Microsoft Ads Destination

MessageGears supports publishing audiences directly to Microsoft Advertising via Customer Match. This allows you to take CRM-derived segments built in MessageGears and activate them across Microsoft-owned properties including Bing, LinkedIn (via the Microsoft audience network), and MSN — enabling retargeting and suppression campaigns.

warning

Microsoft Customer Match cannot be used for sensitive content categories, products, or services. Review Microsoft's remarketing policies before activating audiences.

Prerequisites

Before setting up the Microsoft Ads destination, make sure the following are in place:

• A valid Microsoft Advertising account with Customer Match enabled
• Admin-level permissions on the Microsoft Advertising account
• A MessageGears audience or Blueprint ready to publish — see Creating and Editing Audiences and Blueprints for Campaign Segmentation

Step 1: Authorize MessageGears to access your Microsoft Ads account

MessageGears connects to Microsoft Advertising via OAuth 2.0. You must authorize the connection once before any audiences can be published.

1. MessageGears will provide you with a Microsoft authorization link. Click the link to begin.
2. Sign in to your Microsoft account when prompted.
3. Review the permissions requested by MessageGears and click Accept to approve access.
4. After approval, you will be redirected to a MessageGears confirmation page. No further action is required on your part.

Once authorization is complete, MessageGears will configure the destination using your Microsoft Customer ID and Account ID on your behalf.

Step 2: Data requirements and hashing

Microsoft Customer Match requires email addresses as the primary identifier. MessageGears hashes this data before transmission.

Supported identifier types

Identifier	Field Name	Format Before Hashing
Email address	Text	Lowercase, whitespace trimmed

Hashing

Email addresses are hashed using SHA-256 before being sent to Microsoft. MessageGears applies normalization and hashing automatically if the Apply Vendor Obfuscation option is enabled on your destination.

Membership duration

When configuring the destination, you can set how long audience members remain in the list before they are automatically removed:

Setting	Behavior
1–180 days	Members are removed after the specified number of days
Default (30 days)	Applied when no duration is specified on an Add operation
No expiration (-1)	Members remain indefinitely

info

Membership duration applies per upload. Members added in subsequent sends will have their duration reset from the time of that send.

Step 3: Build your audience in MessageGears

Use the MessageGears audience builder or a Blueprint to define the segment you want to send to Microsoft Ads.

Your audience data must include email addresses. Ensure the addresses are clean and properly formatted before publishing.

For guidance on building audiences and Blueprints, see:

• Creating and Editing Audiences
• Blueprints for Campaign Segmentation

Step 4: Create an External Campaign targeting the Microsoft Ads destination

Once your audience is defined and the Microsoft Ads destination is configured, create an External Campaign to publish the audience:

1. Navigate to Campaigns > External.
2. Under Settings, select your audience or Blueprint.
3. In the Destination dropdown, select your Microsoft Ads destination.
4. Set your schedule (one-time or recurring) and click Save or Launch.

For a full walkthrough of the External Campaign workflow, see External Campaigns.

Managing your connection

Token validity

The OAuth access token issued during authorization may become invalid if:

• You remove MessageGears' access from your Microsoft account settings
• Your Microsoft Advertising account permissions change

If your Microsoft Ads destination stops publishing successfully, contact MessageGears Support to initiate a reauthorization.

Reauthorizing

If your token is revoked or expires, MessageGears will provide a new authorization link. Follow the same authorization steps to reconnect your account.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Resolution
Audience not appearing in Microsoft Ads	Authorization incomplete or token invalid	Contact MessageGears Support to verify the connection
Match rate is unexpectedly low	Email addresses not normalized before hashing	Confirm emails are lowercase and Apply Vendor Obfuscation is enabled
Campaign fails to publish	Expired token or incorrect account configuration	Contact MessageGears Support to verify Customer ID and Account ID
Policy violation error	Audience contains sensitive category data	Review Microsoft's Customer Match policies for prohibited content

For additional help, contact MessageGears Support.