing list. The U.S. open beta for this feature was first announced in September 2019.
Additionally, advertisers can also import similar audiences and shared remarketing lists from Google Ads.
Enhanced Shopping Campaign importing. Microsoft Advertising is now allowing advertisers to import their Google Merchant Center (GMC) store along with their Shopping campaigns. Importing a GMC store automatically creates a Microsoft Merchant Center store with the same name, settings and domain. This feature is currently only available as a closed beta; to participate, get in contact with your Microsoft Advertising account manager or contact Microsoft Advertising.
If you’re part of the closed beta, you can import your GMC store by signing into your GMC account during the shopping campaigns import process. Your Shopping Campaigns will go live as soon as the feed import is complete.
Microsoft Smart Shopping for Shopify. Microsoft Advertising’s Shopify app is getting a new feature, called Microsoft Smart Shopping, that simplifies the Shopping campaign creation process. In addition, Shopify merchants using Microsoft Advertising’s app are also automatically opted in to free product listings in Bing Shopping.
A simpler Google Import process. Over the next few weeks, Microsoft Advertising will be rolling out a simplified Google Import process. “We’ve cut down the complexities and reduced Google Ads Import to three easy steps: sign in, choose your accounts, then start your import,” the announcement reads.
After the import, Microsoft Advertising automatically optimizes your import settings for greater compatibility, but advertisers looking for more granular control will still have access to all import options.
The platform is also introducing automatic syncing frequency. This new setting only imports when changes in your Google Ads account are likely to benefit your Microsoft Advertising account, such as when Microsoft Advertising releases a new feature that you’re already using in Google Ads.
Microsoft Audience Network extends to France and Germany.
The Microsoft Audience Network is now available in seven markets: the U.S., Canada (in English), UK, Australia, France, Germany and New Zealand.
Why we care. The Similar Audience feature enables you to reach searchers with similar interests as the ones in your remarketing lists, which may help to broaden your prospecting reach. Additionally, “Ads shown to Similar Audiences saw up to a 39% greater conversion rate (CVR) than the same ads shown to non-audience targeted users,” according to Microsoft’s internal data.
Enhanced Shopping Campaign importing and the simplified Google Import process may help reduce the friction involved with getting campaigns up and running on Microsoft Advertising. This might also encourage advertisers already working on other platforms to adopt Microsoft Advertising as a way to scale their campaigns.
Automatically opting Shopify merchants into Bing’s free product listings also helps Microsoft come closer to feature parity with Google’s expanded Shopify integration and Microsoft Audience Network’s expansion into France and Germany opens up more markets for native advertising.
RELATED: Facebook Import is now available in Microsoft Advertising
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