Set up ads

What makes an effective ad?
What makes an effective ad?
What makes an effective ad?
How to create or edit expanded text ads
How to create or edit expanded text ads
How to create or edit expanded text ads
Show a countdown to an event in your ad
Show a countdown to an event in your ad
Show a countdown to an event in your ad
About IF functions
About IF functions
About IF functions
Multimedia ads
Multimedia ads
Multimedia ads
About Responsive Search ads
About Responsive Search ads
About Responsive Search ads
Best practices for creating effective Responsive Search ads
Best practices for creating effective Responsive Search ads
Best practices for creating effective Responsive Search ads
Send your customers to a specific landing page
Send your customers to a specific landing page
Send your customers to a specific landing page
App Install ads: Drive app downloads
App Install ads: Drive app downloads
App Install ads: Drive app downloads
About Video ads (Online Video and Premium Streaming)
About Video ads (Online Video and Premium Streaming)
About Video ads (Online Video and Premium Streaming)
About Ads Studio
About Ads Studio
About Ads Studio
Asset guidelines and accepted file types
Asset guidelines and accepted file types
Asset guidelines and accepted file types
Use Asset library to manage all your creative assets
Use Asset library to manage all your creative assets
Use Asset library to manage all your creative assets
Connecting your ads to third-party measurement partners
Connecting your ads to third-party measurement partners
Connecting your ads to third-party measurement partners
About display ads
About display ads
About display ads
FAQ: Expanded text ads
FAQ: Expanded text ads
FAQ: Expanded text ads

About Responsive Search ads

Learn how to set up Responsive Search ads to optimize ad performance

Note

Display URL options are available for pharmaceutical advertisers. This setting allows advertisers to choose how they want to display their website's URL in pharmaceutical ads.

Important

Advertisers can no longer create new or edit existing Expanded Text ads or Standard Text ads.
Existing Expanded Text ads continue to serve, and you can still view reports on their performance. You can still pause, enable, or remove your expanded text ads.
Standard Text ads will stop serving in February 2025.
We recommend upgrading your Expanded Text ads and Standard Text ads to Responsive Search ads. Learn more

Responsive Search ads make creating ads easier by eliminating the need to figure out which headlines and descriptions work well together to maximize your ROI. You can provide up to fifteen headlines and four descriptions or you can save time and maximize ad performance by enabling auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads. Microsoft Advertising will use the most optimal combinations to create effective ads for potential customers. Enhance your headlines and descriptions by reviewing your ad strength score and implementing our suggestions for improvement. Our suggestions ensure that your ad text is relevant and appealing to people searching for your product or service. See Best practices for creating effective Responsive Search ads for more information about setting up your Responsive Search ads for success.

You may choose to leverage your Responsive Search ads by copying them to Multimedia ads. We'll take your existing Responsive Search ad assets and use them to convert your ads to Multimedia ads. To learn more, see Multimedia ads.

Responsive Search ads take care of analyzing ad performance. The best performing ad combinations are automatically identified and reported to you, while the ineffective ads aren't shown again. Adapting your ad's content to match what potential customers are searching for can help to improve your campaign's performance. See below for information on viewing your asset reports.

Save time by seamlessly adding images from your website to your Responsive Search ads. Learn more.

About Display URL options

Note

Not everyone has this feature yet. If you don't, don't worry—it's coming soon!

Display URL options is a campaign-level setting that allows pharmaceutical advertisers to control how their URL appears in ads. This helps advertisers meet governmental guidelines, regulations, and restrictions by providing two distinct options for how website URLs appear in their pharmaceutical ads:

Show Final URL: This is the landing page URL. In other words, the URL of the page that displays after a customer clicks on your ad.
Show website description: This shows a description of the advertiser's website, rather than a URL. When potential customers click the website description, they are taken to the advertiser's landing page. Advertisers can choose the website description and the language it serves in from the predefined list. If you choose this option, the website description will always appear in your ads even if you enter a Display URL or Final URL at the ad level. Note: This option is only available for pharmaceutical advertisers in the United States.

Please note that pharmaceutical advertisers also have the option to show a Display URL in their ads instead of a Final URL or a website description.

See Create a Responsive Search ad in a new campaign for further instructions about setting your Display URL options during campaign creation. You can also adjust and update your Display URL options in your campaign settings:

Adjust your Display URL options in your campaign settings

From the navigation menu on the left, select Campaigns.
Select the appropriate campaign.
Select Settings.
Choose Show Final URL or Show website description below Display URL options.
Select Save.

