Microsoft Advertising just made it easier for marketers to figure out whether their Performance Max campaigns are actually working. The company recently added two more options to allow advertisers to analyze whether or not the Performance Max campaigns are running correctly. Microsoft Advertising has introduced two new experiment types which will allow measuring the results of Performance Max campaigns and making upgrades in case they work properly.
Before this change, only Search campaigns had the option of testing in Microsoft Advertising, while Performance Max campaign owners did not have the chance to conduct controlled tests. Now, Performance Max experiment types will make the lives of advertisers easier as more and more companies are starting to shift their budget towards Performance Max campaigns.
What Microsoft Just Rolled Out
The company added two new experiment types which are aimed at answering different questions for Performance Max campaign owners.
The first is called an uplift experiment. It lets you measure the incremental value of a Performance Max campaign compared to a control group. Uplift experiment will help you to calculate the impact of the Performance Max campaign compared to organic results, and other marketing efforts. It is important due to the fact that Performance Max campaigns use several channels (search, native, display, audience, and shopping placements), and it becomes quite hard to understand which channel has brought certain results without any experiment.
The second is called an upgrade experiment. It lets you test an upgraded Performance Max campaign against the current version before rolling it out fully. In other words, you don’t have to switch your live campaign to a new version and hope for the best. Instead of doing it, you may compare the performance of two versions and choose the best one for future actions.
Where To Find These New Tools
Both uplift experiment and upgrade experiment are available in Campaigns -> Experiments section of the Microsoft Advertising interface. All advertisers who have access to the section may start conducting these types of experiment right away without additional permissions.
Also, the company has renamed the current experiment tool for Microsoft Advertising users. The previous type of experiments has become Search optimization experiments now. This has been done to emphasize the difference between the experiment tool created for Search campaigns and two new tools for Performance Max campaigns. Advertisers who used the old experiment tool will notice no difference in the settings, but the naming has been changed.
Why This Update Matters For Advertisers
Performance Max has become one of the most popular campaign types in Microsoft Advertising due to the fact that this tool automates lots of processes which have been done manually before. Advertisers set the goals, budget, creative assets, audience signals, and conversions, and Microsoft’s AI handles the rest, deciding where the ads should run. This includes Bing, MSN, Outlook, Microsoft Edge and other Microsoft-owned resources.
This automation became really helpful, but at the same time it has made Performance Max campaign type harder to test compared to other campaign types. Since Performance Max handles placement and targeting on its own, advertisers have had fewer ways to isolate results or test changes on a live campaign. With new uplift and upgrade experiments, the advertiser will get the opportunity to do both.
On top of that, testing can help marketers with smaller budgets cut down on risk when planning changes to a campaign. Instead of guessing whether new asset group, bidding change or any other changes will work for your campaign or not, you may conduct a test first and then implement them in case of success. It may help the marketer to reduce the amount of guesses in decision-making process.
How This Fits Into Microsoft’s Broader Push On Performance Max
It is not the only change Microsoft has made recently to Performance Max. Microsoft has expanded the reporting for Performance Max campaign type with such options as landing page reporting and search term reporting in order to provide the advertisers with more information about the actual performance of these campaigns.
According to the company’s reports, advertisers who use Performance Max campaigns achieve better results if they use it together with Search campaigns, with reduced costs per acquisition and improved returns on ad spend in many cases. Small and medium size businesses have reported better conversion rates due to Performance Max according to Microsoft reports.
Given that, adding these experiment tools looks like Microsoft’s next step toward making Performance Max easier to trust and manage. It is quite difficult to analyze automated campaign type without the opportunity to conduct controlled tests, and now this issue has been solved.
What Advertisers Should Do Next
For advertisers that are eligible to use these new experiment types, it’s easy to check the availability of these options by heading to Campaigns > Experiments in your Microsoft Advertising account. As Performance Max relies heavily on automation for targeting, placements, and creative choices in its campaigns, running an uplift experiment might be an interesting start point to understand how much of its success is attributable to the actual campaign.
Advertisers who have avoided changing a high-performing Performance Max campaign now have a safer option. They can test the upgraded version first, compare it with the original, and decide based on the results.
While Microsoft hasn’t shared exact dates when these new features will become available to all advertisers, it’s worth mentioning that the company’s help documentation about both features is already accessible online.
It’s important to highlight how the news of the update became public. Unlike most updates like this, the news didn’t come from a blog post or press release. Instead, it was spotted by Hana Kobzová, founder of the industry newsletter PPC News Feed in Microsoft’s help documentation. It happens frequently with platform updates, where help center changes are published before the official announcement. Advertisers who would like to keep track of updates might consider checking platform help documentation as an additional way of doing it instead of waiting for blog posts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q 1: What are the two new experiment types Microsoft added to Performance Max?
Microsoft added uplift experiments and upgrade experiments. Uplift experiments analyze the incremental performance of a Performance Max campaign against a control group, while upgrade experiments analyze the upgraded version against the original campaign before going live.
Q 2: Where can advertisers find these new experiment tools?
Both experiment types can be found under Campaigns > Experiments in the Microsoft Advertising platform, but only for eligible accounts.
Q 3: Were Performance Max experiments available before this update?
No. Prior to this update, Microsoft Advertising offered experiments only for Search campaigns. This is the first time when testing became possible for Performance Max.
Q 4: What happened to Microsoft’s original experiment feature?
Microsoft has rebranded its original experiment tool as Search optimization experiments.
Q 5: What is an uplift experiment used for?
An uplift experiment allows advertisers to estimate how much of their results is attributable to a Performance Max campaign.
Q 6: What is an upgrade experiment used for?
An upgrade experiment allows advertisers to test an upgraded version of a Performance Max campaign against the existing one before going live.
Q 7: Why has testing been harder for Performance Max compared to other campaign types?
Automation in Performance Max makes it hard for advertisers to understand the source of results without a dedicated testing tool.
Q 8: Does this update cost extra to use?
Microsoft hasn’t mentioned any cost related to these experiment types. They seem to be included in eligible accounts in the platform’s standard offering.
Q 9: How does this update connect to other recent Performance Max changes?
Microsoft has expanded the reporting capabilities of Performance Max by adding reporting on landing pages and search terms.
Q 10: Should advertisers switch their entire Performance Max strategy because of this update?
Not necessarily. The update is meant to help advertisers validate changes and measure impact more confidently, not to require a change in overall strategy. Advertisers can use it to test specific upgrades or confirm current performance before deciding on next steps.
