Advertisers running campaigns across multiple Microsoft Advertising accounts can now manage automated bidding in a single portfolio across accounts. Microsoft Advertising published its May 2026 product update on May 20, 2026, detailing a new Import Center, automated bidding changes, and expanded custom column reporting.
Cross-Account Portfolio Bidding for Search and Shopping
Responding to advertiser feedback, Microsoft introduced portfolio bidding across multiple accounts, allowing accounts to share learning and optimize bids collectively, building on an earlier update that enabled seasonality adjustments for portfolio bidding.
The feature gives accounts the ability to learn from each other, and Microsoft has described it as a direct follow-on to the seasonality adjustment capabilities added to portfolio bidding previously. That earlier capability, confirmed in the Microsoft Advertising April 2026 product blog, extended seasonality adjustments to campaigns using portfolio bid strategies, a feature intended for short-term events when advertisers expect a temporary, significant change in conversion rates, such as a major promotion or seasonal peak.
The bidding strategy report has also been updated with new metrics available at the campaign, account, and portfolio levels, giving advertisers deeper insights into their bidding performance. The new metrics include Avg. Target ROAS and Avg. Target CPA, as well as Avg. Target Impression Share. Microsoft has stated that advertisers can use these metrics to better understand bid performance, conversion delays, and target adjustments directly within the platform interface.
Redesigned Import Center for Multi-Platform Campaigns
The May release also introduced a new Import Center designed to streamline campaign imports from platforms including Google Ads, Meta Ads, and Pinterest Ads, with better error handling and reporting improvements.
The Import Center now provides performance insights immediately after import, including strategies exclusive to Microsoft Advertising, and makes it easier to locate and generate reports on imported campaigns.
Expanded Custom Column Reporting
The May update extends custom column functionality to give advertisers more control over conversion data in reports. Advertisers can now access all conversion metrics in custom columns, segment reports by goal name, and analyze additional metrics, including CPA, ROAS, and All Conversions. Microsoft has stated that the changes are designed to provide greater transparency and faster optimization insights within the platform UI.
Data-Driven Attribution Now Rolling Out Broadly
Alongside the new features, Microsoft confirmed two previously announced AI-powered bidding updates are now in broad rollout: seasonality adjustments for portfolio bidding and shared budgets, and data-driven attribution for automated bid strategies. The attribution model assigns conversion credit across the customer journey for campaigns using Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, and Enhanced CPC bidding strategies.
Until recently, Microsoft Advertising had largely relied on last-click attribution in standard advertiser workflows, meaning the final ad interaction before a conversion received the credit, even when earlier clicks or impressions contributed to the conversion path. The new attribution model expands the platform's ability to assign conversion credit across the full set of meaningful ad interactions.
Practical Implications for Advertisers
For advertisers managing campaigns across Google Ads, Meta, and Microsoft Advertising, the new Import Center consolidates import management, troubleshooting, and post-import performance guidance in one location, reducing the manual overhead typically associated with cross-platform campaign migrations. Cross-account portfolio bidding is most relevant to agencies and multi-brand accounts that operate separate accounts under a shared performance objective, enabling automated bidding systems to pool signals across account boundaries rather than optimizing each account in isolation. The shift to data-driven attribution may cause conversion credit to redistribute across campaigns; advertisers using automated bid strategies should monitor reporting closely during the transition to distinguish attribution changes from underlying performance shifts.
Microsoft has stated it is continuing to invest in AI innovations that improve performance while giving advertisers the transparency and control they need to manage campaigns.
