Microsoft Advertising's content suitability documentation now describes a brand-safety control called Excluded content terms, which stops ads from appearing next to unwanted page titles, with a maximum of 1,000 terms. The control surfaced publicly on 6 August 2026, when Search Engine Roundtable reported the rollout and credited Hana Kobzova of PPC News Feed for spotting it. Microsoft published no announcement post, so the documentation is the primary record.
What the documentation says
Microsoft's help documentation lists Excluded content terms as a third control alongside website control lists and content exclusions. It states: "Excluded content terms block your ads from showing next to unwanted terms (i.e., page titles). They can be added at the account or campaign level, with a maximum of 1000 terms. Any terms you add to your campaign will be automatically applied to all campaigns in your account to save you time later."
The example in Microsoft's documentation is a seller of tech devices excluding "faulty tech devices" so its ads do not appear next to page titles that mention it. That example is worth reading closely, because it shows the control matching against the title of the page carrying the ad rather than against a user query or an audience.
The documentation also carries the note "Not everyone has this feature yet", and it gives no launch date. Nothing in the page describes a phased schedule or a general availability milestone.
Where the exclusions apply
Microsoft's documentation names the campaign types that support Excluded content terms and the one that does not yet, which is the fastest way to work out whether the control covers your account.
| Campaign type | Excluded content terms |
|---|---|
| Audience | Supported |
| Performance Max | Supported |
| Search | Supported |
| Shopping | Supported |
| Premium Streaming | Not supported yet |
Where to find it in the interface
Microsoft's documentation gives two paths. Terms can be added under Tools, then Content suitability, then Excluded content terms. They can also be added during Performance Max campaign creation, under Targeting settings.
The second path matters more than it looks. Adding an exclusion list while a Performance Max campaign is being built puts the decision at the point where a media plan is still being argued about, rather than in a settings screen someone visits after a placement report goes wrong.
Why a title-matched exclusion is unusual
Performance Max on Microsoft Advertising has given advertisers very little control over where ads land. A keyword-style exclusion evaluated against page titles reaches inside Performance Max inventory, which placement-level controls have not done well.
The account-wide propagation described in Microsoft's documentation compounds that. Terms added to a campaign apply automatically to all campaigns in the account, so a list built once also covers campaigns created later. That is convenient and it is also the risk: a term added to solve a problem in one campaign quietly narrows inventory everywhere, and the documentation describes no per-campaign opt-out. Search Engine Roundtable reported the rollout on 6 August 2026, and the Microsoft Advertising help documentation is where the behaviour is spelled out.
A 1,000-term ceiling is generous for a curated block list and tight for anyone tempted to paste in a scraped list of negatives. It rewards a short list of terms that would genuinely embarrass the brand, which is a different exercise from negative keyword management even though it looks like one. Advertisers already running structured negatives in Google Ads campaigns will recognise the mechanics and should resist reusing the same file, since one matches queries and the other matches page titles.
What this means for Thai marketers
The documentation says nothing about Thailand, and nothing about how terms are matched across languages. What follows is reasoning, not a sourced claim.
Microsoft Advertising is a secondary channel for most Thai advertisers, so this is a control to set up once rather than a reason to shift budget. Because the exclusions are text matched against page titles, a Thai brand would need the list written in Thai as well as English. An English-only list is an assumption about Thai-language inventory that the documentation does not support either way.
For retailers running Shopping campaigns on the channel, the same list covers Shopping and Performance Max, so a single pass over brand-sensitive wording protects both. Teams building that list alongside their wider ecommerce marketing work will get more out of it than teams treating it as a one-off setting.
Frequently asked questions
Is Excluded content terms available in my account?
Possibly not yet. Microsoft's documentation carries the note "Not everyone has this feature yet", and it gives no rollout schedule or completion date.
How many terms can I add?
Up to 1,000. Microsoft's documentation states a maximum of 1000 terms, added at either the account or the campaign level.
Does it work in Performance Max?
Yes. Microsoft's documentation lists Audience, Performance Max, Search and Shopping campaigns as supported, and says Premium Streaming campaigns are not supported yet.
Is this live in Thailand?
The documentation does not say. It names no countries, describes no regional rollout, and does not address how terms behave in languages other than the English example it uses.
Do terms I add to one campaign affect the others?
Yes, by design. Microsoft's documentation says terms added to a campaign are automatically applied to all campaigns in the account, which is the behaviour to plan around before building a long list.
If Microsoft Advertising sits in your channel mix and nobody has looked at content suitability settings this year, this is a short piece of housekeeping with a real payoff. Relevant Audience is happy to review the setup with you.
