Microsoft expands Performance Max testing with new experiment types

Microsoft is bringing experimentation to Performance Max campaigns, giving advertisers new ways to test campaign changes and measure incremental impact without disrupting live performance.

What’s new:

• Uplift experiments let advertisers measure the incremental impact of Performance Max campaigns against a control group.
• Upgrade experiments allow advertisers to compare an existing campaign with an upgraded Performance Max version before fully rolling out changes.

Both experiment types are available under Campaigns > Experiments for eligible accounts.

Why we care. Until now, Microsoft Ads experiments were limited to Search campaigns. Expanding testing to Performance Max gives advertisers a safer way to validate campaign changes, optimize performance, and make data-driven decisions before committing budget.

Between the lines. As experimentation expands, Microsoft has also renamed its existing experiment offering to Search optimization experiments, distinguishing it from the new Performance Max testing capabilities. The move reflects Microsoft’s broader push to provide advertisers with more sophisticated optimisation tools across automated campaign formats.

The bottom line. Microsoft is closing a key gap in its Performance Max offering by introducing dedicated experiment types, giving advertisers more confidence when testing upgrades and measuring the true impact of automated campaigns.

First spotted. The help docs were spotted by PPC News Feed founder, Hana Kobzová.

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