$1,600 on Microsoft Advertising, 4,205 clicks, one sale. Even our “Search” campaign spent 77% on display traffic.

Question

$1,600 on Microsoft Advertising, 4,205 clicks, one sale. Even our “Search” campaign spent 77% on display traffic.

Phil P 0

We’re a small insurance agency. We tested Microsoft Advertising starting in mid-August, with a promotional credit and a Performance Max campaign built mostly through Microsoft’s automated setup. We’re posting this so other advertisers know what to look for before they spend money.

Performance Max (lifetime): $905.56, 158,417 impressions, 3,468 clicks, zero conversions.

The publisher report for August 29 to September 27 showed where the money went:

Bing.com delivered 95 impressions and 1 click. Almost everything else came from third-party sites.
73 sites had click-through rates above 10%. Those sites alone accounted for 1,212 clicks and $267.45.
related.questionthat.net: 238 clicks at 43% CTR
related.vaultideas.com: 68 clicks at 46%, and related.scarletwave.net: 38 clicks at 44%
journeypeaks.com, fashionnewsbee.com, wtpop.com and soccernewsreports.com: 100% CTR each
[www.sciencenewslab.com]: 16 clicks on 13 impressions. That’s more clicks than times the ad was shown.

Normal display click-through rates are well under 1%.

On September 28 we opened Service Request 7109504043 with these numbers and asked for an invalid click review. Over the next month and several rounds of email, we got general policy language, a suggestion to fix our UET tag (which tracks conversions and has nothing to do with whether a click is real), and finally this: “the review found that the reported clicks did not show signs of invalid activity,” and Microsoft is “unable to share the specific methods and systems used during the review process.” That’s two and a half months from launch to a final answer with no explanation.

So every one of those clicks is considered valid, and we have no way to see why.

That’s the frustrating part. We’re paying advertisers. When we bring specific, site-by-site data, we expect a specific answer. Canned replies that ignore the actual numbers waste our time and are frankly disrespectful to the people funding the platform.

The “Search” campaign: we paused Performance Max and rebuilt as a Search campaign with exact match keywords, dozens of negative keywords, and over 400 site exclusions. Lifetime: $695.27, 737 clicks. But only 63 of those clicks ($158.59) came from actual search. The other 674 clicks ($536.68, 77% of the spend) came from Microsoft’s Audience network, at a 0.69% click-through rate. A campaign set up as Search still spent three of every four dollars on display placements.

Total: $1,600.83 in ad spend, of which $1,100 came out of our pocket and the rest was promotional credit. 4,205 clicks, roughly one sale. Both campaigns are now paused, and we’ve filed reports with the FTC and the Washington State Attorney General.

If this has happened to you, reports can be filed with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov (choose “Something else”) and with the Washington State Attorney General, where Microsoft is based, through its consumer complaint form. One report doesn’t change much. A pattern of them can.

Two questions for anyone who has been through this:

Has anyone actually received a credit for high-CTR publisher traffic like this? If so, what got it approved?
Has anyone found a way to keep a Microsoft Search campaign entirely on search, with zero Audience network spend?

If you’re starting out, check the Network segment and the Website URL (publisher) report in the first few days, not after a month.

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1 answer

Your answer

Answer 1

Hello Phil,

Thank you for using our Microsoft Advertising Learn Q&A Platform!

I appreciate you sharing the details of your experience with us. First and foremost, I want to acknowledge your frustration and disappointment. This is not the experience we want advertisers to have when using Microsoft Advertising. We understand how important it is to see value from your advertising investment, especially for a small business, and we recognize the concerns you've raised regarding traffic quality, publisher placements, campaign performance, and the time it took to receive a resolution. We appreciate the opportunity to address your feedback and provide additional context regarding click quality reviews and Audience Network traffic.

Invalid Click Protection

Microsoft Advertising utilizes sophisticated automated detection and filtration systems designed to identify and filter invalid traffic before advertisers are charged. These systems continuously analyze click activity using a variety of signals to detect low-quality, fraudulent, accidental, duplicate, or otherwise invalid clicks. As a result, clicks that are determined to be invalid are generally filtered automatically, and advertisers are not billed for them.

Regarding the invalid click review that was conducted for your account, while Support teams are unable to disclose the specific methodologies used during the review process, a review is conducted in conjunction with our automated detection systems. If the investigation concludes that the reported clicks do not exhibit indicators of invalid activity, the clicks remain classified as valid traffic under our current detection standards.

