Which Microsoft Ads (Bing) websites send bot traffic?
Judge every Bing and Microsoft Audience Network visit Valid or Invalid, pinpoint IVT sub-sources, and exclude them manually in your dashboard.
website in Microsoft Ads (Bing)The buyer pulls bad domains from the Website URL (publisher) report and adds them as website exclusions (up to 2,500 URLs), or to a website exclusion list applied across campaigns, which blocks ads from serving on those partner sites; for Search campaigns, Yahoo search and Microsoft search traffic (including Bing and AOL) cannot be blocked this way.
How bot traffic slips in through Microsoft Ads (Bing) websites.
Microsoft Ads reaches searchers on Bing, but the inventory you buy extends further: the Microsoft Audience Network (display, native and video units across MSN, Microsoft Edge, Outlook.com and publisher partners) and a syndicated search partner tier. Microsoft does not name the partner property in the click URL, so a campaign that looks clean at keyword level can still carry invalid traffic from partner surfaces. The msclkid auto-tag, plus {keyword}, {AdGroupID}, {CampaignID} and {Network} parameters you append, let each visit’s verdict be cut by keyword, ad group, campaign or network type; Microsoft’s Website URL (publisher) report supplies the domains to exclude.
The search partner tier is the least transparent layer. With no publisher identifier in the click URL, a click from a syndication partner looks identical to a Bing.com click at URL level unless you pass {Network}, which returns o for owned and operated search results (Bing, AOL and Yahoo), s for syndicated search partner sites and a for audience placements. Microsoft also reports part of its partner traffic only in aggregate: for what it calls select partner traffic, you cannot see individual reports for each domain.
Microsoft sorts every click into standard-quality, low-quality or invalid, and says low-quality and invalid clicks often originate from spiders, robots, questionable sources or test servers. You are billed only for standard-quality clicks. ValidVisit’s verdict is a separate judgment made on your own landing page, so a visit it judges Invalid may be one Microsoft has already left off your bill.
The Microsoft Audience Network behaves differently. Native and display placements on partner properties can carry invalid traffic tied to specific publishers the click URL doesn’t name, so the “a” segment and ad-group divergence are the practical first proxies: an ad group with a consistently higher invalid share on audience placements is worth checking against the Website URL (publisher) report.
What to watch on Microsoft Ads (Bing)
Microsoft Ads passes the matched keyword via {keyword}. In ValidVisit’s keyword breakdown, look for a small cluster of terms carrying a share of invalid visits well above their share of click volume. Review those terms first, and set them beside the Low-quality clicks and Low-quality click rate (%) columns Microsoft offers in its performance reports.
The {AdGroupID} token segments verdicts by ad group, and {Network} splits each ad group’s visits into owned and operated search (o), syndicated partners (s) and audience placements (a). Ad distribution is an ad group-level setting in Microsoft Ads, so when two ad groups show meaningfully different invalid shares, check which network types each one serves on before you change keywords.
{Network} = s)Compare the invalid share of syndicated visits with owned and operated ones. If the gap holds, run Microsoft’s Website URL (publisher) report to see which partner sites carried the campaign, then exclude specific sites, or switch the ad group’s ad distribution to Microsoft sites and select traffic, which drops the additional partner traffic.
What Microsoft Ads (Bing) lets you judge by.
Invalid share broken down by:
- Network
{Network}The ad network type: o owned and operated, s syndicated search partners, a audience placements.
Per-click id: Microsoft Ads (Bing) passes a unique click id, and ValidVisit stores it with each visit, so a verdict traces back to the click in Microsoft Ads (Bing)’s own reports.
Compare bot & invalid-traffic breakdown across every ad network →See your own Microsoft Ads (Bing) sub-sources judged this way.
