3 Steps To Turn Off Audience Ads in Microsoft Advertising

Targeting the Search network in Microsoft Advertising does not mean your ads appear only on search results. They can also be served on inventory you did not intend to buy.

If you want more control over where your ads appear, follow the three steps below to reduce exposure and block unwanted publisher placements at scale.

While Microsoft Advertising does not offer a simple on or off switch to exclude the Audience Network from Search campaigns, you can use the following 3 steps in this guide to significantly limit visibility on those placements.

Step 1: Change ad distribution settings at the ad group level

Start by limiting ad distribution for your Search ad groups. This is the fastest change you can make and it immediately reduces reach into additional partner traffic.

How to update in the Microsoft Advertising UI

1. Go to Campaigns
2. Open your Search campaign
3. Click into an Ad group
4. Find Ad distribution
5. Select Microsoft sites and select traffic
6. Click Save

How to update in Microsoft Advertising Editor (bulk)

If you have many ad groups, Microsoft Advertising Editor is the quickest way to update in bulk.

1. Open Microsoft Advertising Editor
2. Click Get changes to sync the account
3. Go to Ad groups
4. Select the ad groups in your Search campaigns you want to update
5. In the editing panel, update Ad distribution to Microsoft sites and select traffic
6. Click Post changes

Step 2: Run Website URL (publisher) report

Next, you need the actual list of websites where Microsoft recorded your ads serving. Microsoft has a default report for this.

Run the default report

1. Go to Reports
2. Select the default report called Website URL (publisher), which is located under Targeting and Placements reports.
3. Filter the report to include Search campaigns only
4. Set the time period to All time

Download the report output and create your website exclusion list

1. Download the report as CSV or Excel
2. Extract the Website URL column
3. Remove duplicates
4. Format it as a simple list with one website per line

Step 3: Add the list to Website exclusions

Now you will block those websites from receiving your Search traffic by adding them to Website exclusions.

Where to apply exclusions

For each Search campaign:

1. Go to Campaigns
2. Select the campaign
3. Open Settings
4. Click Advanced settings
5. Find Website control lists
6. Open Website exclusions

You can apply exclusions in two ways.

Option A: Manually add websites to a single campaign

Use this if you only need exclusions on a few campaigns.

1. Under Manually add websites, paste your list with one website per line
2. Save the changes

Option B: Create a shared list and apply it to all Search campaigns

Use this if you want to roll exclusions out consistently across many campaigns.

1. Create a shared website exclusion list
2. Add your website URLs to the shared list
3. Apply the shared list to all relevant Search campaigns

This makes it easy to maintain and reuse.

How to confirm it worked

After applying the exclusions, allow some time to pass, then compare impressions segmented by Network from before and after you followed this guide.

You should also make reviewing the Website URL (publisher) report a recurring task, so you can expand your exclusion list when new placements appear.

If new sites show up, repeat Step 2 using a recent date range and add the new domains to your exclusions list.

Bonus Tip: Contact Microsoft Advertising Support

If you are still seeing unwanted placements after applying all three steps, consider contacting Microsoft Advertising Support directly. Ask them to fully opt out your Search campaigns from the Audience Network.

Conclusion

Audience Network exposure in Microsoft Advertising is not always obvious. While there is no single switch to disable it, combining ad distribution settings with publisher exclusions gives you far more control over where your ads actually appear.

By reviewing placements regularly and maintaining your exclusion list, you can keep Search traffic aligned with your performance goals and avoid unnecessary spend.

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