In today’s hyper-competitive digital landscape, growth hacking is no longer about isolated tactics—it’s about leveraging sophisticated platforms that can scale insights, reach, and performance simultaneously. For marketers looking to push beyond basic acquisition strategies and unlock sustained growth, Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) has emerged as a powerful yet often underutilized solution.
Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) is designed to support marketers looking to push their growth hacking strategies further. The platform offers access to billions of daily, cross-screen data signals that can be used to deliver personalized and highly relevant customer experiences at scale.
If you’re aiming to level up your growth efforts, MSAN can help drive engagement across every stage of the funnel—brands have reported a 4.4x lift in conversions among users exposed to Microsoft Audience Ads. You may already be familiar with MSAN if you’ve run native ads across Microsoft-owned properties such as MSN, Microsoft Edge, and Outlook.com. However, there’s far more to the platform than many realize. Advanced users can tap into MSAN’s broader capabilities to significantly accelerate growth hacking initiatives.
In this guide, we’ll break down how MSAN works, why it performs so well, and how experienced marketers can use it strategically to unlock new growth opportunities. Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about MSAN as we head into 2023, including tips for building high-performing campaigns, saving time with automation, and more.
Table of Contents
What Is MSAN?
Microsoft Audience Network by the Numbers
Microsoft Audience Network Best Practices
How to Set Up Shopping Campaigns on the Microsoft Audience Network
Key Takeaways: Top Ways to Optimize Your MSAN Campaign
What Is MSAN?
Growth hacking is centered on creative strategies that drive acquisition and engagement, but even the most innovative marketers can benefit from additional support. Data, reach, and automation increasingly separate scalable growth from short-term wins—and that’s where MSAN comes into play.
MSAN is a robust advertising solution that provides access to more than 20 billion cross-screen data signals each day. These signals allow advertisers to create relevant, personalized experiences across Microsoft-owned properties like MSN, Microsoft Edge, and Outlook.com, reaching users in moments of high intent and attention.
Microsoft Audience Network encompasses native ad inventory across MSN.com, Microsoft Outlook, and the Microsoft Edge browser, offering an efficient way to reach audiences within Microsoft’s ecosystem. In addition, MSAN syndicates ads across a curated selection of premium, non-Microsoft partner sites.
As a result, MSAN gives advertisers the opportunity to appear on some of the world’s most visited websites while still reaching their target audiences across Microsoft properties—regardless of device, context, or browsing behavior. This cross-environment visibility is especially valuable for growth hackers focused on omnichannel consistency and incremental lift.
Microsoft Audience Network by the Numbers
Performance is where MSAN truly stands out.
According to Microsoft, exposure to Microsoft Audience Ads has led to measurable conversion lifts for brands across industries. Click-through rate (CTR) remains a key indicator of ad effectiveness, and MSN.com’s average CTR is reported to be twice as high as comparable native advertising platforms.
Beyond clicks, MSAN drives meaningful downstream behavior. Microsoft reports that users are three times more likely to search for a brand after seeing an ad on Microsoft properties. They are also four times more likely to visit a website and 5.5 times more likely to make a purchase.
These results aren’t surprising given Microsoft’s reach and credibility. MSN.com alone ranks #3 in the News & Media Publishers category and #51 globally. Combined with trusted environments and premium placements, MSAN offers a rare mix of scale, quality, and performance—making it an ideal channel for marketers focused on both efficiency and growth.
Microsoft Audience Network Best Practices
Now that we’ve covered what MSAN is and reviewed some key performance statistics, it’s time to move from theory to execution.
Following platform-specific best practices is critical, especially for advanced advertisers looking to maximize return while maintaining control over spend and scale. The recommendations below come directly from Microsoft, ensuring they reflect how the platform is designed to perform.
While our team specializes in growth hacking strategy, when it comes to the operational nuances of MSAN, it’s best to lean on guidance from the platform itself.
MSAN Budgets and Bids: Laying the Foundation for Scale
Budgeting and bidding are among the most critical—and complex—components of any advertising campaign, and MSAN is no exception. Proper setup here determines whether your campaigns plateau early or scale efficiently.
When managing budgets and bids, keep the following principles in mind:
- Ensure your audience campaigns have enough budget to sustain delivery as volume increases. Early success can quickly throttle performance if budgets are too restrictive.
- If using manual bidding, review performance frequently and adjust bids to remain competitive.
