You’re looking at Microsoft Ads agencies. Their websites all look impressive. Case studies promise amazing results. Everyone claims they’re experts. But how do you actually tell which ones know what they’re doing?
Microsoft Ads holds close to 30% of U.S. desktop searches, but many agencies act as if it barely matters. Instead of building fresh strategies, they copy Google setups, switch on automation, then walk away. This isn’t a skill. It’s cutting corners.
Microsoft Ads offers exclusive LinkedIn profile targeting that Google can’t match. For B2B and SaaS lead generation, this is gold. But only if your agency actually knows how to use it.
Let’s cut through the marketing fluff and figure out how to evaluate agencies based on what actually matters for lead gen success.
Start with Credentials: The Microsoft Partner Program
Start by confirming whether they hold official status as a Microsoft Advertising Partner. That label isn’t something picked up from a website store. Being part of this program depends on strict qualifications – like verified expertise, how much budget they handle, and real results from past campaigns.
Understanding Partner Tiers
There are different levels, and they matter.
- Partner – Basic enrollment. They know fundamentals, but that’s it.
- Select Partner – They’ve reached required spending levels, keep their credentials current, plus satisfy key performance targets. Start here.
- Elite Partner – What sets these agencies apart? Big budgets under their control. They push real results – growth that changes businesses. Think of them as top-tier performers. Elite Partners get dedicated support from Microsoft Business Development Managers and early access to beta features.
There’s also a new Curator tier – a pilot group selected for expansion with access to LinkedIn community and curated webinars.
Start by requesting their partner level details. Head over to Microsoft’s verified Partner Directory to check if they show up there. Hesitation when you ask? A sign that something might be off.
Besides skills, check who on the team has earned Microsoft Advertising credentials. A certified boss means little when the person handling day-to-day ads hasn’t cleared any exams. What matters is the one making choices, not just titles.
Technical Proficiency: Tracking and Conversion Setup
Dashboards looking nice change nothing when tracking fails. Because without correct numbers, lead efforts fail silently. What an agency builds behind the scenes shows exactly what they know.
Universal Event Tracking (UET) Mastery
UET is the primary mechanism for collecting user behavior data on your website. But basic installation isn’t enough.
Some teams set up detailed targets tied to actions – like forms sent, guides downloaded, or “request a demo” clicks. These groups often show how they apply the UET Tag Helper to check tag performance live while managing interference from blockers.
Ask them: “How do you track variable revenue for leads with different potential values?” Since B2B sales involve layers, connecting dollar amounts to particular steps helps guide automatic ad spending. Should their reply lack clarity, then readiness for real lead generation hasn’t arrived.
Offline Conversion Tracking: The Real Test
Most agencies stumble right here. For B2B and enterprise software, the real outcome – a contract signed – takes place offstage, long after that initial ad click, often weeks or even months down the line.
This requires implementing Offline Conversion Tracking using the Microsoft Click ID (MSCLKID) – a unique 32-character identifier assigned to every ad click.
Start by questioning their method for tracking MSCLKID and syncing data to CRM. Some teams rely on automation, turning to the Microsoft Advertising Lead Sync API. Others mix in platforms such as AnyTrack or Zapier to keep leads flowing without manual steps. The smart ones close the loop fast, making sure every click ties back cleanly.
Handling CSV files by hand works fine when things stay small. Yet live updates – sometimes even almost instant ones – help algorithms learn what actually wins contracts, not only which leads show up first.
If they have no clue about MSCLKID, just leave. That lack of knowledge speaks volumes.
LinkedIn Profile Targeting Strategy
This tool stands out because it uses LinkedIn details to reach specific professionals. Search engines can’t match access to job roles, departments, fields, or employer info. What makes it unique ties directly to that precise targeting power.
But here’s the nuance most agencies miss: LinkedIn targeting in Microsoft Search campaigns operates via bid adjustments, not strict exclusions.
How This Actually Works
You can increase bids significantly for “Chief Information Officer” at target accounts (ABM strategy), but ads may still show to other users unless you use additional filtering.
