Microsoft Advertising If Functions For Dynamic Ad Copy

Microsoft Advertising announced global support for IF functions. You can use these IF functions to customize your ad text and ads for searchers based on their device or a specific audience segment.

"Conditional messaging allows advertisers to simplify their campaign management and reduce effort on bulky operations eliminating the need to set up multiple campaigns and ads," Microsoft explained.

When the ad is served, if the searchers device or audience referenced in the IF function meets the condition, then the parameter is replaced with the text that's indicated. Otherwise, the entire parameter is replaced with the default value that's provided.

Here is an example of {=IF (device = mobile, text to insert) : default text if condition not met}:

Another example of {= IF (audience IN ( , ), text to insert ) : default text if condition not met}:

You can learn more in this help document but Microsoft shared these key things:

• You can reference IF functions in any part of the Expanded Text Ads except the URL fields.
• Default values are optional and will be used if the condition isn’t met. If a default value is used in one IF function, all other IF function parameters in that ad must have a default value as well.
• Nested IF functions aren’t allowed. IF functions inside IF functions or other customizer parameters inside IF functions aren’t allowed.
• Both device and audience can’t be referenced in one IF-function syntax.
• You can create IF functions using the Google Import tool.
  • Easily import ads with IF Functions for device targeting without any issues.
  • Importing ads with IF functions using audience targeting might generate an error if an audience list with the same name does not exist on the Microsoft Advertising platform.

Forum discussion at Twitter.