- For automated bidding strategies, confirm that goals and budgets are aligned correctly. Automation works best when it’s given clear parameters.
Advertisers unsure about bid strategy alignment can benefit from expert support to avoid wasted spend or stalled growth.
Using Targeting Options Strategically in MSAN
Targeting is where many advertisers unintentionally limit performance.
When refining targeting settings, avoid being overly restrictive. Overly narrow audiences reduce reach and limit the algorithm’s ability to optimize. Microsoft recommends starting with “target and bid” rather than “bid only” when launching new audience campaigns.
This approach allows you to focus delivery toward specific segments while still collecting valuable performance data. Once insights are available, bids can be adjusted based on ROI, and “bid only” can be layered in to control exposure without stifling discovery.
For best results, MSAN performs strongest when campaigns begin with remarketing lists, In-market Audiences, Custom Audiences, or Product Audiences—making it especially effective for mid- and lower-funnel growth strategies.
Creative Best Practices: Images That Drive Engagement
Visuals play a central role in ad performance across the Microsoft Audience Network. Because placements are native and image-centric, creative quality directly impacts engagement.
Microsoft recommends:
- Reusing high-performing images from other platforms like Facebook or Google Display Network
- Leveraging supported aspect ratios such as 1.91:1 and 1:1
- Using high-resolution images that maintain quality across devices
- Avoiding embedded text within images
- Submitting creatives in all supported aspect ratios to maximize placements
- Testing multiple image and copy combinations to identify top performers
Strong creative doesn’t just improve CTR—it helps MSAN’s algorithms optimize delivery more effectively.
How to Add Stock Photos to MSAN Search Campaigns
For advertisers without in-house creative resources, MSAN’s Shutterstock integration offers a practical alternative.
To add stock images:
- Navigate to your search campaign and select Ads & extensions
- Create a new image extension
- Click “add image” and browse Shutterstock’s stock library
- Ensure selections comply with Microsoft’s stock photo policies
While preview images may display watermarks, these do not appear in live ads—allowing advertisers to maintain a polished, professional appearance without additional design costs.
How to Set Up Shopping Campaigns on the Microsoft Audience Network
Shopping campaigns are a natural next step for advertisers looking to showcase products visually while driving qualified traffic.
Using the Adcore process, campaigns can be launched in just minutes. To get started:
- Create a new campaign and select “Sell Products From Catalog”
- Choose “Standard Shopping” and then “Audience Ads”
- Set the campaign name, select the Microsoft Store, and apply an “All Products” filter
- Layer audiences as “bid only” to preserve reach
- Set daily budget and default bids, then save and launch
Before launching, ensure you have an active shopping feed, allow time for delivery to ramp, and consider implementing UET tracking for deeper insights.
In-Market Audiences: Capturing High-Intent Users
In-Market Audiences allow advertisers to reach users who are actively researching or considering products similar to yours.
To set them up:
- Go to the Audiences tab and create a new association
- Select “In-market Audiences” and choose the appropriate segment
- Decide between “bid only” or “target and bid”
- Apply a bid adjustment of at least 15%
- Monitor performance closely, as Microsoft refreshes these audiences daily
This targeting option is especially valuable for advertisers focused on conversion efficiency.
Similar Audiences: Scaling What Already Works
Similar Audiences enable advertisers to extend reach beyond existing customers by targeting users who share similar behaviors and characteristics.
Microsoft automatically builds and maintains these audiences, reducing setup time while improving scalability. Benefits include:
Reaching high-intent prospects
Driving higher conversion rates—up to 39% higher than non-audience ads
Saving time through automatic updates and maintenance
For growth hackers, Similar Audiences are a powerful way to scale proven performance without sacrificing quality.
Key Takeaways: Optimizing Your MSAN Campaigns
So, what should you take away from this guide?
To optimize MSAN performance:
- Include multiple devices to maximize reach
- Use In-market and Similar Audiences for higher conversion potential
- Test day-parting strategies to identify peak engagement windows
- Start with bid adjustments of at least 15%
- Invest in high-quality, relevant creative
- Expand reach through partner sites alongside Microsoft-owned properties
Microsoft Audience Network offers a rare blend of scale, data, and performance. When used strategically, it can become a cornerstone of advanced growth hacking strategies.
We hope this guide has helped you feel more confident navigating MSAN. If you have questions or want expert support, the MSAN specialists at Adcore are always ready to help businesses grow through smarter, more effective marketing.
Happy growth hacking!
