SEO & Blogging

Microsoft Advertising makes it easy to set up automated bidding

Microsoft is changing the way advertisers set up automated bidding, aiming to reduce complexity while keeping performance results the same.

What’s going on. The platform simplifies its bidding options by collapsing common targets like Target CPA and Target ROAS into comprehensive automated strategies rather than standalone campaign settings.

Going forward, marketers will choose between two main approaches: Increase Conversions or Increase Conversion Value, with optional targeting at the top.

Microsoft Ads Bidding Strategy
Credit – Hana Kobzova of PPC News Feed

How does this work. For conversion-focused campaigns, advertisers choose Maximize Conversions and can set a target CPA. For value-based campaigns, they choose Maximize Conversion Value and can optionally set a target ROAS.

Microsoft says the basic bidding behavior hasn’t changed – only the way advertisers prepare has been simplified.

Why do we care. This update makes automated bidding simpler and more uniform, lowering the barrier to using Microsoft Advertising tools at scale. By integrating Target CPA and Target ROAS into a broader strategy, it reduces setup complexity while keeping key performance metrics available as optional targets.

In practice, this means faster campaign setup, more consistent behavior across accounts, and fewer structural differences between how advertisers handle conversions and value-based bidding.

What stays the same. Existing campaigns using Target CPA or Target ROAS will continue to run normally without any updates being required. Portfolio application techniques also remain unchanged.

Big picture. The change is part of a broader plan to make automated bidding more accessible, reducing setup decisions while maintaining control over performance goals.

Bottom line. Microsoft consolidates bidding options into simple frameworks, keeping the standard optimization controls available but moving them into a more streamlined setup experience.


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Anu AdegbolaAnu Adegbola

Anu Adegbola is a former Paid News Editor for Search Engine Land from 2024. You cover paid search, paid social, media marketing, video and more.

In 2008, Anu started his career delivering digital marketing campaigns (mainly but not only Paid Search) by creating strategies, increasing ROI, automating repeatable processes and bringing efficiency to all parts of marketing departments through inspirational leadership both on the agency, client and marketing technology side. Besides editing the article for Search Engine Land he is the founder of the PPC communication event – PPC Live and the host of the program. weekly podcast PPC Live The Podcast.

He is also an international speaker in some of the categories he presented as SMX (US, UK, Munich, Berlin), Friends of Search (Amsterdam, NL), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna, IT) and more.

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