How to Connect Microsoft Ads to Claude Duet

Duet is Anthropic's proactive agent. Their launch post describes it working in the background on its own cloud computer, sending a short brief each morning, checking your connected apps every few hours, and messaging you when something needs a decision. You talk to it by text or voice, in one thread, and it hands back finished work: docs, sheets, decks.

• Plans: Claude Pro and Max, at no extra cost during the preview. Team and Enterprise aren't included yet.
• Where: the US, by waitlist, with invites in waves.
• Apps: iPhone and Android, plus claude.ai on a computer.
• Model: Claude Opus 5.5. You don't pick a model; Duet decides how much effort a job needs.

It shares your Claude plan's usage limits, background checks included. If you're outside the US, everything in steps 1 to 5 works in a normal Claude chat today, and Duet picks it up when it reaches you.

Steps 1 and 2 happen in AdPlug, steps 3 to 5 in Claude, and step 6 in Duet. It takes about two minutes.

1. 1

   Create your AdPlug account

   Go to adplug.app/signup, sign in with Google or email, and follow the short onboarding. It ends on your AdPlug dashboard.

   

2. 2

   Connect Microsoft Ads to AdPlug

   On the dashboard, click Connect Microsoft Ads (or open the Connections page). AdPlug takes you through Microsoft's own sign-in; use the Microsoft account that opens ads.microsoft.com for you, work or personal, and approve the permissions Microsoft lists. Every ad account that sign-in can reach becomes available to Duet through the one connection.

   

   Seeing Need admin approval?

   Your organisation has switched off app consent for its users. Ask your IT admin to approve AdPlug in Microsoft Entra, or sign in with the account that owns the ads.

3. 3

   Add AdPlug to Claude

   Open Add custom connector in Claude. Paste the name and the URL below, then click Add.

   Name

   AdPlug - Microsoft Ads

   Copy

   URL

   https://api.adplug.app/mcp/microsoft-ads

   Copy

   

   The link opens the form straight away. You'll find the same form under Customize → Connectors, Add, Add custom connector.

4. 4

   Authorise Claude to use AdPlug

   Click Connect on the new connector. Claude opens AdPlug's sign-in: use the same email as your AdPlug account and click Approve. The connector turns Connected.

   

5. 5

   Test it in a Claude chat

   Start a new Claude chat, check the connector is switched on in the + menu under Connectors, and ask:

   “List my Microsoft Ads accounts.”

   Claude calls the microsoft_ads_list_accounts tool and returns the ad accounts your Microsoft sign-in can reach, with currencies and statuses. If that works, the connection is good end to end.

   

6. 6

   Ask Duet for a performance snapshot

   Open Duet, in the app on your phone or on claude.ai, and send:

   “Give me a snapshot of my Microsoft Ads over the last 30 days: what's working, where money is wasted, any disapprovals or quiet UET goals, and what to fix first.”

   Duet pulls the numbers through AdPlug and comes back with a snapshot: what's working, what isn't, and what needs you first. Ask your follow-ups in the same thread. That's the quickest way to see how much of the account work it can take off you.

Duet has two ways into a service. For sites without a connector it uses its own cloud browser, which you can't watch or take over. With a connector it gets the platform's API instead: reports come back as data, a change is a named operation with exact values, and you don't have to sign Duet's browser in to your ad account.

Anthropic's help article says Microsoft 365 isn't available in Duet yet. That's Outlook, Teams and the Office apps, and Microsoft's listing in Claude's directory is Clarity, for website analytics. Microsoft Advertising is a different product, and AdPlug reaches it through Microsoft's Advertising API: reports, search terms, LinkedIn profile targeting, Google Ads imports, and changes you approve first. The Microsoft Ads MCP overview lists the lot.

The route in this guide has three links: Microsoft Ads connects to AdPlug, AdPlug is added to Claude as a custom connector, and Duet uses the connectors on your Claude account. Anthropic's safety page puts it plainly: the apps you've connected to Claude carry over to Duet, and switching one off in one place switches it off in both.

Duet is built to reach out first, so tell it what belongs in your morning brief:

The latest day's conversions are still coming in, so tell Duet to treat a small dip as lag before it flags one. If the brief comes back without Microsoft Ads while Duet is in preview, ask in the thread instead. Then hand it the job that eats your Monday, the client report. Duet hands back finished work, so it's ready to send.

With the right connector, yes. Here's what keeps your account safe when Duet works through AdPlug.

Duet adds its own guard. Anthropic built it to show you exactly what it's about to do and wait before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document or deletes anything; if you can't approve straight away, it finishes the rest and brings the approval back later. For ad changes, give it one rule in the thread:

In Claude's connector settings you can also set the change tools to Needs approval. Creating and editing campaigns needs a paid AdPlug plan, and your Usage and Audit Log shows every call.

Short ones that work as soon as you're connected. Swap in your own account and campaign names, and ask follow-ups in the same thread.

More copy-paste prompts live in the prompt playbooks, and Claude Duet for marketing has the jobs to hand Duet by role, from agencies to CMOs.

Click any item to expand the answer.

The same AdPlug account connects other platforms and assistants.

Email support@adplug.app with setup questions or bug reports. Most replies come back the same business day.