Microsoft PMax Upgrades: New Customer Goals & Enhanced Visibility
▼ Summary
– Microsoft Advertising’s 2026 updates focus on providing search marketers with better controls, clearer insights, and easier campaign management.
– A key update is a new Performance Max customer acquisition goal, allowing advertisers to prioritize or exclusively target new customers for long-term growth.
– The platform is increasing Performance Max transparency with share of voice metrics and offering more granular controls through asset group-level URL options.
– Imports from Google are being improved, and Content Targeting for Audience ads is now generally available for specific placements and content categories.
– Autogenerated assets are becoming a default setting for new Responsive Search Ads globally, aiming to improve click-through rates by dynamically creating ad copy.
Microsoft Advertising is kicking off the new year with a significant suite of enhancements designed to give search marketers greater control, deeper insights, and more streamlined campaign management. These updates focus on core areas like Performance Max campaigns, audience targeting, and creative automation, providing advertisers with the tools to better drive growth and understand their campaign performance.
A major development is the introduction of a new customer acquisition goal within Performance Max campaigns, currently in open beta. This feature allows advertisers to strategically prioritize reaching entirely new customers or to target them exclusively when campaigns are aligned with purchase objectives. To further encourage long-term growth strategies, advertisers can now assign a higher conversion value to new customers, steering the automated system to optimize for valuable customer expansion rather than just short-term sales.
Transparency within Performance Max is also receiving a substantial boost. Advertisers now have access to share of voice metrics, including detailed data on impression share and losses attributed to budget constraints or ad rank. This provides a much clearer picture of competitive performance across Search and Shopping placements. Additionally, new asset group-level options for final URLs and tracking templates offer more precise measurement capabilities without the need for disruptive campaign restructuring.
The process of importing campaigns from Google Ads is becoming more efficient. Performance Max imports now support up to 50 search themes, and the system has become more flexible regarding asset groups. If certain elements, like specific images or auto-generated logos, are ineligible, the rest of the asset group can still import successfully, preventing minor issues from blocking entire campaigns.
Beyond Performance Max, Content Targeting for Audience ads has moved to general availability. This allows for more precise placement, enabling advertisers to select specific Microsoft-owned properties such as MSN and Outlook, or to align their ads with relevant content categories like Finance or Travel. A complementary reporting view shows exactly where ads were displayed, giving marketers the insights needed to refine their contextual advertising approach.
On the creative front, autogenerated assets are now a default setting for newly created Responsive Search Ads in most global markets. Microsoft reports that advertisers using this automation see an approximate 5% increase in click-through rate (CTR), as the system dynamically creates and tests additional headlines and descriptions based on website content. Advertisers in sensitive verticals will remain opt-in, and existing RSAs are not affected by this change.
These collective updates provide marketers with enhanced command over automated campaigns, particularly for acquiring new customers. The combination of new acquisition goals, improved Performance Max visibility, smoother imports, and intelligent creative automation empowers advertisers to scale their efforts effectively while maintaining crucial oversight and strategic direction.
(Source: Search Engine Land)
