Microsoft Advertising adds Performance Max reporting and GA CAPI
Microsoft's October update brings search term and auction insights reporting to Performance Max and makes Conversions API generally available. Pilots and later rollouts need separate checks.
Performance Max on Microsoft Advertising now has search term and auction insights reporting, and Conversions API is generally available, according to Microsoft's October 2026 product round-up. If you run or are weighing up Microsoft Performance Max, the post mixes live features, open pilots and later rollouts, so it is worth sorting them before you plan any work.
What changed
Available now
- Age and gender targeting on Performance Max is generally available. Microsoft says it lets you include and exclude specific age groups and genders from ad delivery.
- Search term reporting and auction insights reporting for Performance Max are now available. Microsoft describes them as showing which searches your ads appear on and how you compare with competitors.
- Conversions API (CAPI) for Microsoft Advertising is generally available. It connects website, app, CRM and point-of-sale data to Microsoft Advertising in real time through a server-to-server connection, and works alongside the Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag. You can integrate directly, through Google Tag Manager, or via partners: Adobe Real-Time CDP, Commanders Act, Freshpaint, Invoca, MetaRouter, Segment by Twilio, Stape.io, Switch Growth, Tealium and Zeotap.
- AI-powered campaign creation is presented as new. You supply a website plus material such as marketing plans, brand guidelines and product images, and Microsoft builds an editable snapshot of the business. You can then adjust budget, bid strategy, ad copy and creative assets before launching a first Performance Max campaign. The post gives no separate rollout status for it.
Open pilot
- Messaging guidelines, for Performance Max and for Search campaigns with AI Max enabled. You can set up to 40 guidelines to steer generated copy.
- Audience exclusions on Performance Max.
Rolling out
- Device targeting, which includes and excludes device types, is "rolling out to all advertisers in the coming weeks".
- Search term landing page reporting starts rolling out to advertisers from mid-November.
Still being refined
- Brand exclusions, so that you can apply them to text ads only and still show for brand searches on product ads. Microsoft gives no date.
What this means for specialists
Microsoft frames the release around control and visibility: "leaning into AI only pays off when you can steer it and see what's working." Whether that holds will depend on what the new reports show in your own accounts, but the reports are now there to be read.
The search term report and auction insights report are the practical changes for anyone who has treated Microsoft Performance Max as a black box. Use the reports to review which searches your ads appear on and how you compare with competitors. The landing page report, when it arrives, is meant to show how user intent maps to the page people were sent to, which gives you a prompt to review destination-page relevance.
Messaging guidelines are the more consequential pilot for brand-sensitive accounts. Microsoft recommends using them mainly for broader rules around claims, themes, concepts, tone or language to avoid, and gives "Never imply that products are low cost" as a high-end retail example. It also says you can add positive guidance such as preferred wording. Microsoft says this reduces the risk of off-brand copy and the time spent editing it; treat both as vendor claims until you have seen the output.
On measurement, Microsoft says CAPI captures activity that may be missed because of browser limitations and gives you more control over data sharing. It works alongside the UET tag rather than replacing it. Microsoft lists direct integration, Google Tag Manager and partner connections as setup options.
One caution: Microsoft says age and gender targeting improves targeting and efficiency, but gives no figures. Treat that as a vendor claim until you have tested it against a baseline in your own account.
What to do this week
- Open an existing Performance Max campaign and check age and gender targeting. Note your current settings before changing anything.
- Look for the Performance Max search term report and auction insights report in your account. If they are present, record what the reports show as a baseline so you can compare after a few weeks.
- Contact your account team or Support to ask about the audience exclusions and messaging guidelines pilots. Microsoft names those routes for the exclusions pilots; the post gives no access route for messaging guidelines.
- Draft a messaging guidelines list now for your most brand-sensitive account: claims to avoid, themes, tone and language, kept within the 40-rule limit.
- Check that your UET tag is firing correctly and list your conversion sources (website, app, CRM, point-of-sale). Then pick a CAPI route from direct, Google Tag Manager or a named partner.
- Read Microsoft's CAPI setup guide, linked from the post. The round-up does not explain how duplicate events across UET and CAPI are handled.
- Put mid-November in the diary to look for search term landing page reporting, and check for device targeting at the same time.
What we do not know yet
- Device targeting has no date beyond "the coming weeks", and search term landing page reporting has none beyond "mid-November".
- The post does not say how many advertisers are admitted to the audience exclusions pilot, or on what criteria. Microsoft names account teams and Support for the exclusions pilots, but the post does not state how to enrol in messaging guidelines.
- It does not say which markets, languages or account types the new features and the pilots cover.
- Microsoft refers to the brand-exclusions refinement as a pilot and says it is being refined, but gives no date or explicit open-pilot designation for it.
- Microsoft does not say whether AI-powered campaign creation is open to everyone or only to new sign-ups, nor whether messaging guidelines apply to existing campaigns or only to new ones.
- The post does not describe how CAPI and UET events are deduplicated, or what CAPI costs to implement. It says only that more updates are coming next month.
Sources & Further Reading
- Microsoft Advertising blog: Build, steer, and measure your campaigns with AI: What's new in Microsoft Advertising this Octoberhttps://about.ads.microsoft.com/en/blog/post/october-2026/build-steer-and-measure-your-campaigns-with-ai-whats-new-in-microsoft-advertising-this-october
- Microsoft Advertising Supporthttps://about.ads.microsoft.com/en/resources/learn/free-consultation
