Setting up offline conversions in Microsoft Ads (Bing): MSCLKID, goals and import

Why Microsoft Ads needs your offline sales

Microsoft Ads counts what happens on your website: a form fill or a call from the site. If your leads buy later, by phone, in person or through your sales team, that sale stays in your CRM.

Without it, Microsoft Ads measures leads, not customers, and has no way to tell good leads from bad ones. Offline conversions give you the view from the click to the sale, so you can judge campaigns on revenue, not form fills.

1. Capture the MSCLKID

The MSCLKID is the Microsoft Click ID. With auto-tagging of the Microsoft Click ID turned on in your account, Microsoft Ads adds it to the landing page URL as msclkid. It is what ties a sale back to the click.

• Turn on auto-tagging of the Microsoft Click ID in Microsoft Advertising.
• Add a hidden field for the MSCLKID on every form, and save it to its own field in your CRM.
• Pass it on calls and chats too, so leads from Call Only ads, website calls and live chats can be matched.
• Keep the UTM parameters with it, so your CRM reports show the campaign as well.
• Carry it from the lead to the deal or opportunity, so the sale still has it.

2. Create an offline conversion goal

In Microsoft Advertising, create a conversion goal for offline conversions. The goal tells Microsoft Ads what you are importing and how to count it.

• Create one goal per outcome you want to measure, such as a qualified lead or a closed sale.
• Name each goal clearly. The import has to use the same name.
• Decide whether the goal carries a value, and if so, where that value comes from in your CRM.

3. Import the conversions

4. Read the results

Once offline conversions are coming in, reports in Microsoft Ads can show online and offline conversions together. You can see which campaigns, keywords and ad groups lead to sales, not just to clicks.

Marketing also gets to see what happens to leads after the click, and sales gets the campaign behind each lead, so both teams look at the same numbers.

Mistakes that break the match

• Auto-tagging of the Microsoft Click ID left off, so there is no MSCLKID to capture.
• Landing pages or redirects that rewrite the URL and drop the msclkid parameter.
• Forms without the hidden field, or chats and calls with no click data.
• The MSCLKID saved in the same field as the GCLID, so one overwrites the other.
• A conversion name in the import that does not match the goal name.
• Every new lead imported as a conversion, which measures leads, not customers.
• An automated import that stops with no one noticing. Set up alerts when it fails.

Send only what Microsoft Ads needs

An offline conversion import needs the click ID, the conversion name, the time and, if you use one, a value. Send the outcome, not the details: a conversion such as "Insured lead" or "VOB approved" is fine, but diagnosis, treatment and insurance plan details stay in your CRM. They have no place in an ad platform.

Doing this from Salesforce or Zoho CRM

The setup in Microsoft Ads is the same whichever CRM you use. What changes is where the MSCLKID is stored and what runs the import.

Want to know if your Microsoft Ads leads are turning into sales? Book a free call. We will look at your tracking and your CRM, give you honest advice, and there is no obligation.

Respect privacy laws and cookie consent

Tracking only holds up if it respects the people you track. Privacy laws and browser rules keep tightening, and a cookie banner that does nothing is not enough.

• Ask before you track: analytics and ad cookies wait until the visitor accepts, with an easy way to say no.
• Use Google Consent Mode, so Google tags follow the visitor’s choice.
• Honor Global Privacy Control: a browser that sends it is treated as a no.
• Let visitors change their mind later, from a cookie settings link in the footer.
• Keep your privacy policy and SMS consent wording in step with what you collect and send.

This is how we set up tracking on our own sites and for clients. It is general guidance, not legal advice: check the rules that apply to your business with your legal team.