Connect Microsoft Ads
Connect your Microsoft Ads accounts to Tapper with a Microsoft sign-in, and see what connecting sets up in Microsoft Ads on a workspace with Tapper Block.
Every workspace can connect Microsoft Ads accounts, and you connect each account once. Tapper then reads its campaigns, ad groups and spend. What connecting sets up in Microsoft Ads depends on whether your workspace has Tapper Block.
Before you start
- To connect or reconnect an account, you need the Owner or Admin role in the workspace. Anyone else sees: Only a workspace owner or admin can connect an account. Ask one of them to connect it for you.
- Sign in with the Microsoft account you use for Microsoft Ads.
- On a workspace with Block, connecting replaces the account-level tracking template of each account, if it has one. Check with whoever manages that template first.
Connect an account
Open the Microsoft Ads page
In the sidebar, open Setup, then Ad accounts, and click Microsoft Ads in the list of platforms. On a phone, pick Microsoft Ads in the Platform menu. If your workspace has more than one protected entity, first pick the one the account belongs to with the switcher under the workspace name.
Click Add ad account
Click Add ad account. While no Microsoft Ads account is connected, the Connect Microsoft Ads button on the page does the same. The Add an account page opens, with the Microsoft Ads row first.
Sign in with Microsoft
On the Microsoft Ads row, click Sign in with Microsoft. A Microsoft sign-in window opens, or the sign-in runs in the same tab if your browser blocks pop-ups. Choose your Microsoft account and accept the access Tapper asks for. The window closes when the sign-in is done.
Tick the accounts
Back in Tapper, the page lists the Microsoft Ads accounts your sign-in can reach. Each row shows the account name, then its account number, currency and time zone, and its status when the account is not active. To find an account in a long list, type its name, ID or number in Search accounts by name, ID or number. Tick the ones to connect and click Finish.
Click Done
When the page says the accounts are connected, click Done. The Microsoft Ads page opens again and lists each account on its Accounts tab with the status Connected.
When you set up a new workspace, its Connect an ad account step has the same Microsoft Ads row. With Block, the button under the account list is Continue, and the setup goes on to Install website monitoring. Without Block, click Finish, then Done to open Tapper Lift.
What connecting changes in Microsoft Ads
Tapper asks Microsoft for two permissions. https:// lets it manage your Microsoft Ads accounts, and offline_access lets it keep that access when you are not signed in.
Once an account is connected, Tapper reads its Search, Shopping, Audience and Performance Max campaigns, with their ad groups and ads, and reads them again every 6 hours. It also reads each campaign's spend, impressions, clicks, conversions and revenue, hour by hour, from Microsoft Ads reports.
With Tapper Block
On a workspace with Block, Tapper sets up the following in each account while it links.
| In Microsoft Ads | What Tapper sets up |
|---|---|
| Tracking template | Tapper's tracking template at account level, starting with https://. It replaces the account-level template the account had, if any. |
| Auto-tagging | Auto-tagging of the Microsoft Click ID (MSCLKID), turned on. |
| Offline conversion goals | Tapper - Invalid Traffic Action (Click Upload) - <account ID> and Tapper - Ad Click Limit Exceeded Traffic Action (Click Upload) - <account ID>, both excluded from bidding. |
| UET tag | Tapper - Conversions Tag. UET tags belong to the Microsoft Ads customer, so the accounts of one customer share this tag. It is not a tag to add to your website. |
| Remarketing lists | Tapper - Invalid Traffic Audience - <account ID> and Tapper - Ad Click Limit Exceeded Traffic Audience - <account ID>. |
In these names, <account ID> is the number shown after Account ID on the Accounts tab. Leave all of them in place while the account is connected. A tracking template set on a campaign, ad group or ad takes over from the account one: see Fix clicks that skip Tapper's tracking.
Without Tapper Block
Connecting sets up nothing in Microsoft Ads. The account's tracking template and auto-tagging stay as they are.
The Microsoft Ads page
Once an account is connected, the Microsoft Ads page in Setup > Ad accounts has three tabs.