Create a new Responsive Search ad

You can create a Responsive Search ad in a new or existing campaign.

Create a Responsive Search ad in a new campaign

From the navigation menu on the left, select Create.
Choose Drive conversions or Generate leads as your campaign goal.
Select Search as your campaign type.
Select Search ads below Which ad type would you like to serve?
Select Continue.
The campaign creation wizard will then walk you through the process:

1. Campaign settings

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

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.
Campaign budget
This is the amount of money you want to spend per day. Learn more about your budget options
Location
This is where in the world you want your ads to appear. You can target or exclude specific countries/regions, states/provinces, cities, or zip/postal codes. Learn more about how language and location targeting affect who can see your ads
Who?
If you're targeting by location, who exactly should see your ads? People in your targeted locations, people searching for or viewing pages about your targeted locations, or both?
Language
This is the language you'll write your ads in. This should match the language of the sites that you'd like your ads to appear on. Learn more about language options in Microsoft Advertising
Enable auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads
This is a campaign-level setting that allows Microsoft Advertising to automatically generate assets (Headlines and Descriptions) to maximize your ad performance. Learn more about auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads.
Disclaimer
If you're advertising products that require additional caveats for legal or other reasons, select the checkbox to add a disclaimer.
Display URL options
Note Not everyone has this feature yet. If you don't, don't worry—it's coming soon! This is a campaign-level setting that allows pharmaceutical advertisers to control how their URL appears in ads. This helps advertisers meet governmental guidelines, regulations, and restrictions by providing two distinct options for how website URLs appear in their pharmaceutical ads: Show Final URL and Show website description. See above for more information.

2. Ad groups

Your website
Enter the URL of your website, and Microsoft Advertising will search it for ad group and keyword suggestions. If your website doesn't have all its necessary content yet, select the My website is not ready checkbox.
Get keyword suggestions
If you entered a URL for Your website, this is where you'll see our suggested ad groups and keywords. You can also enter a different URL or a word or phrase relevant to your product or service and get keyword suggestions for it. Select the arrows to move ad groups or keywords into the Enter keywords box on the left.
Enter keywords
If you're entering keywords manually, type or paste them here. In this box, you'll also set the appropriate match type for your keywords. Learn more about keyword match types
Add new ad group
You likely have more than one facet of your campaign, so it's a good idea to create a separate ad group for each. For example, if you sell men’s clothes, you might have separate ad groups, with separate keyword lists, for dress shirts and casual shirts. Learn more about organizing your account and campaigns

3. Ads & ad extensions

Ad type
Choose Responsive Search ad from the dropdown.
Creating ads
Create your ads by following the steps provided below.
Ad extensions
Ad extensions are additional pieces of information about your business that you can add to your ads. We will feature the ad extensions that are most relevant to the campaign goal you set at the very start. Learn more about ad extensions

4. Budget & bids

Campaign budget
This is the amount that you set in the first step. You can make changes to it in this step and see how it affects your estimated performance.
Bid strategy
Your bid strategy setting tells Microsoft Advertising how you want to manage your bids. Learn more about bid strategies
Ad group bid
Try changing the bid amounts and see how the performance estimates in the table change. Learn more about these performance estimates
Advanced campaign settings
Here you have the option to change your campaign's targeting settings.

Create a Responsive Search ad in an existing campaign

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Ads.
Select Create ad, and then select an ad group.
For Ad type, select Responsive Search ad.
Enter your landing page URL in the Final URL box.
Enter your Mobile URL.
(For pharmaceutical advertisers only) Enter your Display URL (optional). Learn more about Display URLs.
There are two options for creating your Headlines and Descriptions:
- Manually enter them. If you manually enter them, you can have between five and fifteen headlines and up to four descriptions. Optionally, you can pin them to specific positions.
- Enable Auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads. If you enable Auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads, you must still provide at least three headlines and two descriptions.
Under Image extensions, select Add image to create a new image extension or choose from your image Recommendations.
Note: Please consider all regulatory policies and risks before using image Recommendations if your ads are for highly regulated industries, such as pharmaceuticals.
Select Save.

Notes

At least one eligible headline must be available for each position. You can't pin all of the headlines to the same position. A headline will only be eligible for its pinned position, or any position if not pinned. Bing AI chooses the best headline per position when ads are shown.
At least one eligible description must be available for each position. You can't pin all of the descriptions to the same position. A description is only eligible for its pinned position, or any position if not pinned. Bing AI chooses the best description per position when ads are shown.
For example, you can have 3 descriptions pinned to position 1, as long as you have at least one description that is either not pinned or pinned to position 2.

