Microsoft Advertising now works with HubSpot. The ad account sees not only clicks and leads but what happens next: whether a lead became a customer and brought revenue. That data can be sent back to Microsoft as conversions and used to optimise delivery. Microsoft called the integration the top story of its September update, which also brought 10,000-company LinkedIn lists and A/B experiments for Performance Max. Here's what it means for lead gen.
Why ads need CRM data
A typical lead gen story: a campaign brings dozens of cheap leads, and a week later sales has closed almost none. The ad system sees a "lead" conversion and thinks everything works. It doesn't know the lead was cold or off-target.
The HubSpot integration closes that gap: funnel stages in the CRM — lead, qualified lead, customer — become signals for the ads.
How Microsoft Advertising and HubSpot work together
According to Microsoft, the integration offers three things:
- CRM audiences. HubSpot contacts can be used to target and retarget across Microsoft properties.
- Automated lead follow-up. A new lead from Microsoft Advertising can trigger a HubSpot workflow right away: assign a sales rep or send a nurture email.
- Revenue reporting. Ad clicks are linked to HubSpot contacts and deals, so you see which ads drive pipeline and money, not just leads.
Separately, HubSpot lets you create conversion events tied to lifecycle stage changes. For example, a contact becomes a "customer" and that event is sent to Microsoft Advertising. Per HubSpot's help, Microsoft uses these events both to measure conversions and to optimise delivery toward people who actually buy.
How to set up conversion events in HubSpot
- Connect your Microsoft Advertising account to HubSpot (ads publishing permission required).
- In HubSpot, go to Marketing → Ads → Create → Conversion event.
- Choose Sync lifecycle stage changes, your Microsoft Advertising account and pixel.
- Set the stage (e.g. "Customer"), the Microsoft conversion event and the value.
- Configure matching: the consent property and contact fields to share. More fields mean higher match rates.
Key limitations from HubSpot's help:
- only stage changes after the event is created count toward optimisation — history can't be sent retroactively;
- Microsoft may count conversions differently, so HubSpot and account numbers may not match;
- only contacts who consented to data sharing are synced.
Example: why a cheap lead isn't a good lead
Campaign A brought 20 leads at the lowest price, but almost no sales. Campaign B brought only 10 leads, but half reached a deal. On CPL, A wins. On revenue, B wins. While the ads see only leads, they'll scale A. With CRM signals, the algorithm starts telling buyers apart.
It's the same principle as in affiliate marketing: count what a lead brings, not what it costs. CR, EPC and ROI formulas are in Affiliate math, and how to send conversions back to ads is in Postback and S2S tracking.
Other Microsoft Advertising updates in September
- LinkedIn Company Lists up to 10,000 companies. The limit used to be 1,000. Lists work with LinkedIn profile targeting in Search and Audience campaigns. Note: the underlying user data excludes people in the EEA, UK and Switzerland.
- Optimization experiments for everyone. A/B tests of bids, targeting and creatives are now available in Search, Shopping, Audience and Performance Max. Results are compared on one page, and the winner can be applied to the original campaign.
- SOAP API shuts down on January 31, 2027. New features still ship in both SOAP and REST for now, but SOAP integrations will stop working after that date — move to REST early.
Experiments are especially useful: if you change a bid strategy and compare CPA "before and after" a week later, seasonality, competitors and weekdays skew the result. A parallel test gives a cleaner comparison. How to test properly: Setups in affiliate marketing: how to test.
What it means for media buyers
- Lead gen with a sales team gets the most: campaigns learn to find customers, not just leads.
- Automatic hand-off to a sales rep cuts response time — leads don't go cold in the CRM.
- A CRM won't fix a bad setup. If the ad's promise doesn't match the offer, the integration just shows faster where it breaks.
- B2B and ABM get much bigger company lists — but this targeting doesn't work for the EEA, UK and Switzerland.
In short
- Microsoft Advertising now integrates with HubSpot: CRM audiences, lead automation, revenue reporting.
- A contact's stage change in HubSpot can be sent to Microsoft as a conversion and used for optimisation.
- LinkedIn Company Lists go up to 10,000 companies; experiments work in Search, Shopping, Audience and PMax.
- SOAP API shuts down on January 31, 2027.
Ad platform news every day in our Telegram channel.
Sources: Microsoft Advertising Blog — What’s new this September, HubSpot Knowledge Base — ad conversion events for Microsoft Advertising, Relevant Audience.