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How do I create an audience campaign?

Learn how to create a campaign that will run ads natively on the Microsoft Audience Network.
Note

This feature is available in all Microsoft Advertising markets.

Creating a new campaign to run audience ads is similar to creating a new search ad campaign.

  1. From the collapsible menu on the left, select All campaigns > Campaigns > Create.
  2. Choose the appropriate goal for the campaign. Setting your goal right at the start lets us suggest the most helpful features for your campaign. You'll still have access to all Microsoft Advertising features regardless of the goal you choose.
  3. Select Audience ads > Next.
  4. The campaign creation wizard will then walk you through the process.
1. Campaign settings expando image

In the first step, you give us the basic details of your campaign:

  1. For Campaign name, give your campaign a unique name. It's a good idea to have your campaign's name reflect its goal. Note: A campaign name cannot contain scripts, HTML, or other markup language.
  2. For Daily budget, enter the maximum amount of money you want to spend per day. Learn more about your budget options
  3. When you're done, select Select Save & go to next step.
2. Ad groups, audiences & targets expando image

In the second step, you create an ad group for this campaign and choose the audiences you want the ads in the ad group to target. This is one of the major differences between audience marketing and search marketing: Here, you are telling us what kind of people you want to see your ads, instead of telling us what keywords you want your ads to appear for.

You can choose any combination of the possible target criteria:

Location expando image
Select locations you want to target or exclude. You can target and change your bid adjustment for:
  • United States and Canada
  • All available countries/regions
  • Selected countries/regions and states/provinces
  • Selected counties within the United States
  • Selected cities, metro areas, and postal codes* within Australia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, United States

    *Note:

    • Not all postal codes are supported for targeting exactly within their boundaries. If you target an unsupported postal code, it will be converted into a radius target (see below).
    • For Canadian and UK postal codes, only the first segment (for Canada, the first 3 characters; for UK, the first 2-to-4-character segment) is recognized. If you enter the second segment, you will only be able to use radius targeting.
    • The boundaries of some postal codes in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and United Kingdom do not appear accurately on the map you see in Microsoft Advertising, but targeting within them will still function accurately.
  • A specified radius around a postal code, coordinates*, landmark, or area. (Note: You cannot exclude using radius targeting.)

    *Coordinates can be searched for in the format "[latitude], [longitude]" with the degrees in decimal form — for example, "44.590,-104.716".

Age expando image
Choose one or more age ranges of people you want to see your ads.
Gender expando image
Choose the gender of the people you want to see your ads.
Audience expando image

With audience targeting, you specify who can see your ads using remarketing lists or audiences such as in-market audiences. You can also exclude audiences if you don't want them to see your ads. Learn more about your options for audiences

To target an audience:

  1. Under Ad group targeting select Add targets and then select which type of audience you want to target.
  2. Search or browse for an existing audience, and then select it in the left pane to move it into the Selected pane on the right.
  3. If you want to create a new audience, select the link at the bottom of the area. For example, Create remarketing list.

To exclude an audience, follow the same process under Ad group exclusions.

Company expando image
With company targeting, you can target your ads to be more (or less) likely to appear for people who most recently worked at specific companies (according to their LinkedIn profiles).

  1. Search for a company by name.
  2. You will see relevant companies, along with the approximate number of employees each company has (according to LinkedIn).
  3. For the appropriate company, select Target or Exclude.
Note

You cannot target more than 1,000 companies in a single ad group.

Industry expando image
With industry targeting, you can target your ads to be more (or less) likely to appear for people who most recently worked in specific industries (according to their LinkedIn profiles).

  1. Search or browse for a type of industry.
  2. For the appropriate industry, select Target or Exclude.
Job function expando image
With job function targeting, you can target your ads to be more (or less) likely to appear for people who most recently had specific kinds of jobs (according to their LinkedIn profiles).

  1. Search or browse for a type of job function.
  2. For the appropriate job function, select Target or Exclude.

Once you submit your criteria, select Select Save & go to next step.

Important
  • As you add and edit targets, pay attention to the Possible monthly impressions meter on the right side of the page. This will estimate how many people would be eligible to see your ads based on your targeting criteria.
  • If your targeting becomes too narrow, you won't be able to save your campaign.
3. Ads expando image

In the third step, you give us the imagery, text, and URLs to use in the ads in your campaign. This is the other major difference between audience ads and search ads: Audience ads are responsive, automatically adjusting the imagery, text, and overall appearance to naturally blend in with the fundamental experience of the page they are placed in.

Notes
  • As you add information, we will update the Ad preview area on the right side of the page to give you an idea of what your ad could look like. Use the arrows on either side of the Ad preview area to scroll through the different possible placements in properties such as MSN and Outlook.com.
  • The ad previews are examples of how your audience ads could appear. Depending on placement, the actual ad shown may appear differently — for example, some text may be shortened.
  1. Select Add image.
    1. Choose whether to use an image from your Existing images, pick one of our available Stock images, or Upload an image. Note: You cannot upload more than 5,000 images to a Microsoft Advertising account.
    2. When you've found the right image, select it.
    3. You'll see how we have cropped the image for the possible aspect ratios for audience ads. If you want to change the imagery for any specific aspect ratio, select its pencil icon and select either Re-crop or Replace.
  2. Enter a Short headline and a Long headline. Both are required for display flexibility. Short headlines must be 30 characters or fewer; long headlines must be 90 characters or fewer.
  3. Enter 90 characters or fewer of Ad text. Depending on your audience ad's placement, this text will appear below or adjacent to your ad's long or short headline.
  4. Enter your Business name. Depending on your audience ad's placement, your business name may appear in your audience ad.
  5. Enter your Final URL. This is your landing page URL — in other words, the URL of the page that displays after a customer clicks on your ad.
  6. Enter your Mobile URL. This is the webpage where people go to after clicking on your ad on a mobile device.
  7. (Optional) Select Advanced URL options to include tracking templates or URL parameters in your final URL.
  8. When you're done providing information for this ad, select Save.
  9. (Optional) Select Create another ad to set up another audience ad. You can create as many ads as you like in this step.
  10. When you're done creating ads, select Select Save & go to next step.
4. Budget & bids expando image
In the final step, you review your campaign budget and set your bids:
  1. Review the Daily budget that you set in step 1 of the campaign-creation process and change it if necessary.
  2. Set a Default bid as a starting point for this campaign's bids.
  3. Review the estimated performance metrics for these settings, and adjust your budget and bid as necessary to get the performance you're hoping to get.
  4. (Optional) Select Bid adjustment and tell Microsoft Advertising how much to increase or decrease your default bid on each of the target criteria you set in step 2 of the campaign-creation process.
  5. (Optional) Select Ad schedule if you want to show your ads only on certain days or certain times of day.
  6. When you're finished, select Save.
Notes
  • After you select Save in the fourth step, your ads will begin appearing on the Microsoft Audience Network shortly, unless there is an error with your account.
  • To further optimize your audience campaign, use the Audience Network Planner to experiment with different audiences and combinations of audiences.
Note

Learn more about shopping audience campaigns.

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