How to Track Offline Conversions in Microsoft Ads
Microsoft Ads handles consent and offline imports differently to Google. Here is the setup that works.
Microsoft Ads is the channel people set up by importing their Google Ads account and then never think about again.
Which is a shame, because the audience converts well, the competition is thinner, and the tracking is nearly as capable as Google’s. It is just different enough in the details to catch you out.
Start with the UET tag
UET stands for Universal Event Tracking and it is Microsoft’s equivalent of the Google tag.
Install it through GTM. There is a built in tag template, so you only need your UET tag ID.
One thing that differs from Google: the UET tag can be sent with custom variables including revenue and currency directly on the page event, rather than always through a separate conversion tag. That flexibility is useful once you know it exists.
Conversion goals
Microsoft calls them conversion goals. Four types:
Destination URL. A page load. Easy, fragile, avoid where possible.
Event. A UET event you fire yourself. The good option.
Duration or pages viewed. Engagement proxies. Rarely useful as a primary goal.
Offline conversion. Imported from your CRM. Covered below.
Set the count setting deliberately, the same way you would in Google Ads. Unique for leads, all for ecommerce purchases.
The consent difference
This is the part that surprises people migrating from Google.
Microsoft has its own consent mechanism for UET, separate from Google Consent Mode. If your consent management platform handles Google Consent Mode automatically, it may not be doing anything at all for Microsoft.
You need to pass consent state to UET explicitly, and if you do not, you are either collecting data you should not be or blocking data you could have had, depending on how your banner is configured.
Check this specifically. It is the most commonly missed item in a Microsoft setup: Google Consent Mode v2 in GTM covers the Google side, and Microsoft needs its own equivalent alongside it.
Enhanced Conversions, Microsoft style
Microsoft supports Enhanced Conversions using hashed email, the same principle as Google.
Enable it in the UET tag settings and pass a hashed email with your conversion events. On a typical account this recovers a meaningful share of conversions the cookie loses.
It is a ten minute change with a measurable effect, and almost nobody does it because the Microsoft account gets less attention than the Google one.
Offline conversion import
Microsoft calls this offline conversions and it works on the same principle as Google’s. You capture a click ID, store it with the lead, and upload the outcome later.
The click ID is msclkid, appended to your landing page URL when auto tagging is enabled.
The setup
Confirm auto tagging is on in your Microsoft Ads account settings. Without it there is no msclkid and none of this works.
Capture msclkid on landing, store it in a cookie, and write it into a hidden field on your forms.
Store it with the lead record in your CRM.
Create an offline conversion goal in Microsoft Ads.
Upload conversions with the msclkid, conversion name, time and value, either by file upload or through the API.
If you already do this for Google Ads with gclid, you are ninety percent of the way there. It is the same pipeline with a second column: offline conversion tracking setup.
The one field everyone forgets
Capture msclkid alongside gclid, not instead of it.
A visitor arrives from one platform or the other, never both, so your form needs hidden fields for every click ID you care about. gclid, gbraid, wbraid, msclkid, fbclid, ttclid, li_fat_id.
Adding all of them at once costs nothing extra and saves you rebuilding the form every time you add a channel. Do it once, properly.
Importing from Google Ads has a catch
Microsoft’s import feature is genuinely convenient and it does not bring your conversion tracking with it.
Campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads come across. Your conversion goals do not. If you imported and never set up conversion tracking on the Microsoft side, your campaigns have been running blind, and Microsoft’s automated bidding has had nothing to learn from.
Check this today if your account came from an import. It is a common and expensive oversight.
Audience network is a separate consideration
Microsoft serves ads on its Audience Network as well as search. The Audience Network behaves more like display than search, with different conversion patterns and a higher share of view based influence.
If your reported conversions look unusually strong on Audience Network, check the attribution before scaling. The same scepticism you would apply to display elsewhere applies here.
A short checklist
UET tag installed once through GTM.
Event based conversion goals, not URL based, with correct counting.
Consent handling configured specifically for Microsoft.
Enhanced Conversions enabled with hashed email.
Auto tagging on and msclkid captured on every form.
Offline conversions flowing from the CRM.
Need this built properly?
Microsoft Ads rewards the attention that most accounts never give it. I set up and repair tracking for ecommerce stores and lead generation businesses, so the numbers in your ad accounts match the money in your bank account.
Have a look at what I do, or book a call and we can go through your setup together.