Update an existing Responsive Search ad

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Ads.
In the ad table, select the pencil icon next to the ad you would like to edit.
Enter your changes.
Select Save.

Edit your text assets

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Ads.
Select View assets details below the appropriate Responsive Search ad.
Hover over the text assets (headlines or descriptions) you want to edit.
Select the pencil icon and make your edits as necessary.
Select Save.

Note: Your edits will go into effect and will start serving in your ads about five minutes after selecting Save.

Update multiple Responsive Search ads at the same time

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Ads.
Select the checkbox next to the ad you want to edit and select Edit > Change ads.
In the Make changes to drop-down list, choose Responsive Search ads.

To replace text in multiple ads:

In the Action list, select Find and replace text, and then select the field in which you would like to replace the text.
In the Find box, enter the text you want to replace.
In the Replace with box, enter the new text you want to use.
Select Save.

To add more headlines or descriptions:

In the Action list, select Add and select Headlines or Descriptions.
Enter the new headlines or descriptions text.
Select Save.

To remove headlines or descriptions:

In the Action list, select Remove and select Headlines or Descriptions.
Select Contains, Equals, or Starts with and enter the text to find the headlines or descriptions you want to remove.
Select Save.

To change current pin settings:

In the Action list, select Pin and select Headlines or Descriptions.
Select Contains, Equals, or Starts with and enter the text to find the headlines or descriptions you want to re-pin.
In the Pin to list, select the position you want to pin the headline or description to.
Make your changes and select Save.

Add images from your website to your Responsive Search ads

The redesigned ad creator experience allows you to choose which images from your website you would like to include in your Responsive Search ads.

You can easily add images from your website to your ads:

When creating or updating your Responsive Search ad, under Image extensions, select Add images > Website images.
Choose which image you would like to show with your ad.
Select Save.

View Responsive Search ad performance reports

View your Responsive Search ad assets for a single ad:

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Ads.
Select View assets details below the appropriate Responsive Search ad.

View your assets for all Responsive Search ads across campaigns:

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Assets.
Check the columns in the grid to view asset performance.
To view your assets for all Responsive Search ads across ad groups within a campaign, you can select a specific campaign and then select Assets.

View your combination report:

In the combination report, you can view the best performing ad combinations and assets for your Responsive Search ads.

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Ads.
Select View assets details below the appropriate Responsive Search ad.
Select Combinations.
View your Responsive Search ads.

Note: If you've enabled auto-generated assets, any auto-generated assets that served in your ads will be included in the combination report.

About ad strength

Your ad strength score rates the diversity, quality, and quantity of your Responsive Search ad assets (Headlines and Descriptions). The ad strength score can be “Poor,” “Average,” “Good,” or “Excellent.” This score tells you how effective and relevant your Responsive Search ads are. To help ensure that you maximize ad performance and don't miss out on opportunities, we provide suggestions for improvement along with your ad strength score. Advertisers who improve their ad strength score from "Poor" to "Excellent" see 33% more CTR (click-through rate) on average. To help improve your ad strength, you can enable auto-generated assets and Microsoft Advertising will automatically generate assets (Headlines and Descriptions) to maximize your ad performance.

Please note that your ad strength rating takes auto-generated assets into account if you've enabled them for your campaign.

There are three ways to view your ad strength score and suggestions: During Responsive Search ad creation, in the ad grid, and in reporting.

View your ad strength in the ad grid

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Ads.
Review the Ad strength column for the appropriate Responsive Search ad.
Review our suggestions by hovering over the ad strength score in the column.
Download your ad strength report from the table toolbar.

View your ad strength in reporting

From the navigation menu on the left, select Reporting > Default reports > Performance > Ad.
Review the Ad strength column for the appropriate Responsive Search ad.
Review our suggestions by hovering over the ad strength score in the column.
Download your ad strength report from the table toolbar.

Suggestions

There are several suggestions we may have for you based on your ad strength:

Add longer descriptions or headlines: Maximize the amount of ad text you have available and provide potential customers with more information about your product or service.
Add more descriptions or headlines: Be sure to add up to four descriptions and fifteen headlines so you can have as many ad combinations as possible.
Include popular keywords in descriptions or headlines: Review your keyword metrics in the keyword grid:
From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Keywords > Keywords.

