Microsoft announced updates to its AI companion, Copilot, and its advertising platform. These changes aim to improve user experience and ad performance.
Copilot Usage and Performance
Microsoft reports:
- Copilot conversations have doubled year-on-year.
- Consumer journeys combining Copilot and traditional search grew by 85%.
- On mobile devices, this growth is over 250%.
For advertisers, Copilot ads show:
- 69% higher click-through rates compared to traditional search.
- 76% higher conversion rates for lower funnel ad types.
New Ad Experience in Copilot
The update introduces several changes to how ads appear in Copilot:
Streamlined Ad Display: Ads will appear below Copilot's organic response in a new format.
Improved Relevancy: Fewer ad annotations and extensions will be shown, focusing on more relevant information.
Ad Voice: A new feature that introduces ads by explaining how they relate to the user's conversation.
Contextual Triggering: Ads will consider the entire conversation within a session, not just the last prompt.
This update will first appear on copilot.microsoft.com, later expanding to Android, iOS, Bing, and Edge apps.
Changes to Microsoft Advertising Platform
Microsoft is adding two new features to its advertising platform:
Diagnostics: Helps advertisers inspect campaign setup and assess account health.
Performance Snapshot: Provides quick performance updates using natural language queries.
These features are currently in the pilot phase.
Practical Applications
For the upcoming shopping season, advertisers can:
- Use Copilot to create varied creative assets.
- Utilize Performance Max, which Microsoft reports can increase Product ad impressions on Copilot by 5 times and improve click-through rates by 2 times compared to traditional search.
