Psst, the valuable consumers are at Microsoft media’s AI-powered experiences

“Olly olly oxen free!” is a classic catchphrase in hide-and-seek. It lets everyone know the game is over and it’s okay to come out of hiding. In many ways, advertising has become a high-stakes version of the childhood game. You know customers are out there, but getting them to emerge and engage is increasingly challenging. 

Why is that? For one, it has become more difficult to raise customer awareness and generate sales as the gap between brands and their customers widens. Brands are up against endless consumer barriers from media fragmentation, cookie deprecation, and ever-changing behaviors that make it harder to connect. 

Buyers at brands and agencies must adapt their strategies based on the current market realities, according to the IAB 2025 Outlook: A Snapshot into Ad Spend, Opportunities, and Strategies for Growth. When compared with previous years, buyers are:

• Prioritizing customer acquisition (62%)

• Optimizing reach/frequency (31%)

• Improving marketing mix modeling (MMM) results (22%)

Some factors driving these shifts are product inflation and advertising ecosystem fragmentation, which are being compounded by signal loss and the proliferation and heightening of walled gardens.

The good news is that valuable consumers are out there if you know where to look. The AI innovation at the core of Microsoft media helps you connect with those hard-to-find audiences at each part of their digital lives, allowing you to overcome advertising challenges and engage your most valuable customers.

Three reasons customers engage with Microsoft media’s interconnected properties

People are discerning, particularly about how they spend their time and interact with the world around them. With multiple properties, formats, and touchpoints, Microsoft media provides interconnected options so people can choose how they want to engage, and cross-product entry points keep them within the Microsoft product line.

Specifically, Microsoft’s owned and operated properties encompass a range of media advertising products, such as MSN, Microsoft Casual Games, Microsoft Outlook, LinkedIn, Edge, and more. Importantly, our properties come pre-installed on Windows, removing friction and creating stickiness that drives meaningful traffic.

For instance, Microsoft Edge drives 60% of MSN volume as the default tab page, Bing search results can lead users to MSN, and MSN can lead users to gaming content powered by Microsoft Casual Games. The interconnectivity encourages people to visit one Microsoft property after another, creating the audience growth and increased traffic that gives advertisers more engaged people to reach.

Let’s take a closer look at how Microsoft media is designed to enhance customer engagement so advertisers can effectively reach their target audiences: 

1. Customers can connect with media where they work, browse, and play

Intent data helps advertisers understand consumers’ digital behavior and gauge their interests. They use the information to target their campaigns to people based on their interests or needs. Microsoft media audiences are considered high-intent consumers, meaning they are likely to take key actions, such as clicking on an ad (18%) or having made a purchase last week (48%), that make them appeal to advertisers.

Microsoft media makes it easy to reach these high-intent consumers throughout their day and across their digital lives. Whether they’re at work using Outlook, LinkedIn, or Microsoft 365, browsing their favorite topics on MSN and Edge, or relaxing playing with Activision Blizzard King, Xbox, or Microsoft Casual Games, Microsoft media connects with consumers during the moments that matter. 

56% of Microsoft audiences are more likely to spend between 6-10 hours online than the average internet user.

2. Customers can engage based on their intent and interests

According to the IAB Changing the Game: How Games Advertising Powers Performance report, games advertising engages customers in their preferred environment, and 90% of advertisers attest to its effectiveness in reaching valuable, hard-to-reach audiences with relevant messaging.

Game players are just one of the many enthusiast audiences that Microsoft media reaches to align targeted inventory with an advertiser’s specific needs. Find interest-based audiences, such as sports fans, foodies, and travelers, through properties like MSN, the number one desktop news and information service. With products like Microsoft Outlook, you can connect with productive customers in the mindset to get things done—almost two-thirds (62%) regularly complete personal tasks such as research or making purchases during work time (don’t tell the boss!).

57% of gamers in the U.S. play across Microsoft’s portfolio of gaming platforms.

3. AI-powered content experiences enable personalized customer interactions

Advertisers hope to connect with their consumers with relevant ads tailored to their unique preferences and behaviors. The personalized approach seems to be working, and according to an IAB study, 82% of U.S. consumers agree personalized ads help them discover products and services they’re interested in, and 80% prefer ads for products or services they’re interested in or shopping for. 

Microsoft Copilot, our trusty generative AI companion, integrates across Microsoft properties, including Bing, Outlook, Edge, and Windows 11 devices. It helps consumers find the content they are most interested in by enhancing search results and answering questions. By creating more personalized experiences that people expect, consumers tend to be more engaged with Microsoft media. The benefit is better ad performance, with Copilot conversion rates 76% higher when comparing lower funnel ad types to traditional search.

Advertisers see 69% higher click-through rates with Microsoft Copilot (based on Bing campaign data).

Microsoft media’s AI innovation drives customer connections 

The advertising game will never be over, but many advertisers wish they could shout “Olly olly oxen free!” and suddenly, valuable consumers emerge from hiding, ready to engage. With Microsoft media, they can. That’s because consumers are already out and actively involved with Microsoft media’s AI-driven properties and its advertising. 

Find out how Microsoft media is uniquely positioned to reach your most valuable customers.