• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 4, 2024

As Microsoft's platforms turn to automation, all manual cost-per-click (CPC) bidding for newly created native campaigns will be phased out.

Microsoft Advertising Platform will start to make the transition from manual bidding to enhanced CPCs on April 30. Any new native image and feed campaigns created will no longer have the option to run manual CPCs.

Enhanced CPC is a bid strategy where marketers set ad group and keyword bids. In this mode, the platform automatically adjusts the bids in real-time to increase chances for a conversion.

Upgrades on existing image and feed campaigns on a manual CPC bid strategy transition to enhanced CPC will begin May 13, with expectations that the upgrade process will be complete by May 17, 2024.

Microsoft outlined the benefits of enhanced CPCs in a blog post. In a blog post, the company explains how the base bids will always be honored as the primary lever by the bidding strategy. The bids are optimized at the time of the auction to maximize performance and drive toward more conversions.

Liam Mackessy, Microsoft Advertising product marketing manager, and Venkat Chivukula, Microsoft Advertising principal product manager, explain in a blog post that when using eCPCs the average CPC will not exceed the base bid set.

Enhanced CPCs use different auction signals to help drive the best results, including search queries, bid modifiers, location, device, ad copy, and more. All combined signals help to drive informed decisions to drive better advertiser performance. Enhanced CPC also work in combination with other technology providers to manage campaigns.

Marketers need not take action, but there are some areas in which to prepare. And optimize to ensure set ups are successful.

Microsoft “strongly” recommends using enhanced CPC in conjunction with conversion tracking. Validate that UET tags are being used on all sites. For those who rely on offline conversions, it’s recommended to upload your offline conversion data daily. And, consider changing conversion goal attribution to “last touch” to allow for optimization and automated bidding based on click-based and view-through conversions.