Breadcrumbs

How to: Microsoft Ads-Negate Domains

So you want to automate URL exclusions for Microsoft Ads?

Overview of Documentation:

  1. Before you start...

  2. Creating a workflow

  3. Why use this workflow?

  4. Understanding Run Types (First-Time Setup vs Daily Runs)

  5. Step-by-Step Setup Guide

  6. Troubleshooting

Creating a Workflow

Microsoft Ads - Negate Domains

Use the Microsoft Ads Negate Domains

Why use Microsoft Ads Negate Domains

Purpose-built for Placement Optimization: This workflow automates the process of identifying and excluding underperforming publisher URLs from Microsoft Ads campaigns. If your campaigns are serving on low-quality placements that consume budget without delivering results, this automation is the most efficient way to protect your media spend.

When to use it:

  • Your Microsoft Ads campaigns are serving on the Audience Network or partner sites

  • You're seeing high impressions/spend but low clicks/conversions on certain placements

  • You want to automate recurring URL exclusion analysis instead of manually reviewing publisher reports

  • You need to apply exclusions across multiple campaigns consistently

  • You want to maintain a whitelist of protected domains (e.g., search properties, trusted publishers)

Key benefits:

  • Automation: Eliminates the manual process of downloading publisher reports, analyzing performance, and applying exclusions campaign-by-campaign

  • Data-Driven: Uses your custom performance thresholds to identify underperforming URLs objectively

  • Consistency: Applies exclusions across all active Search, Shopping, and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns simultaneously

  • Protection: Whitelist functionality prevents accidental exclusion of critical domains

  • Timeliness: Daily runs ensure new underperforming URLs are caught quickly before wasting significant budget

Understanding Run Types

The workflow has two run modes: Historical and Daily. Understanding when to use each is critical for successful setup.

Historical Run

When to use:

  • ✅ First time running the workflow

  • ✅ After a previous run failed

  • ✅ When you want to reset and re-analyze all historical data

What it does:

  • Analyzes performance data from the last 90 days (configurable)

  • Ignores any existing exclusions already applied to campaigns

  • Creates a "clean slate" exclusion list based purely on performance thresholds

  • Note: This will fetch ALL underperforming URLs, even if they're already excluded

Expected behavior on first run:

  1. The workflow will create a datasource named microsoft_publisher_performance

  2. The workflow will exit with an error indicating the datasource needs authentication

  3. This is expected! It's a one-time setup requirement

Daily Run

When to use:

  • ✅ After your first successful Historical run

  • ✅ For all scheduled/recurring runs

What it does:

  • Only analyzes URLs that are not already excluded on campaigns

  • Performs incremental updates (adds new underperforming URLs without re-processing old ones)

  • More efficient and faster than Historical runs

Important: Do not use Daily mode until you've completed at least one successful Historical run.

Step-by-Step Setup Guide

Instructions for finding the microsoft ads account id in platform


  1. Microsoft Ads Account ID

    • This must be a numeric ID with no letters or special characters.

    • To find it, log in to Microsoft Ads, and look at the URL in your browser.

    • Look for the parameter aid=XXXXXX — this number is your Account ID.

      • Screenshot 2025-05-19 at 4.41.01 PM.png

         

    • ⚠️ Do not use the Account ID shown in the UI — use the one from the URL (Refer to the image).

Step 1: Create the Workflow

  1. Go to Alli Platform → Actions → Workflows

  2. Click Create Workflow

  3. Select template: Alli Solutions - Microsoft URL Negation V2

Step 2: Fill in Required Inputs

Pay special attention to the thresholds field.

Threshold Requirements:

  • You must provide at least two thresholds

  • At least one "upper bound" (impressions OR spend)

  • At least one "lower bound" (clicks OR conversions)

Example valid combinations:

  • ✅ Impressions + Clicks

  • ✅ Spend + Conversions

  • ✅ Impressions + Spend + Clicks + Conversions

  • ❌ Only Clicks + Conversions (missing upper bound)

Step 3: First Run (Expected to Fail)

  1. Click Save and Run

  2. The workflow will:

    • Create the microsoft_publisher_performance datasource

    • Exit with an error: DataSourceNotSetup

This is expected! Proceed to Step 4.

Step 4: Authenticate the Datasource

  1. Go to Alli Data → Search for microsoft_publisher_performance

  2. Click on the datasource to open it

Configure the datasource:

a. Required Authorizations tab:

  • Click Authorize and complete the Microsoft Ads OAuth flow

b. Additional Configurations tab:

  • Under Account Name, select your Microsoft Ads account from the dropdown

c. Define Your Data tab:

  • Metrics: Select the following (required):

    • ✅ Impressions

    • ✅ Clicks

    • ✅ Spend

    • ✅ Conversions

  • Dimensions: Ensure Goal is selected

d. Load Your Data tab:

  • Set Backfill Date to cover the last 90 days (recommended for statistical significance)

  1. Click Save on the datasource

Step 5: Re-run the Workflow

  1. Return to your workflow

  2. Click Run again (with the same inputs from Step 2)

  3. The workflow should now complete successfully

Success indicators:

  • ✅ Workflow status shows "Completed"

  • ✅ Output shows number of URLs excluded

  • ✅ No error messages in logs

Step 6: Switch to Daily Mode

  1. Edit your workflow

  2. Change run_type from historical to daily

  3. Save the workflow

  4. Set up a schedule (recommended: daily at 9 AM)

You're done! The workflow will now run daily and automatically exclude new underperforming URLs.

Important Caveats

1. Campaign-Level Exclusions

Exclusions are applied at the campaign level, not account level.

Impact: If you launch a new campaign after the workflow runs, exclusions will not automatically apply to it. You must:

  • Run the workflow again manually, OR

  • Wait for the next scheduled run

2. Datasource Naming

The workflow requires a datasource named exactly microsoft_publisher_performance.

Impact: If you have a similar datasource with a different name, the workflow will create a new one and ignore your existing datasource - which okay.

Troubleshooting

Need more help?

  1. Take a screenshot of the error/output

  2. Note the Microsoft Ads Account ID used

  3. Open a Jira ticket in Alli Service Desk:

    • Feature: Workflows

    • Title: [Client Name] Microsoft URL Negation V2 Issue

    • Description: Include client name, account ID, workflow link, and error screenshot

  4. If no response within 48 hours, escalate to #alli-search-automation Slack channel