• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 8, 2025

Microsoft Advertising has become more particular about word choices. The company’s ads liaison breaks down an ad and landing page to explain why to detail areas of risk based on its editorial policies.

Since Navah Hopkins joined Microsoft Advertising as Ads Liaison in June, she has been detailing how to successfully create ads and run them on the company's ad platform.

“The use of the word 'best' is followed up with rankings on the landing page, and there is a clear disclaimer indicating that the rankings are not impacted by the affiliate revenue the advertiser may get from promoting these plans,” she wrote, using Microsoft’s social platform LinkedIn to explain. “There is an advertising policy accessible above the fold. It spells out that the brands pay a fee to get referrals from the advertiser.”

She writes that it's important to not forget the extensions, because full use of them means the advertiser is taking up as much inventory on the search engine results page as possible.

Gazi Nasiful Hassan, which helps interior design businesses generate more leads with paid ads at Think Next Digital, appreciated the "useful breakdown of Microsoft Advertising’s policies and how they differ from other platforms."

"It’s clear that small details can make or break ad approval," he wrote in the comments to Hopkins' post.

But Hopkins, who clearly loves what she does, also delved into areas of risk. Those risks come in word choices.

Claims made in the ad such as “18 free meals" apply to some, but not all meal plans on the landing page -- an easy flag that would note untruthful or misleading information and where “careful mapping of extensions” becomes important.

Hopkins also called out other problems in the wording. This includes when the advertising policy is difficult to see in the image and could be flagged by Microsoft’s accessibility and deceptive practices rules.

Hopkins points to Copilot to help syntax and word sequences make more sense.

"If you're importing from Google or Meta and the content is 'on the line' for their policies, odds are you might get hit with editorial violations," she wrote. "Consider only importing the account structure and adding creative directly in Microsoft Advertising's UI."