Then, include popular keywords in your headlines or descriptions.
Make your descriptions or headlines more unique: Avoid using repetitive language and highlight your product or service by focusing on distinctive selling points to attract customers.
Unpin description or headline positions: When you pin your descriptions or headlines to specific positions, you decrease the number of ad combinations. Unpin them to create more ad variation and help attract customers.
Use dynamic keyword insertion in descriptions or headlines: Automatically customize your ads to make them more effective and relevant by using dynamic keyword insertion.

Auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads

Auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads is a campaign-level setting that allows Microsoft Advertising to automatically generate assets (Headlines and Descriptions) to maximize your ad performance. We'll use information pulled from your landing page (Final URL) to automatically generate relevant assets.

Benefits of using auto-generated assets

Save time. Let Microsoft Advertising automatically create your Headlines and Descriptions, so you don't have to create them manually. Enabling auto-generated assets will increase the number of assets available for your Responsive Search ads.
Improve ad performance. We'll generate assets that are expected to return the best results, such as higher click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and more impressions.
More relevant ads. We'll leverage content from your website's landing page to customize your assets based on what potential customers are searching for.

Enable auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads

From the navigation menu on the left, select Campaigns.
Select the appropriate campaign.
Select Settings.
Select the checkbox under Auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads.
Select Save.

Opt out of auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads

From the navigation menu on the left, select Campaigns.
Select the appropriate campaign.
Select Settings.
Clear the checkbox under Auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads.
Select Save.

Edit your auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads settings

From the navigation menu on the left, select Campaigns.
Select the appropriate campaign(s).
Select Edit > Edit auto-generated asset settings.
Select Save.

Delete your auto-generated assets

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Assets.
Select the checkbox next to the auto-generated asset(s) that you want to delete.
Select Delete in the blue bar.
Select Yes to acknowledge that your selected asset(s) will be permanently removed from all campaigns, ad groups, and ads associated with your account.

View reports for your auto-generated assets for Responsive Search ads

Asset report

There are two ways to view asset reports for auto-generated assets:

View your auto-generated assets for a single Responsive Search ad:

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Ads.
Select View assets details below the appropriate Responsive Search ad.
View the Source column to see if the asset was auto-generated or advertiser-provided.

View your auto-generated assets for all Responsive Search ads across campaigns:

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Assets.
Select View assets details below the appropriate Responsive Search ad.
View the Source column to see if the asset was auto-generated or advertiser-provided.

Combination report

In the combination report, you can view the best performing ad combinations and assets for your Responsive Search ads.

From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Ads & extensions > Ads.
Select View assets details below the appropriate Responsive Search ad.
Select Combinations.
View your Responsive Search ads. If you have auto-generated assets enabled, you can view those in combination with the ads.

Best practices for upgrading Expanded and Standard Text ads to Responsive Search ads

Upgrade your Expanded Text ads and Standard Text ads to Responsive Search ads to maximize your ad performance. Here are a few tips for effectively making this transition:

There are two ways to upgrade your existing ads:

Manual upgrade: Create new Responsive Search ads in Microsoft Advertising. For more information, see Create a new Responsive Search ad. We recommend that you leverage top-performing content from your ads by applying that content to distinct Responsive Search ad assets (headlines and descriptions).
To view your ad performance, you can create an ad performance report. For more information, see Create a report.
Automatic upgrade:
- Visit the Recommendations tab to save time. We'll suggest AI-generated recommendations based on headlines and descriptions from your active ads, including Expanded Text ads and Standard Text ads. In the Recommendations tab you can also see which specific ad groups don't contain any Responsive Search ads, e.g. you can see which ad groups you need to add at least one active Responsive Search ad to.
  
  Keep in mind there are different types of recommendations and not all of them may be for ads. Here's how to view our recommendations specifically for the purpose of creating new Responsive Search ads:
  1. From the navigation menu on the left, hover over Campaigns and select Recommendations.
  2. Select Ads & extensions.
  3. View and apply our recommendations for automatically creating new Responsive Search ads.
  To learn more about Recommendations, see Ad recommendations can help boost performance.
- Use Google import if you already have Responsive Search ads set up in your Google Ads account, Google import is your shortcut to mirror your campaigns/ad groups in Microsoft Advertising and Microsoft Advertising Editor. We highly recommend automatically scheduling Google imports to make this migration easier for you.
Make sure there's at least one active Responsive Search ad in each standard ad group in your Search campaigns.
Get familiar with Responsive Search ad performance reporting. Optimize your current Responsive Search ads by reviewing asset strength, combination reports, and other details within the Asset tab. You can also edit your text assets.