Can advertisers track conversions across multiple channels with Bing Ads?

Yes, Bing Ads (Microsoft Advertising) allows advertisers to track conversions across multiple channels through several features and integration options, helping to give a more holistic view of performance. While Bing Ads primarily focuses on its own platform (e.g., Bing search results, Microsoft Audience Network, etc.), you can track conversions originating from other channels by leveraging multi-channel attribution strategies and integrating with third-party analytics tools.

Here's how you can track conversions across multiple channels with Bing Ads:

1. Cross-Device and Cross-Channel Tracking
Bing Ads allows for cross-device tracking and provides insights into how users interact with ads across devices (mobile, desktop, tablet) before converting.

Cross-Device Tracking: If a user clicks your ad on one device and completes a conversion on another, Bing Ads attributes that conversion to the original click and does not count it twice.

Cross-Channel Tracking: While Bing Ads doesn't directly track conversions from external platforms like Google Ads or Facebook, you can set up multi-touch attribution models and track how your Bing Ads interact with other ad platforms.

2. Offline Conversion Imports
For marketers running campaigns across multiple channels (e.g., Google Ads, Facebook, etc.), offline conversion tracking allows you to connect and import conversion data from offline channels or other platforms.

How It Works: By importing offline conversion data (e.g., CRM or sales data from other marketing platforms), you can ensure all relevant conversions from other channels (such as in-store purchases or phone calls after seeing ads) are counted in your Bing Ads account.

Example: If you're running Google Ads and Bing Ads campaigns alongside email marketing and social media ads, and a customer later makes an in-store purchase or calls in, you can import this data to Bing Ads for accurate performance reporting.

3. Multi-Channel Attribution with UTM Parameters
While Bing Ads doesn't directly support multi-platform attribution in the same way Google Ads does with its tools, you can use UTM parameters (Urchin Tracking Module) to track cross-channel activity.

How UTM Works: UTM parameters are tags you add to URLs that track where visitors are coming from (e.g., campaign, source, medium, etc.). This is helpful when tracking conversions across multiple traffic sources and ad platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Bing Ads.

Example:

Google Ads link: https://www.yoursite.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer_sale

Bing Ads link: https://www.yoursite.com/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=summer_sale

Analyzing UTM Data: You can use analytics tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, or other marketing platforms to segment conversion data by source/medium and campaign, allowing you to see how Bing Ads interacts with your other marketing efforts.

4. Attribution Models in Bing Ads
Bing Ads provides several attribution models that can help you understand the role of your ads in the customer journey across multiple touchpoints.

Last Click: The last ad click that led to a conversion gets all the credit.

First Click: The first ad click that led to a conversion gets all the credit.

Linear Attribution: All ad interactions (clicks) get equal credit for the conversion.

Time Decay: More recent interactions are given more credit.

Position-Based: The first and last clicks are given the most credit, with the middle interactions getting less credit.

These models help track how Bing Ads interacts with other channels by assigning appropriate credit across multiple touchpoints, whether it's a click from an email, social media, or a competitor's ad.

5. Using Third-Party Attribution and Analytics Tools
For a more detailed, cross-platform attribution model, many advertisers integrate third-party analytics platforms to track conversions across all their marketing channels (including Bing Ads, Google Ads, Facebook, etc.).

Popular tools include:

Google Analytics (through UTM parameters and goals)

Adobe Analytics

Attribution platforms (e.g., Hyros, Wicked Reports, Triple Whale, Segment)

These tools provide multi-touch attribution and help you track customer journeys across various channels, allowing you to see how your Bing Ads campaigns interact with your other marketing efforts.

6. Linking Bing Ads with Google Analytics
If you're using Google Analytics for tracking website traffic and conversions, you can link your Bing Ads account with Google Analytics using UTM parameters.

How it works: By adding UTM tags to your Bing Ads URLs, Google Analytics will capture the referral data, and you can then analyze conversions that come from Bing Ads alongside other sources like organic search, paid search (Google Ads), and social media.

Benefit: This allows you to get a unified view of how Bing Ads contributes to overall conversions in the context of all your other channels.

7. Microsoft Clarity for Heatmaps & Behavior Tracking
While not directly related to conversion tracking, Microsoft Clarity (a free behavior analytics tool) allows you to understand how users interact with your website after coming from different channels. This is useful when comparing user engagement across channels like Bing Ads and other platforms.

Summary Table

Method   How It Helps Track Cross-Channel Conversions
Offline Conversion Imports   Import conversion data from other platforms for accurate reporting in Bing Ads.
UTM Parameters   Track cross-channel activity by adding UTM tags to your ad URLs.
Attribution Models   Understand the role of each touchpoint (click or view) in conversion across platforms.
Third-Party Attribution Tools   Use platforms like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics for multi-touch attribution across all channels.
Microsoft Clarity   Analyze user behavior from multiple traffic sources to optimize ad campaigns.
Conclusion
While Bing Ads doesn't have native multi-channel conversion tracking in the same way Google Ads does, there are several ways to effectively track conversions across channels using UTM parameters, offline conversion imports, third-party attribution tools, and custom attribution models. These methods help you get a comprehensive view of how Bing Ads contributes to overall marketing success in the context of your entire marketing strategy.