Ask your potential agency: “How do you handle the 1,000-company limit for LinkedIn targeting, and what’s your process for refreshing these lists?”
The platform allows targeting up to 1,000 specific companies per ad group. Updating those picks happens often at a smart agency, guided by what real target customers look like. Reaching more workers already looking for answers? That comes alive using interest-based visitor groups.
If they treat LinkedIn targeting like a checkbox feature instead of a strategic advantage, they’re wasting your money.
Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN) Management
Outlook, MSN, or even Microsoft Edge – these spots host MSAN ads without extra setup. Midway down the funnel, some teams lean on it for follow-up messages plus visibility pushes. They pull in LinkedIn details so promotions reach just the right customer profile. Instead of guessing, the system filters who sees what.
Yet spending climbs when MSAN lands on useless sites. Find out whether they check where ads appear, then remove spots that fail to deliver. Quietly cutting waste matters more than chasing reach.
Lead Acquisition Format Strategy
Should they use Microsoft Lead Gen Forms or send traffic to landing pages? This decision reveals whether they understand the trade-off between lead volume and lead qualification.
Lead Gen Forms vs. Landing Pages
Imagine filling out a form that already knows your details – pulled straight from LinkedIn. That smooth start tends to pull in more responses, like 13% saying yes instead of just 4%. Not bad for skipping the typing grind.
Here’s the catch: lower friction sometimes means lower quality – accidental submissions, junk leads, tire-kickers.
Landing pages allow deeper education and qualification through custom form fields, resulting in 20% to 40% higher Sales Qualified Lead rates.
A sophisticated agency recommends a portfolio approach – Lead Gen Forms for top-of-funnel content syndication, landing pages for bottom-of-funnel high-intent search terms.
Folks who back a single approach for every challenge tend to miss what makes your work unique. Instead of fitting you into their mold, they force it. A rigid method often ignores real needs. Their one-size stance? It skips over details that matter.
Fraud Detection and Data Integrity
Lead fraud is real and expensive. Invalid traffic creates fake leads or manipulates genuine ones, severely skewing campaign data and wasting spend.
Red Flags Agencies Should Monitor
A lone IP cluster is flooding your site, but nobody is buying. When leads pour in, yet hardly any turn into sales. Names that sound made up, emails that bounce instantly. Clicks piling up fast – way past what others see in generic searches.
Start by questioning their choice of fraud prevention software. Top teams rely on tools like Spider AF or TrafficGuard – then layer in CAPTCHA systems. Email checks happen instantly, while lead data gets cleaned continuously. Each step works behind the scenes to filter out false entries.
They should also proactively contact Microsoft support to report suspected invalid activity and request credits.
If they do not know what click fraud means or appear indifferent, then ignorance or carelessness is likely at play.
Verifying Case Studies and Past Results
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: most agency case studies may be fabricated or heavily exaggerated.
How to Spot Legitimate Success Stories
Look for these elements:
Specific, quantified KPIs like “+65% SQL growth” instead of vague “improved results”. Real company names appear here, never hidden behind “a Fortune 500 firm.” You can see raw data pulled straight from Microsoft Ads, screen grabs showing before and after states. Each quote comes with a person’s complete name, their role, and a live LinkedIn link so you can check it yourself.
Don’t be afraid to ask for client references you can actually contact. If they refuse or make excuses, assume the case studies are fiction.
Automated Bidding and AI Strategy
In August 2025, Microsoft consolidated Target CPA and Target ROAS into “Maximize Conversions” and “Maximize Conversion Value” strategies. Driven by AI, the system pushes automated adjustments more than ever before.
Understanding the Learning Period
The machine learning algorithm requires a “learning period” – typically 1 to 2 weeks, where changing budgets or goals restarts the entire process.
Expert agencies follow the “30/30 rule” – campaigns need at least 30 conversions in the previous 30 days before transitioning to fully automated target-based bidding.
Ask: “What’s your strategy for managing the learning period, and how do you handle low-conversion accounts?”
