What Are Custom Columns in Microsoft Advertising?
Custom columns are user‑defined data fields you can create within the Microsoft Advertising reporting interface. They allow advertisers to build new metrics by combining existing performance data with formulas or logic specific to their goals. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Instead of being limited to the default columns (like clicks, impressions, cost, CTR, conversions, etc.), you can now generate customized metrics that give deeper insight into campaign performance, profitability, or efficiency — directly inside the UI. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Key Details of the Feature
1. Flexibility in Reporting
- Advertisers can add custom columns to the performance table and report views.
- These columns can calculate derived metrics based on existing standard data (e.g., customized ROI, blended conversion rates, cost per specific action). (Search Engine Roundtable)
2. Enhanced Analysis
- Custom columns help advertisers tailor how they assess performance — beyond the fixed set of default metrics.
- Instead of exporting data into spreadsheets or external tools just to compute unique metrics, you can define them natively within Microsoft Advertising. (Search Engine Roundtable)
3. Not Everything Is Available Yet
- At launch, not all possible columns are supported (for instance, some advertisers report the “segment by conversion action” metric isn’t yet included in custom formulas).
- Microsoft has acknowledged ongoing improvements and is collecting user feedback to expand this functionality further. (Search Engine Roundtable)
4. Community & Product Team Response
- The update was first spotted publicly by industry professionals and confirmed via posts on social platforms like X (Twitter) by Microsoft Ads team members.
- Microsoft’s advertising liaison confirmed that custom columns are part of incremental enhancements to the platform. (X (formerly Twitter))
How This Helps Advertisers
Here are practical examples of what custom columns enable:
- Custom formulas: Create calculations like Profit = Revenue − Cost or Adjusted CPA = CPA × (1 − Discount Rate).
- Key performance indicators: Tailor columns for business‑specific KPIs, such as qualified leads per spend or conversion value per audience segment.
- Cleaner dashboards: See only the data that matters most to you by including or hiding columns based on your strategy — reducing noise and accelerating insight. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Why It Matters
Before this update, Microsoft Advertising reported performance primarily using fixed data columns. Advertisers often had to export data into spreadsheets or BI tools to compute advanced or composite metrics. With custom columns:
- You stay in platform longer, requiring fewer external tools.
- You can optimize faster, since tailored metrics are visible at a glance.
- You can better align reporting with business goals (e.g., revenue vs. cost, lead quality, audience ROI). (Search Engine Roundtable)
Limitations & Future Expectations
At aunch, the feature is not yet as comprehensive as custom column tools in other platforms (such as Google Ads). Some metrics still can’t be included in custom formulas, and more granular segmentation and calculation options are expected in future iterations. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Microsoft has indicated they’ll continue enhancing the modify columns UI based on advertiser feedback. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Here’s a comprehensive overview of the Microsoft Advertising custom columns rollout — with early community feedback and real‑world commentary since the feature’s launch:
What the Update Is (Quick Recap)
Microsoft Advertising has rolled out custom columns — a feature that lets advertisers build user‑defined metrics directly in the UI for advanced performance reporting, instead of relying only on built‑in default columns. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Community Commentary & Early Reactions
1. Early Spotting on Social (Industry Expert)
- Jawad Zaheer Khan was among the first to notice and share the feature via social media, posting a screenshot from the interface. (Search Engine Roundtable)
- His core comment:
“Microsoft finally has added custom columns to the UI but unfortunately the most important ‘segment by conversion action’ is still missing.” (Search Engine Roundtable)
— This reflects early excitement from PPC practitioners — but also a realistic limitation around what metrics can initially be included.
2. Platform Team Response
- A Microsoft Ads community liaison acknowledged ongoing improvements and that feedback would be used to guide future enhancements to the column editing features. (Search Engine Roundtable)
— This is important: Microsoft isn’t treating this feature as finished, but actively evolving it.
Reported Limitations from Early Adopters
Several advertisers are already commenting that:
Still‑Missing Metrics
- The “segment by conversion action” metric — a hugely useful item for many analytics workflows — isn’t available yet in custom formulas. (Search Engine Roundtable)
Conversion Tracking Issues (Broader PPC Community)
- Independent PPC discussions indicate that segmenting reports by specific conversions has historically been harder in Microsoft Ads than in competitors like Google Ads — and custom columns may not yet fix those pain points fully. (Microsoft Learn)
- For example, advertisers have previously shared on Reddit that attempting to create custom columns based on specific conversion actions didn’t work as needed for their reporting. (Microsoft Learn)
What Advertisers Are Experimenting With
While explicit case studies for Microsoft’s new custom columns are still emerging, the broader PPC community has been:
Using Workarounds to Get Deeper Insight
- Some PPC pros use custom (or export‑based) techniques to compute alternative metrics like:
- Conversion rate weighted by different goals,
- Custom cost‑per‑action metrics,
- Adjusted return‑on‑ad‑spend formulas.
While not specific to Microsoft’s launch, these existing practices show what advertisers are likely to build once custom columns are fully enabled. (Reddit)
Example from general PPC discussion (not Microsoft‑specific, but illustrative):
One marketer described building a custom metric in another platform to derive conversion rate = (“click: purchase” × “view purchase”) / clicks — essentially a derived metric for deeper conversion insight beyond the defaults. (Reddit)
This highlights the type of custom analysis advertisers want — and gives context for why Microsoft creating custom column support matters.
What This Means for Reporting in Practice
Early Takeaways
Advertisers now can: Create dozens of bespoke performance metrics without exporting to Excel
Surface custom KPIs like adjusted CPA, blended ROAS, ??quality scores
Start building more tailored dashboards inside the Microsoft interface
all without leaving the platform (in theory).
But at launch:
⚠ Some key metric support (e.g., conversion action segmentation) isn’t yet there. (Search Engine Roundtable)
⚠ Adoption may still be limited as advanced users wait for extended functionality.
What’s Next
Microsoft has said (through liaison comments) that they’re collecting feature requests and improvements from advertisers to enhance this capability. (Search Engine Roundtable)
This means we should expect iterative updates — more formulas, more compatible metrics, and deeper reporting flexibility — especially if early adopters push for it.