Microsoft Ads Audience Network Explained: Use It or Disable It?

The Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) is the display equivalent of Google's Display Network. Your ads run on Microsoft properties (Outlook, MSN, Edge) and partner sites instead of just in search results.

It is enabled by default when you create a new Microsoft Ads campaign. For most advertisers, that default setting causes problems within the first week. This is how to decide whether to use it and how to use it well.

What the Audience Network Actually Is

The Microsoft Audience Network includes:

• Microsoft Start, MSN, Outlook.com inboxes
• The Edge browser homepage and new tab page
• Partner publisher sites (USA Today, Reuters, Forbes, plus thousands of long tail sites)
• Microsoft's growing AI assistant placements

Crucially, the ads on the Audience Network are not the same format as search ads. They appear as native content blocks, image ads, or short video ads on third party pages. The user did not search for anything. They are reading or browsing.

Why It Is Enabled by Default

Two reasons Microsoft turns it on by default. First, it dramatically increases the reach of your campaign, often by 5 to 10 times. Second, Microsoft makes more money from Audience Network placements than from pure search.

For your business, the first reason is the problem. Audience Network clicks behave nothing like search clicks. Yet they share a budget with your search ads. So if you leave Audience Network on, it can quietly eat 50 percent of your daily budget before search ads have used their share.

The Three Audience Network Audiences

Type	What It Is	How It Performs
Search retargeting	Users who recently searched relevant terms	Best of the three. Decent intent.
Site retargeting	Users who visited your site	Solid. Same logic as Google retargeting.
In market	Users Microsoft thinks are shopping	Mixed. Depends entirely on the in market category.

When to Use the Audience Network

The Audience Network earns its place when:

• You already have a stable Search campaign delivering at target cost per lead. Audience Network adds incremental reach without disturbing what works.
• You can afford a separate budget for it. Do not let it share budget with Search.
• You have decent display creative. Static images with bold headlines. Not just text only ads.
• You want to layer retargeting on top of search.

When to Disable It Immediately

• You are launching a new account and still learning what works on Search.
• You have a tight cost per lead target and no margin for experimentation.
• You do not have display creative ready.
• You imported your account from Google Ads (which has Display turned off by default).

How to Set Up a Dedicated Audience Network Campaign

If you have decided Audience Network is worth a test, do not run it inside your Search campaign. Build a separate campaign:

1. New campaign, set type to "Audience". This is the dedicated Audience Network campaign type.
2. Set a separate daily budget (start with £10 to £20).
3. Set bid strategy to Manual CPC at a low max bid (£0.30 to £0.60).
4. Add only retargeting audiences (site visitors, search retargeting) for the first 30 days.
5. Use image ads of varied sizes. Text only ads on the Audience Network underperform.

What to Watch in Reporting

Audience Network reporting is more nuanced than search. Key metrics to track:

• Cost per lead by network. Compare against Search in the same account. Audience Network leads should be cheaper or you are wasting budget.
• Conversion rate by network. Usually lower than Search but stable.
• Top placements by spend. If most of your spend is on a few placement sites that produce no conversions, exclude them.
• View through conversions. Some Audience Network value is in assisted conversions. Look at the assist data.

Placement Exclusions

One of the most important Audience Network tasks is excluding bad placements. Go to your Audience Network campaign, Reports, Publisher Url Performance.

Look for:

• Sites that consume budget with zero conversions over 30 days
• Sites with click through rates above 5 percent (often bot traffic or accidental clicks on mobile)
• Sites that look spammy or unrelated to your business

Exclude them in bulk. Repeat monthly.

Creative Strategy for Audience Network

Audience Network ads appear next to content, not in search results. They need to grab attention. The format Microsoft pushes most is the responsive image ad: you upload images, headlines, and descriptions, Microsoft mixes them into different combinations.

Upload at least 5 image variations per ad. Square, landscape, and portrait sizes. Real photos beat illustrations for service businesses. Branding visible but not dominant.