How ValidVisit attributes Microsoft Ads (Bing) traffic
Each Microsoft Ads (Bing) macro maps to a normalized parameter, so every judged visit is pinned to the right campaign, creative and publisher.
https://yoursite.com/landing?utm_source=microsoft-ads&utm_medium=search&vv_campaign_id={CampaignID}&vv_adset_id={AdGroupID}&vv_ad_id={AdId}&vv_keyword={keyword}&vv_publisher_id={Network}| Token | Microsoft Ads (Bing) macro | Maps to | Identifies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign ID | {CampaignID} | campaign_id | campaign |
| Ad Group ID | {AdGroupID} | adset_id | adset |
| Ad ID | {AdId} | ad_id | ad |
| Keyword | {keyword} | keyword | keyword |
| Network | {Network} | publisher_id | publisher |
| Click ID (msclkid) | (auto-tagging) | msclkid | click |
- Microsoft Ads (Bing) macro
{CampaignID}- Maps to
- campaign_id
- Identifies
- campaign
- Microsoft Ads (Bing) macro
{AdGroupID}- Maps to
- adset_id
- Identifies
- adset
- Microsoft Ads (Bing) macro
{AdId}- Maps to
- ad_id
- Identifies
- ad
- Microsoft Ads (Bing) macro
{keyword}- Maps to
- keyword
- Identifies
- keyword
- Microsoft Ads (Bing) macro
{Network}- Maps to
- publisher_id
- Identifies
- publisher
- Microsoft Ads (Bing) macro
(auto-tagging)- Maps to
- msclkid
- Identifies
- click
Macros checked against Microsoft Ads (Bing)’s own documentation on 2026-10-02. Microsoft Ads (Bing) docs
The verdict works the same way on every network. ValidVisit never changes your Microsoft Ads (Bing) account: you make the exclusion there yourself. How the verdict works →
Microsoft Ads (Bing) traffic quality, answered.
Which Microsoft Ads tracking parameters give ValidVisit the most diagnostic depth?
The msclkid auto-tag is the foundation: Microsoft enables it by default, and ValidVisit reads it natively and ties each verdict to the click ID. Appending {keyword}, {AdGroupID}, {CampaignID} and {Network} as URL parameters in your tracking template adds the dimensions most useful for IVT analysis: the keyword view shows which terms carry the invalid share, and {Network} separates owned and operated search, syndicated partners and audience placements. {AdId} is useful for completeness.
Can ValidVisit tell me which search partner site is sending bad traffic, given that Microsoft does not expose the partner in the click URL?
Not from the click URL; Microsoft’s URL parameters carry no partner site, which limits what any post-click tool can recover. ValidVisit shows the invalid share of that traffic by keyword, ad group and network type. Microsoft’s Website URL (publisher) report does list domains, and those go into Website exclusions. For traffic you can’t pin to a domain, IP exclusions and device bid adjustments remain available. Microsoft notes that for Search campaigns you cannot block Yahoo search and Microsoft search traffic, including Bing and AOL.
Where do I exclude websites and IPs in Microsoft Ads?
Website exclusion lists live under Tools > Content suitability > Website control lists. Associate a list with a campaign, or add sites by hand under Manually add websites in the campaign’s advanced settings. Ad group exclusions are set from the Ad groups table (Edit > Other changes > Website exclusions) and override the campaign’s. Microsoft allows a maximum of 2,500 URLs to exclude, and its API guide caps a shared list at 10,000 sites, with up to three lists per manager account. IP exclusions are campaign-level only, up to 100 addresses or ranges per campaign, IPv4 only. Microsoft also documents device targeting (computers, tablets, smartphones) with bid adjustments from -100% to +900%, and says it does not support targeting by device model or brand.
Can I limit an ad group to Microsoft sites, and does that remove audience ads?
Open the ad group’s Settings and, under Ad group settings > Advanced settings > Ad distribution, choose Microsoft sites and select traffic instead of The entire Microsoft Advertising Network. That drops the additional partner traffic, Microsoft’s name for its Bing and Yahoo search partners. It does not remove audience ads: Microsoft states that all options include search and Audience ads. To keep a Search campaign off audience traffic such as MSN, Microsoft Edge and Outlook.com, the route Microsoft documents is website exclusions for those sites.
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