Start with honesty – anyone saying automated bidding nails it immediately is either dishonest or clueless. When campaigns don’t get much traffic, stick to hand-tuned bids or boosted CPC until there’s real data to feed machines.
KPI Framework and Reporting Quality
When an agency cares just about views or clicks, it overlooks what lead gen is actually for. Success should tie back to how much income those leads produce.
Metrics That Actually Matter
- Cost Per Lead (CPL) – Ad spend divided by number of leads. For B2B SaaS, expect $80-$180. For professional services, $100-$250.
- MQL to SQL Conversion Rate – This reflects lead quality and alignment between marketing and sales.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) – Total marketing and sales costs divided by new customers acquired. This provides the holistic view of program sustainability.
An expert agency performs cohort analysis on keyword performance, identifying which specific search terms drive leads that actually close into revenue.
Reporting Platform Quality
Professional agencies ditched old spreadsheets once tools such as AgencyAnalytics came along. Instead of typing everything by hand, they now pull data through DashThis or Supermetrics. Big companies might skip those and go straight to Power BI setups that link right into Microsoft Dataverse.
Ask to see sample client reports. They should include:
- Share of Voice (SOV) – how your brand visibility compares to competitors.
- Quality Score trends – tracking improvements in ad relevance to reduce CPC over time.
- Geographic and device performance – desktop users during business hours are the B2B sweet spot.
- Attribution and funnel velocity – measuring how long leads take to move through stages.
If their reports are just pretty graphs without actionable insights, they’re not managing strategy — they’re managing optics.
Sales and Marketing Alignment
Here’s something most people miss: campaign success often depends on factors outside the agency’s control – specifically, your sales follow-up and CRM hygiene.
Closed-Loop Reporting Requirements
Not every team tracks results like a loop that restarts with fresh customer details. Some skip steps, but full-circle feedback means real behavior shapes what comes next. Revenue matters more than clicks alone when systems talk to each other. What counts shows up not in sign-ups, but in actual sales shaped by smarter follow-up.
They should also conduct regular “ICP workshops” to ensure they’re targeting the correct personas and buying committees.
Key alignment indicators:
Terms such as Lead, MQL, and SQL start making sense when everyone uses the same definitions. Meetings happen every week – agency reps sit down with sales leads to stay aligned. The path a customer follows gets drawn out clearly, from that initial website visit right through help after purchase. Scoring each lead blends the actions they take with how well their company fits what you offer.
If an agency doesn’t ask detailed questions about your sales process, they can’t optimize for it.
The Microsoft vs. Google Question
Microsoft often costs less per click than Google does, sometimes way less. Worthwhile partners will explain such differences plainly. Savings range from 30% to 70%, yet price isn’t everything. Seeing beyond cost matters just as much.
People over thirty-five make up most of this group, often earning more, with a strong presence of business buyers. Most successful lead gen programs allocate 70-80% of their search spending to Google, while the rest targets Microsoft, which pulls in solid leads at lower costs from workers on desktops during work hours. What stands out is how one platform dominates reach, yet the secondary channel quietly delivers quality results where it counts.
Ask: “How do you calculate the incremental value of Microsoft Ads compared to Google, given different demographic skews and CPCs?”
If they can’t explain the strategic role of each platform in your overall mix, they’re just splitting budgets arbitrarily.
Questions to Ask During Evaluation
Here are the advanced questions that separate experts from pretenders:
- “How do you handle the 1,000-company limit for LinkedIn targeting, and what’s your refresh process?”
- “Describe your MSCLKID capture and CRM synchronization process for offline conversions.”
- “What’s your strategy for the learning period with consolidated bid strategies?”
- “How do you distinguish legitimate B2B intent from bot activity on MSAN?”
- “How do you integrate search term insights into negative keyword lists?”
If they give vague answers or deflect, they don’t know the platform deeply enough.
Evaluating a Microsoft Ads agency for lead gen isn’t about finding the slickest pitch or fanciest website. It’s about verifying technical competence, strategic thinking, and operational transparency.
