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Microsoft Invest - Microsoft Advertising Direct for buyers

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Microsoft Advertising Direct offers inventory that we believe represents the most direct path to supply. This inventory is brought to you directly through the Microsoft Advertising SSP technology, and is formed at its core from our direct-to-publisher supply most frequently requested and purchased by our buyers across all formats (display, mobile, video, and native).

Our mission is to provide a safe, high-quality, and easy-to-access marketplace so buyers can purchase inventory with fewer intermediaries taking fees (or adding hops) between the buyer and the inventory owner. This mission of most-direct path to supply is why we have named this offering Microsoft Advertising Direct.

Purpose of Microsoft Advertising Direct

With Microsoft Advertising Direct, we are able to streamline the process by which both Microsoft Advertising and our partners manage access to supply. Just as you can currently target all the inventory at a particular SSP - and then place domains in allowlists or blocklists across those SSPs - we are providing an easy way to target Microsoft Advertising supply that is frequently requested and purchased by buyers, rather than requiring buyers to target each individual seller. This also avoids buyers having to remember the qualities of each and every seller when creating allowlists.

Microsoft Advertising Direct provides the most direct path to supply in order to:

  • Lower your cost of media (with fewer intermediaries taking a cut of the transaction)
  • Improve performance metrics (through lower latency and more direct access)
  • Ensure a more transparent environment (by requiring confirmation that ad units are provided directly by the owners of the inventory or exclusive representatives)

You can find the full list of the growing and regularly-updated marketplace of sellers available through Microsoft Advertising Direct, including many of the largest publishers available on Microsoft Advertising, in the Partner Center -- look for "Microsoft Advertising Direct" under the Seller Group column. See Partner Center Screen for more information.

Seller selection criteria

A number of factors go into determining if a seller is eligible for Microsoft Advertising Direct, including whether the seller owns and operates the inventory they sell, the seller’s relationship to the inventory, and the quality, size, geographic location, and format of the inventory. Microsoft Advertising reserves discretion over who is included in Microsoft Advertising Direct.

Microsoft Advertising Direct includes all inventory formats made available on the Microsoft Advertising platform by the included sellers. Microsoft Advertising Direct is updated regularly with newly-onboarded inventory sources for which both of the following are true:

  1. The significant majority (>75%) of a member's traffic is the most direct path to supply as determined by the following factors:
    • The media is owned and operated (O&O) by the seller, and we are integrated with the member with a tag on page (including header bidding, server-of-record relationships, and direct tag in the publisher's ad server) or through a direct server-side integration.
    • Alternately, the seller has an exclusive relationship with the publisher for access to a subset of inventory via a tag on page. The only way to get access to this inventory on Microsoft Advertising is through the seller.
  2. We believe there is a low risk of invalid/fraudulent traffic because of the following:
    • We complete an audit of the inventory using our Inventory Quality technology to review for adherence to our policies (e.g., no pornography, nudity, hate speech) and require confirmation that the inventory is both valid and properly represented.
    • We require confirmation of the owner of the inventory, even if that inventory is available through an intermediary, along with confirmation that the media owner has approved the network to exclusively resell its inventory.

Access Microsoft Advertising Direct

You can target "Microsoft Advertising Direct" on a line item as you would target any seller on Microsoft Advertising. Buyers can block individual sellers from Microsoft Advertising Direct for a specific line item via the seller "Exclude" feature or all at once via Partner Center.

Any line item targeting Microsoft Advertising Direct today will show reporting for each individual seller.