Understanding Audience Ads Traffic in Search Campaigns

It is also important to note that Audience Ads are now a feature available within Search campaigns. Depending on campaign settings and eligibility, your ads may appear not only on Microsoft Search properties but also across the Microsoft Advertising Network, including the Microsoft Audience Network.

Because of this, it is possible to see traffic originating from audience placements even when running a Search campaign. This behavior is expected and is designed to help advertisers expand their reach beyond traditional search results.

Benefits of the Microsoft Audience Network

While results may vary by industry and business type, Audience Ads can provide several advantages:

Reach potential customers beyond traditional search results.
Increase brand awareness across Microsoft's network of properties and partners.
Engage users earlier in their buying journey.
Leverage Microsoft's audience and intent signals to find relevant users.
Access native ad placements that integrate naturally into the user experience.
Generate additional conversion opportunities that may not be captured through search traffic alone.

Options to Reduce Audience Network Traffic

If your objective is to focus primarily on traditional search traffic, there are several optimization options available.

Method 1: Create an Account-Level Website Exclusion List

We recommend creating a Website Control List at the Manager Account level and adding websites that you prefer to exclude.

Steps:

Go to Tools.
Search for Website Control List and select it.
Within Website Control List, switch to your Manager Account. Please note that website control lists can only be created at the Manager Account level.
Once you are under the Manager Account, remain on the Website Control List page and click Create.
Enter a name for your Website Control List.
Add the websites you would like to exclude, including:
- msn.com
- bing.com
- microsoftcasualgames.com
- outlook.com
- outlook.live.com
You may also add websites identified through your Publisher Performance Report.
When entering website exclusions, do not include the "www" prefix. For example, use bing.com instead of www.bing.com.
Select the appropriate sub-account where you would like the exclusions applied.
Click Save to complete the association.

Method 2: Change Ad Distribution Settings in Bulk

You can also reduce Audience Network traffic by modifying the Ad Distribution setting across all ad groups within your Search campaign.

Steps:

Open your Search Campaign.
From the navigation panel on the left, click Ad Groups.
Select the checkbox for All Ad Groups.
Click Edit.
Select Other Changes.
From the dropdown menu, choose Ad Distribution.
Select Microsoft Sites and Select Traffic.
Click Save.

This setting limits distribution compared to All Microsoft Networks (including Audience Network) and can substantially reduce Audience Network traffic.

Final Recommendation

Based on the information you've shared, if your goal is to prioritize traditional search traffic, we recommend implementing both of the optimization methods above:

Create and associate a Website Control List at the Manager Account level.
Change the Ad Distribution setting for all ad groups to Microsoft Sites and Select Traffic.

Combining these settings will typically result in little to no Audience Network traffic, allowing your campaigns to focus more heavily on search-driven placements.

We appreciate your feedback and understand the importance of transparency when evaluating campaign performance. Your comments have been heard, and we hope the information above provides additional clarity regarding click quality reviews, Audience Network traffic, and the controls available to advertisers who prefer to focus on search traffic.

Account-level website control lists

Ad distribution settings

Kind regards,
Chris | Microsoft Advertising Support Specialist | 1-800-518-5689

Phil P 0 Reputation points

2026-10-30T14:32:18.1766667+00:00

Thanks, Chris. A few direct questions, for us and for other advertisers reading this:

The AI answer in this thread says setting the Audience ads bid adjustment to -100% prevents Audience ads from serving in a Search campaign entirely. Your methods “substantially reduce” Audience traffic. Which is correct? If -100% is a full opt-out, it seems like the most important setting for anyone who wants their Search budget spent on search.

How can an advertiser be billed for more clicks than the number of times the ad was displayed? One site in our report shows 16 clicks on 13 impressions.

Our report shows sites at 43% to 46% click-through, and four at 100%, on traffic that produced zero conversions. What about that traffic makes it valid?

We asked these same questions several times over a month of email and received general policy explanations each time, much like the replies above. I doubt you would accept those answers if it were your own advertising budget. Is there a way for an advertiser to get specific answers about specific traffic, or is that information simply not available to advertisers?

We’ve stopped advertising with Microsoft, but these answers would help the next advertiser.