Microsoft Ads connection

What it reads

For each connected account, Growth Dept MTA reads spend, impressions and clicks by ad and day, with campaigns, ad groups and ads. Performance Max spend that has no ad rows gets one campaign-level row per day, as with Google Ads.

It reads the same reports by the hour, and it reads Microsoft's view-through conversions and revenue. Microsoft's own conversions and revenue (ConversionsQualified and Revenue) come in with each day's spend; the plain Conversions column has returned 0 since 2022, so it is not used. The first image of responsive and image ads becomes the ad's thumbnail.

A pull runs about once an hour and re-reads the last 7 days, and a nightly pull re-reads the last 30. Each pull replaces the rows for its window, so days that Microsoft restates end up matching Microsoft. Spend is converted to the brand's currency as it arrives, at the European Central Bank rate for each day.

Connecting

1. Sign in to Growth Dept MTA as an owner or admin of the brand's organization. Other members can see Settings > Connections but cannot change it.
2. Open Settings > Connections and click Connect on the Microsoft Ads card.
3. Microsoft shows its own sign-in and permission screen. Sign in as a Microsoft user who can see the ad accounts you want, and approve the request. Microsoft has no read-only permission, so the request is for msads.manage. Growth Dept MTA uses it only to read.
4. Back in Growth Dept MTA, the page lists every ad account that login reaches. Tick the ones that belong to this brand and click Connect.
5. Each account you chose appears on the card, and a backfill starts over the brand's lookback window (Settings > Lookback window), up to the 36 months of daily data Microsoft keeps. Scheduled pulls take over from there.

To add accounts later, click Connect beside Link an additional ad account on the same card. If the list comes up empty, the login you used reaches no ad accounts: connect again as a user who has access to them.

If you have been sending Microsoft Ads spend through the spend API or a spreadsheet, remove those rows before you connect. They carry their own account ID, so they would be counted on top of the connected account's spend. Settings > Data Spreadsheets lists each upload. Once the connection is live, the spend API and spreadsheets refuse new Microsoft Ads rows.

If the card says “Microsoft Ads connection is not set up on this server yet.”, the Connect button stays off until Growth Dept registers its Microsoft app. Email support@growthdept.ai if you see it.

Tracking parameters

Add this as the Final URL suffix at the account level, and keep auto-tagging (msclkid) on. Settings > UTM guide in Growth Dept MTA shows the same string with a copy button.

utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={CampaignId}&utm_term={AdGroupId}&utm_content={AdId}&nbt=nb:microsoft::{CampaignId}:{AdGroupId}:{AdId}

Limits

• Microsoft offers no read-only access. The stored token carries the manage permission, which Growth Dept MTA uses only for reading.
• Reports have platform-reported columns for Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, X, AppLovin, MNTN, The Trade Desk, Vibe, Rokt and impact.com only. Microsoft's own conversion figures come in with spend but do not fill those columns.
• Microsoft builds reports in the background. A report that is not ready when a pull runs out of time is collected by a follow-up job instead of being requested again, so new days can take an extra run to appear.
• If Microsoft rejects the stored token, or refuses to refresh it, the account's row on the card shows the error, and the account has to be connected again.

Disconnecting

Each linked account has its own Disconnect button in its row on the Microsoft Ads card. Only owners and admins can use it. After you confirm:

• Syncing for that account stops.
• The stored access token is deleted.
• Data already pulled stays in your reports.

Connecting the account again later starts a new backfill.