Microsoft has made moves to boost advertising revenue and speed-up developer payments, while announcing that Windows Phone Store has passed nine million daily ‘transactions’.

New partnerships with third-party ad networks will enable Microsoft to meet growing demand for advertising content from developers, enabling more ads to be served and boosting revenue generated by apps. Microsoft expects further growth as more networks are integrated in the coming months.

There are also plans for Microsoft Advertising to make unique device IDs available to third-party networks, to allow ads to be better targeted. The IDs are not linked to personal information and users can opt out of targeted advertising if they wish.

Another improvement for developers is that revenue derived from direct operator billing transactions will reach developers 30 days after they have taken place, due to changes in the payout process. Payments were delayed by an average of 120 days previously.

Microsoft has also updated its Dev Center app with new features, including the ability to view app submission status and filter reviews.

Director of Microsoft’s Windows Phone apps team, Todd Brix, noted in a blog post that Windows Phone Store is now seeing nine million transactions per day, although it was unclear what these encompassed.

Brix encouraged developers to publish new apps in advance of the traditional download surge in the run-up to Christmas. The company has seen app downloads and purchases increase by more than 50 per cent in November and December in the past couple of years.

Microsoft recently said it would retain a promotional price of $19 for the annual Dev Center registration fee. The fee was previously $99. Once registered, developers can submit an unlimited number of paid apps and up to 100 free apps.

In August, Microsoft introduced Windows Phone App Studio, a free, web-based app creation tool “designed to help anyone quickly bring an idea to life by applying text, web content, imagery, and design concepts to a rich set of customisable templates”.

More than 30,000 projects were started using Windows Phone App Studio in the first 48 hours of availability.