If you are running a Microsoft Ads campaign with multiple ad groups targeting the same keywords, what bidding strategy should you implement to minimize internal competition and maximize overall campaign performance?

If you are running a Microsoft Ads campaign with multiple ad groups targeting the same keywords, you should implement a strategy to prioritize keywords within one ad group to minimize internal competition and maximize overall campaign performance. Microsoft Ads will typically select the ad with the highest Ad Rank to show for a given search query. However, if multiple ad groups contain overlapping keywords, they will compete against each other, potentially driving up costs and diluting performance. The most effective method is to use exact match keywords in the ad group you want to prioritize and then exclude those exact match keywords as negative keywords from the other ad groups. This ensures that the preferred ad group will always trigger for those specific search queries, while the other ad groups will target broader variations or related terms. For example, if you have two ad groups, 'Running Shoes' and 'Discount Shoes', and both target the keyword 'running shoes', you could add '[running shoes]' as an exact match keyword in the 'Running Shoes' ad group and then add '[running shoes]' as a negative exact match keyword in the 'Discount Shoes' ad group. This will ensure that the 'Running Shoes' ad group always triggers for that specific search query.