Microsoft Ads Dimensions & Metrics: Complete Reference 2026

Understanding the full landscape of Microsoft Ads dimensions and metrics is essential for anyone running paid campaigns on the Microsoft Advertising platform. Whether you're building custom dashboards, pulling data through the Microsoft Advertising API, or simply trying to make sense of campaign reports, knowing exactly what data is available — and what each field means — is the foundation of effective campaign optimization.

This guide provides a complete reference of every dimension and metric available in Microsoft Advertising as of 2026. We've organized them by category, included the API field names for developers and analysts, and added practical context on when and how to use each one. We also cover unique Microsoft Ads features like LinkedIn profile targeting and the Audience Network.

What Are Microsoft Ads Dimensions vs Metrics?

Before diving into the full reference, it's important to understand the difference between dimensions and metrics — two concepts that serve fundamentally different purposes in advertising data analysis.

Dimensions are descriptive attributes that define what you're looking at. They are the labels, categories, and identifiers that let you organize and filter your data. Examples include campaign name, keyword text, ad type, device type, and geographic location. Dimensions answer the question: "How do I want to slice this data?"

Metrics are quantitative measurements that tell you how things performed. They are the numbers: impressions, clicks, spend, conversions, CTR, CPC, impression share. Metrics answer the question: "What happened with my ads?"

In the Microsoft Advertising API, dimensions are referred to as attributes and metrics as performance statistics. The reporting API uses column enums to specify which fields to include in your reports, with separate enums for each report type (campaign, keyword, ad, search query, etc.).

How Is Microsoft Ads Data Structured?

Microsoft Ads data follows a hierarchy similar to Google Ads: Account > Campaign > Ad Group > Keyword / Ad. Campaigns define the type (search, audience, shopping, Performance Max), budget, and network settings. Ad groups contain keywords with bids and ads with creative. Metrics can be queried at any level and rolled up or broken down by various dimensions.

The Microsoft Advertising API provides reporting through asynchronous report requests. You submit a report request specifying columns (dimensions + metrics), filters, aggregation (daily, weekly, monthly), and date range. Reports are generated server-side and downloaded as CSV or TSV files. Real-time data is also available through the Campaign Management API.

Campaign Dimensions

Campaign-level dimensions define the top-level structure of your Microsoft advertising. These fields identify the campaign and its core configuration — type, budget, bid strategy, network, and status. Use these dimensions to organize reporting by campaign and understand the strategic setup behind your results.

Ad Group Dimensions

Ad group dimensions control targeting settings, bids, and ad rotation within a campaign. Each ad group contains keywords (for search), targeting criteria (for audience), or product groups (for shopping). These dimensions help you understand and optimize the mid-level structure of your account.

Keyword Dimensions

Keyword dimensions describe the search terms you're bidding on and their quality indicators. Microsoft Ads provides detailed Quality Score components that directly influence ad position and cost. Understanding and optimizing these dimensions is the highest-leverage activity for search campaign performance.

Ad and Creative Dimensions

Ad dimensions describe the creative content displayed to users. Microsoft Ads supports several ad types including Responsive Search Ads (RSA), Expanded Text Ads (legacy), image ads, multimedia ads, and video ads. Understanding these dimensions is essential for creative testing and performance analysis.

Core Performance Metrics

These are the fundamental metrics that measure how your Microsoft ads are delivered and interacted with. They form the basis of all campaign analysis and optimization decisions. Microsoft Ads provides both standard performance metrics and competitive intelligence metrics (impression share) at every level.

Conversion Metrics

Conversion metrics measure the business outcomes driven by your Microsoft Ads — purchases, sign-ups, phone calls, and other valuable actions tracked through the UET (Universal Event Tracking) tag, app SDK, or offline conversion imports. Microsoft Ads provides both standard conversions and "all conversions" which includes cross-device and view-through attributions.

Audience Network Metrics

The Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) places native ads across premium publisher sites including MSN, Outlook.com, Microsoft Edge new tab, and partner sites. MSAN has its own performance metrics that are reported separately from search network data, allowing you to evaluate each network's contribution independently.

LinkedIn Profile Targeting Dimensions

Microsoft Ads offers a unique capability that no other search platform provides: LinkedIn profile targeting. Because Microsoft owns LinkedIn, you can layer professional demographics on top of your search and audience campaigns. This is particularly valuable for B2B advertisers targeting specific industries, company sizes, or job functions.

