# Microsoft Ads

> Connect Microsoft Ads (Bing) for spend, conversion goals, suppression lists and click tracking.
> Source: https://www.eventsiq.io/docs/microsoft-ads


Microsoft Ads (Bing) has no lead forms, so leads from your Microsoft ads arrive through your own
EventsIQ forms, marked by the Microsoft click ID. Connecting Microsoft Ads lets EventsIQ read your
spend, tell Microsoft which leads sold, and keep people who already bought out of your ads.

:::note{title="What you get"}
-   **Cost tracking**: spend per campaign, every hour, so Reports show return on ad spend.
-   **Conversions**: a postback or a routing lane reports the sale to an offline conversion goal.
-   **Suppression list**: sold leads are added to a customer list your campaigns can exclude.
-   **Click tracking**: the Microsoft click ID (`msclkid`) is kept with each lead.
:::

## Step 1: Connect Microsoft Ads

1. Go to **Connections** and click **Connect an account**.
2. Pick **Microsoft Ads**, then choose how you sign in to Microsoft Ads: **Microsoft account** or
   **Google account** (if you use Continue with Google on ads.microsoft.com). A sign in window opens.
   Sign in with the login that can open your ad accounts.
3. EventsIQ lists every ad account that login can reach. If one is missing, give the login access in
   Microsoft Ads, then use **Refresh accounts** on the connection.

Connecting needs the **Manage routing** permission, because Microsoft Ads brings in no leads.

## Step 2: Track the click ID

Turn on **auto-tagging** in Microsoft Ads (Accounts, Settings, Auto-tagging of Microsoft Click ID).
Microsoft then adds `msclkid` to every ad click. On your [traffic source](https://www.eventsiq.io/docs/traffic-sources),
pick **Microsoft Ads** and the `msclkid` parameter is added for you. A lead with a Microsoft click ID
is shown as a Microsoft lead.

## Step 3: Read your spend

1. Go to **Integrations**, **Cost tracking**, and click **New integration**.
2. Pick **Microsoft Ads**, your Microsoft traffic source, the connection, and the ad accounts.

Microsoft builds a report for each ad account, so a run takes a little longer than other networks.
Microsoft keeps six months of hourly spend, so past spend can be imported up to 180 days back.

## Step 4: Report sales back to Microsoft

Microsoft has no event names. Each stage you report is an **offline conversion goal** that you make
in Microsoft Ads first.

1. In Microsoft Ads, go to **Conversions**, **Conversion goals**, and create a goal with the type
   **Offline**, for example `Sold lead`. Wait two hours before sending to a new goal.
2. Then choose where EventsIQ reports it from:
    - **A postback**: in **Integrations**, **Conversion API**, pick **Microsoft Ads conversion
      goal**, the ad account, and a goal for each postback event.
    - **A routing lane** or a [global event](https://www.eventsiq.io/docs/global-events): add a **Microsoft Ads postback**
      and pick a goal for when a destination bought the lead. Leave the "not bought" goal empty unless
      you made a separate goal for it.

EventsIQ sends the click ID and the lead's email and phone, hashed. A lead with none of these is
skipped, and so is a lead older than 90 days: Microsoft only takes conversions from the last 90 days,
and only counts them inside the goal's own conversion window after the click. Results show in
Microsoft Ads after up to six hours.

:::tip{title="Retrying from Lead logs"}
Every attempt for the same lead is sent with the same time. Microsoft ignores a second conversion
with the same click ID and time, so a retry of a lead that has a Microsoft click ID is not counted
twice. Keep **one Microsoft Ads postback lane per routing**: for the same reason, two lanes reporting
the same lead at the same moment would only have the first counted.
:::

## Step 5: Exclude people who already bought

1. On a routing, add a **Microsoft Ads suppression list** lane and pick the ad account.
2. Pick a customer list, or click **Create a new list** to make one from EventsIQ. A list made here
   never expires its members.
3. In each campaign's audience targeting, add the list as an **exclusion**.

Microsoft customer lists only take **email addresses**. A lead with no email is skipped with a reason.
Microsoft takes up to 48 hours to update a list and needs about 300 matched people before a campaign
can use it.

## If something stops

If Microsoft stops accepting the sign in, the connection shows **Needs you**, the owner gets an
email, and spend, conversions and list updates pause until you reconnect. Reconnect from
**Connections**, then import the missed spend from the cost tracking integration.