Microsoft’s new approach to bidding will roll out between March and April. The transition affects all search, shopping, and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns that do not have automated bidding strategies.

Between March 1, 2021 and April 30, 2021, all existing search, shopping, and Dynamic Search Ads campaigns without an automated bidding strategy will automatically migrate to Enhanced CPC (eCPC) bidding. All ad groups and keywords will also move to bidding from their parent campaign.

Beginning on April 5, 2021, any new campaigns created will no longer have the option of Manual CPC. Microsoft will automatically migrate any campaigns that are not yet using eCPC by April 30, 2021.

Lauren Tallody, senior product marketing manager at Microsoft Advertising, during a presentation said the move means advertisers will lose the ability to “set bids without eCPC or another auto-bidding strategy applied.”

Tallody called the move “an elevation of bidding practices” and “auction-time technology,” and said advertisers should not think about this “as taking away something, but more getting everyone on the same level to optimize bids at the time of auction.”

eCPC aims to drive more high-quality traffic, but advertisers that want to get more specific with goals can use MAX Clicks, MAX Conversion, Target ROAS, and Target Cost Per Acquisition. Microsoft also is working to bring Target Impression Share, and Portfolio Bidding pilots to advertisers within the next few months.

In early tests, Tallody said advertisers using eCPC achieved between 5% and 10% more conversions while maintaining their cost per acquisition. The average CPC will not exceed the original bid set, and CPAs should stay consistent.

Advertisers also using other tools and bidding technology can integrate this eCPC process from Microsoft Tallody said there are many signals at the time of auction that third-party tools do no have in their system. The idea also promotes search partner performance benefits to optimize high-quality clicks to the site.