Get to know your Microsoft Advertising account modes
Get to know your Microsoft Advertising account modes
Compare Smart Mode, Multi-platform, and Expert Mode.Your Microsoft Advertising experience will slightly differ depending on the mode that you’re in. Each mode represents how much time you’re willing and able to devote to advertising, as well as goals you have and features you prioritize. Get familiar with the different modes below, as well as how to switch them.
Note
Please note that the mode you’re in upon signing up for Microsoft Advertising may vary depending on your location.
Smart Mode
Note
Smart Mode is only available in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Smart Mode is a streamlined, simple experience that lets Microsoft Advertising's AI take care of most of the nuts and bolts of ad campaign management. It's a great way for small businesses and novice advertisers to start off advertising on the Microsoft Search Network.
Multi-platform
Note
Multi-platform is only available in the United States.
Multi-platform is a one-stop shop to manage your online advertising and social networking presence. Whether it's managing your search ads on Bing and Google, managing your social ads on Facebook and Instagram, or helping to engage your audience on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, we've got you covered. It is free to use, with no upfront or monthly costs. You only pay when someone clicks your ad. Multi-platform is an effective way to run your advertising campaigns and social media platforms with help from our AI—all in one place.
Expert Mode
Expert Mode is the full-featured Microsoft Advertising experience. It gives you more control over campaign management, lets you add more content to your ads, and provides more performance reporting and tracking. Expert mode is perfect for advanced marketers and advertisers who want to fine-tune every aspect of their campaign.
Comparing Smart Mode, Multi-platform, and Expert Mode
| Smart Mode | Multi-platform | Expert Mode | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Content you can have in your ads | Text, phone number | Text, phone number, images, videos, maps | Text, phone number, images, maps, reviews, prices, and more |
| Ad campaign types you can use | Search campaigns | Search campaigns on the Microsoft Search Network and Google, Social ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram | Search, shopping, and audience campaigns |
| What determines how much you pay for each click | Bidding (setting how much each click is worth) is completely handled by Microsoft Advertising. | Bidding (setting how much each click is worth) is completely handled by Microsoft Advertising. | You can set bids manually or choose from several different automated bid strategies. |
| How you can target your ads | Customer location, keyword themes | Customer location, keyword themes | Customer location, day of the week or time of day, device type, age, gender, LinkedIn profile information, past interaction with your website (remarketing), and more |
| What campaign performance metrics are available | Spend, clicks, impressions, search phrases, phone calls, device type, customer action tracking (conversions) | Spend, clicks, impressions, search phrases, phone calls, top performing ads, customer action tracking (conversions) | Dozens of additional metrics, and the ability to run reports (automatically, if you choose) on any combination of them. |
| How you create a campaign | Specify the campaign basics (goals, website, targeted locations, keyword themes, ads, and budget) with suggestions from Microsoft based on your business website. | Enter your business website and advertising goals and Microsoft generates the entire campaign for you. You can edit any details of the campaign before launching it. | Specify all details of a new campaign or review all details of an imported campaign. You can also import campaign data from Google Ads and Facebook Ads. |
| Can use Microsoft Advertising Editor and other third-party tools | No | No | Yes |
| Offers social media management | No | Yes. Multi-platform can manage your social network presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. | No |
Switching modes
Your business can benefit from any of the campaign modes offered by Microsoft Advertising. However, if you desire a specific mode that best fits your advertising goals, here’s how you can switch.
Important
- At this time, you cannot switch from Smart Mode to Multi-platform, or from Multi-platform to Smart Mode.
- You can, however, create a new Expert Mode account under the same credentials as your Multi-platform account.
Important
Once you switch from Smart Mode to Expert Mode, you can't switch back. However, you can always edit your smart campaigns from Expert Mode, just like you would any other campaign.
- From the top menu, select Tools > Switch to Expert Mode.
- Select Switch to Expert Mode when prompted to confirm that you’re sure you want to switch to Expert Mode.
- From the top menu, select Tools > Switch to Expert Mode.
- Select Switch to Expert Mode when prompted to confirm that you’re sure you want to switch to Expert Mode.