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Accounts | Each connected account, with its Account ID and its status, Connected or Needs reconnect. Manage campaigns opens the Campaigns tab, filtered to that account. Export downloads the list as a CSV file. |
| Campaigns | Each campaign Tapper read, with its name, ID and account. |
| Ad groups | Each ad group Tapper read, with its campaign and account. |
The Campaigns and Ad groups tabs each have a search box, an Ad account filter and Refresh, which reads the campaigns, ad groups and ads again at once. The workspace owner, Admins and Managers can click Refresh. On a workspace with Block, both tabs also have a Protection column.
Fix clicks that skip Tapper's tracking
On a workspace with Block, a tracking template set on a campaign, ad group or ad in Microsoft Ads overrides the one Tapper set on the account. When a campaign, ad group or ad that Tapper read has a template of its own that is not Tapper's, the Accounts tab shows the notice Some Microsoft Ads clicks skip Tapper's tracking.
Open the list
In the notice, click Fix tracking. The Fix Microsoft Ads tracking templates dialog lists the campaigns, ad groups and ads under their account. The ? icon next to an entry shows its current tracking template.
Fix the templates
Click Fix tracking template, the wrench on an entry, to fix that one, or click Fix all. Close leaves them as they are.
Fixing replaces the entry's own template in Microsoft Ads with Tapper's tracking template. If the old template served another tracking tool, check with whoever set it up first. A template that forwards clicks to another click server is left as it is: its entry stays in the list, with the reason and what to do instead. The workspace owner, Admins and Managers can fix templates.
On the Campaigns and Ad groups tabs, the chip Custom tracking template in the Protection column marks each campaign or ad group that has a tracking template of its own.
Accounts in other workspaces, and disconnecting
- An ad account that is connected in another Tapper workspace cannot be connected here. If you tick one, Tapper connects none of the accounts you ticked and says: This ad account is connected to another Tapper workspace. Contact Tapper support to move it. To connect the others, untick it and click Finish again.
- An account that is connected to another protected entity of your workspace moves to this one when you connect it here.
- Only Tapper can disconnect an ad account. Contact your Tapper team.
Disconnecting changes nothing in Microsoft Ads. What Tapper set up or changed in the account stays there, including the account tracking template and MSCLKID auto-tagging. If you no longer want Tapper's tracking template on the account, remove it in Microsoft Ads.
Reconnect an account
When Microsoft signs Tapper out of an account, its row on the Accounts tab shows Needs reconnect, with the reason Microsoft signed Tapper out of this account. Click Reconnect on the row and sign in with Microsoft again, with a Microsoft account that has access to it. You come back to the Microsoft Ads page.
When several accounts need it, they are ticked for you, and the Reconnect N selected button above the list, for example Reconnect 2 selected, reconnects every ticked account in one sign-in. Untick any account that another Microsoft account manages, and reconnect it on its own.
Once an account is reconnected, Tapper reads its campaigns, ad groups and spend again.
If an account does not connect
When some accounts connect and others do not, the page names each account that failed and why. Retry the failed accounts tries them again where that can help, and Done with the connected accounts keeps the ones that worked.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| An account you expected is not in the list. | Click Back, then Sign in with Microsoft, and sign in with a Microsoft account that has access to it. |
| No ad accounts found. | Click Connect a different account and sign in with another Microsoft account. |
| Your Microsoft Ads sign-in has ended. Sign in with Microsoft Ads again. | Tapper keeps the sign-in for 30 minutes while you tick the accounts. Click Back, then Sign in with Microsoft, and tick the accounts again. |
| Microsoft Ads signed Tapper out of this account. Reconnect Microsoft Ads to continue. | Click Reconnect Microsoft Ads and sign in again. |
| A message that Microsoft Ads didn't return the account. | Check that the account is still open in Microsoft Ads, then connect it again. |
| A message that Microsoft Ads didn't return a customer for the account. | Contact Tapper support with the account's ID. |
| This is taking longer than usual. | Tapper is still linking the accounts. Click Keep waiting, or carry on: the accounts appear when they are ready. |