How to use LinkedIn targeting: You can apply LinkedIn profile dimensions in two ways. First, as targeting criteria to restrict delivery to specific professional segments (e.g., only show ads to people in the Finance industry). Second, as bid adjustments to increase or decrease bids for specific segments while still reaching the broader audience (e.g., bid +30% for Enterprise company sizes). The bid adjustment approach gives you data across all segments while prioritizing the most valuable ones.

Shopping Campaign Dimensions

Shopping campaign dimensions describe your product feed data and merchant configuration. These are specific to Shopping and Performance Max campaigns that pull product information from your Microsoft Merchant Center feed. Use these dimensions to analyze product-level performance and optimize your feed.

Audience Breakdowns

Breakdowns are segmentation dimensions that let you split your metrics by specific criteria. Microsoft Ads offers extensive breakdown options across device, network, location, time, demographics, and audience segments. Use these to identify which segments perform best and allocate budget accordingly.

Device and Network Breakdowns

Location and Time Breakdowns

Demographic and Audience Breakdowns

How to Use Microsoft Ads Metrics for Campaign Optimization

Having access to hundreds of metrics is powerful, but knowing which ones matter for your specific goals is what separates effective search marketers from data-overwhelmed ones. Here's a practical framework for optimizing Microsoft Ads campaigns.

For search campaign optimization

Focus on Quality Score components first — improving expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience is the highest-leverage activity because it reduces CPC at every bid level. Monitor impression share and impression share lost to budget vs rank to understand whether you need more budget or better quality. Track absolute top IS% for branded keywords where you want to own the first position.

For conversion optimization

Track conversions, CPA, and ROAS as primary KPIs. Use all conversions alongside primary conversions to understand the full impact including view-through and cross-device. Monitor assisted conversions to identify keywords that contribute to the conversion path but don't receive last-click credit — these are often undervalued in optimization decisions.

For Google Ads import optimization

After importing from Google Ads, reduce bids by 20-40% — Microsoft Ads CPCs are typically lower due to less competition. Review and rebuild audience lists as they don't transfer. Check match type behavior — Microsoft's broad match may perform differently. Monitor network performance separately and consider excluding syndicated search partners if quality is low.

For B2B campaigns with LinkedIn targeting

Layer LinkedIn industry and job function as bid adjustments rather than targeting restrictions initially. This gives you performance data across all segments. Once you have data, increase bids for high-converting professional segments and decrease or exclude low-value ones. Combine with in-market audience segments for layered B2B targeting that no other search platform can match.

Common Mistakes When Analyzing Microsoft Ads Data

Even experienced search marketers make these mistakes when working with Microsoft Ads metrics. Avoiding them will save you from flawed analyses and bad optimization decisions.

1. Ignoring syndicated search partner quality

Microsoft's syndicated search partners (AOL, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and others) can have significantly different performance than Bing-owned traffic. Always break down performance by network to identify low-quality partner traffic. If partner clicks have high CPC and low conversion rates, consider excluding syndicated partners at the campaign level.

2. Using Google Ads bids without adjustment

Microsoft Ads CPCs are typically 20-40% lower than Google Ads due to less competition. Importing Google Ads campaigns without adjusting bids means you're overpaying. Start by reducing imported bids by 30% and then optimize based on actual Microsoft Ads performance data. Use first page bid estimates as a benchmark.

3. Overlooking impression share data

Impression share metrics tell you how much available inventory you are capturing. If IS% lost to budget is high, increasing budget is the fastest way to scale. If IS% lost to rank is high, improve Quality Score and bids. Many advertisers focus only on CPC and CTR without realizing they're missing significant volume due to budget or rank limitations.

4. Not separating search and audience network performance

The Microsoft Audience Network has fundamentally different performance characteristics than search. Blending metrics across networks masks poor performance in one channel. Always analyze search and audience metrics separately. Consider running dedicated audience campaigns with their own budgets and goals.

5. Ignoring Quality Score trends

Quality Score changes slowly but has a multiplicative effect on your costs. A keyword improving from QS 5 to QS 7 can reduce CPC by 30-40% at the same ad position. Use the historical Quality Score report to track trends over time. Focus optimization on keywords with high spend and below-average Quality Score components.

6. Averaging ROAS across campaigns

ROAS is a ratio. Averaging ROAS across campaigns gives mathematically incorrect results. A campaign spending $50 with 500% ROAS and another spending $500 with 200% ROAS does not average to 350% ROAS. The correct blended ROAS is total revenue ÷ total spend: ($250 + $1,000) ÷ ($50 + $500) = 227%.