Microsoft Advertising credit, explained

by Harry Watts · Last reviewed 10 September 2026

A Microsoft Advertising email arrived in my inbox this week offering up to £1,200 in ad credits, and there is no page anywhere on Microsoft's own site that will tell me what that means. Not the UK homepage, not the get-started pages, not the new-advertiser FAQs, not the signup flow. The article containing the new-customer coupon terms is set to no-index, returns nothing when searched for, and can only be read when a support agent pastes it into a forum reply. Microsoft's position is stated openly in those replies: offers cannot be requested, and what you are eligible for is checked against your account rather than published. So the email is the only copy of that offer that exists, which makes what you do in the first few minutes after opening it more consequential than anything else on this page. Below is what Microsoft does document, organised by what it costs you to get wrong, because the amount is the one thing you cannot look up and the rules are all findable if you know where they are kept.

The three things that decide it

If you read nothing else: the credit arrives only after you spend, only one offer can be active at a time, and your payment method has to be on the account within 30 days of opening it.

The first is the shape of the whole thing and the reason "up to" is doing so much work. The second is barely known and quietly costs the most, because a small coupon taken early can lock a large offer out for months. The third is a condition on the account rather than on the offer, which is why it is so easy to miss. Everything below is one of those three or a reason you might not qualify at all.

What "up to" actually means

Microsoft's credits are performance-based, and the mechanic is stated plainly: you spend money on your campaigns first, and then you are given a credit. A minimum qualifying amount, excluding tax, is required before any credit is applied. The balance does not exist in your account until you have met it.

So the headline is a ceiling, not a grant. Somewhere behind it is a spend requirement — and Microsoft does not publish it in any market.

Figures from a UK promotional email I received on 31 August 2026, and from secondary reports of other markets. Microsoft publishes no amounts and no thresholds anywhere. The reported rows are included to show the shape of the thing, not as a guide to what you will be offered.

The reported ratios run better than one to one, which is worth knowing and not worth planning around: they come from non-Microsoft sources describing different offers, and the figures circulating for the US alone disagree with each other by a wide margin. That disagreement is the useful part. It is consistent with Microsoft running many offer variants at once rather than one public offer — which is exactly why no page can tell you what yours is.

Do this before anything else. Follow the link in the email and screenshot the landing page and the terms behind it. Campaigns rotate, links expire, and the terms you accepted are the ones you will need if the credit does not arrive. It takes five minutes — and it is the only evidence you will have.

The clocks

The one that catches people out: only one offer can be active

Microsoft's documentation states that only one promotional offer can be active at any time, and that where you hold several, the one expiring soonest activates first while the others sit on standby until it expires or is used up.

Fine in the abstract, expensive in practice. Free credit is bundled into all sorts of things: web hosting packages, website builders, business banking, card providers, domain registrars. If you took one of those on the way to setting up your account, it is your active offer. The larger emailed offer that arrives afterwards goes on standby behind it, and stays there until the small one expires or you spend through it.

This is about the order in which you redeem offers you have legitimately been given, not about hoarding codes. If you are holding a small one and a large one, enter the large one. If you have already entered something and a better offer arrives, check which is active before planning any spend around it.

Where to look: Billing → Coupon. Codes have to be entered at account level, not at manager account level, which is its own quiet failure mode for anyone whose account was set up through a consultant or agency.

Who qualifies

• New customers only, and the UK is eligible. The country list for new-customer offers is shorter than the one for existing-customer promotions; the UK appears on both.
• "New" has no single definition. One Microsoft-owned offer defines it as not having advertised in the last 12 months. Other sources describe it as never having held an active account. It is set per offer, so the only definition that matters is the one in your own terms.
• A dormant account does not make you new again. This is the one that has already caused a documented UK loss.
• A valid payment method is required. Microsoft states it will not award promotional credit to an account with an invalid payment method, and a card that fails quietly is indistinguishable from one that was never added.
• Your ads have to be editorially compliant.
• You cannot request an offer. Microsoft support's answer to that exact question is a flat no.

The one that catches people out: qualifying is confirmed late

There is an unresolved complaint on Microsoft's own forum from a UK advertiser who signed up on an offer of £400 against £200 of spend, read the terms, was satisfied by them, and received nothing. The reason given afterwards was that they were no longer classed as a new customer, being just over a 30-day limit. Their own summary is the part worth remembering: they went back to the terms and conditions and the condition was not in them.

Nothing in that story required anyone to behave badly. A condition existed, the advertiser could not see it in what they had read, and the money went out before anyone checked. Which is the argument for the five minutes of screenshotting above, and the argument against treating any of this as a reason to spend rather than a discount on spending you had already decided to do.

What the credit will not do

• Clear what you already owe. Microsoft states that a promotional offer cannot be used to pay an existing balance.
• Cover tax. Qualifying spend is measured excluding taxes.
• Survive its expiry date. Remaining credit is forfeited, and promotional balances are nonrefundable, nontransferable, and cannot be redeemed for cash.
• Stack. Microsoft's terms state an offer cannot be combined with any other offer, promotional code coupon or discount.

There is also a broad reservation worth reading once: Microsoft may close an account for any suspected abuse of an offer, at its sole discretion. That is aimed at people farming codes, and it is the reason not to buy one from a third party.

Quick answers

An offer nobody will confirm in writing is one you should be able to walk away from, and the only real protection is settling what you would have spent before you read the number. If the honest answer is nothing, the credit has not made this a good idea — it has made it feel like one.