Dynamics 365 Marketing Teams After Outbound: The Rescue List
Dynamics 365 Marketing teams: outbound was removed in May 2026, but its segments and scoring models still look usable. Here is the rescue order.
Your old marketing dashboard may still show numbers. Your segment names still sit in the picker. The lead scoring model you tuned years ago still has every rule in place. Most of it now feeds your lead flow nothing.
Microsoft removed the outbound marketing module from Customer Insights - Journeys (formerly Dynamics 365 Marketing) in May 2026, from all environments. The outbound removal notes contain the line most teams skim past: “We didn’t remove any publicly documented outbound marketing tables or data in those tables, with some exceptions.”
The exception Microsoft spells out is segment membership. The lists of who belonged to each segment are gone. The rest of the data stays, but it is not “being updated or refreshed.”
A frozen number looks exactly like a live one, and that is where the risk sits now. The removal itself is finished. No segment, email, form, journey or scoring model migrated itself, so anything you have not rebuilt still points at outbound. Rebuild by hand in the order that keeps leads reaching sellers: reports, segments, scoring models, then LinkedIn.
What Microsoft actually removed from Dynamics 365 Marketing, and what it left behind
Start with one table. Every row is an asset your team relied on. The middle column uses Microsoft’s own words, and the right column is the decision you need to make about that asset.
| Asset | Microsoft's status (source) | Your move |
|---|---|---|
| Outbound Power BI reports | “don't work with the consolidated data” (Removal notes) | Rebuild the few that matter in Fabric |
| Outbound insights reports | “aren't available anymore” (Removal notes) | Rebuild in Fabric or retire |
| Outbound segments | “Aren't removed, but aren't usable” (Removal notes) | Rebuild by hand from stored queries |
| Marketing lists | Still usable in real-time segments (Removal notes) | Reuse first |
| Lead scoring models | “weren't removed” but “can't be used in real-time” (Removal notes) | Rebuild and re-agree the MQL |
| Forms, emails, journeys, templates | “weren't removed” but “can't be used in real-time” (Removal notes) | Rebuild, test forms first |
| Events | “must be recreated” (Removal notes) | Recreate before the next event |
| Consent data and subscription lists | “weren't removed” but “can't be used in real-time” (Removal notes) | Confirm consent on every rebuilt segment |
| Asset library | “all items are available in real-time journeys” (Removal notes) | Keep using |
| LinkedIn lead generation | “Removed as of December 2, 2024”. Replaced: “No” (Removed features) | Name an owner and a decision date |
| Social posting | “Removed as of December 2, 2024”, “won't be added to real-time journeys” (Removed features) | Move to another tool |
The LinkedIn and social rows come from a different page, Removed or deprecated features in Customer Insights - Journeys, and a different year. Both disappeared well before the 2026 removal.
“Removed” and “deleted” mean different things here. Most outbound data still exists in your environment, except the segment member lists. What remains is unsupported: Microsoft says the leftover tables “may not work correctly and aren’t supported,” and some “may not be usable or accessible from the user interface.” Treat every outbound record as read-only history. Do not rename it, archive it or edit it.
Microsoft adds one more warning that belongs on your risk list: “Any custom user interface that updated or added records to these assets and relied on outbound marketing services may fail.” Ask your CRM admin for a written list of anything custom that touched outbound, such as plugins, custom screens and integrations. If your team already uses alerts for failed background jobs in Dynamics 365, extend them to any of those components that run as background jobs, so failures surface instead of staying silent.
Takeaway: print this table and assign a named owner to every row before anyone rebuilds anything.
1. Reports: let the dark dashboards draw your map
Your board slide probably broke first. Microsoft says existing Power BI custom reports for outbound “don’t work with the consolidated data because the data format, its location, and access methods are different in real-time journeys.” The insights reports inside the outbound interface “aren’t available anymore.” If you used the marketing effectiveness analytics preview, it was removed separately on February 28, 2025, with no replacement feature.
Use this method: do not rebuild every report. Rebuild the three or four your pipeline review actually uses, and rebuild them on Microsoft Fabric. Reports that nobody missed for a quarter can stay dark.
The good news is in the data. Outbound analytics data was merged with real-time journeys data, and Microsoft says the data models are the same. A field called SourceSystem records whether outbound or real-time journeys generated each interaction. Filter or split every year-over-year view on that field, because last year’s numbers came from a system that no longer runs.
The docs make Fabric sound simple. Before you commit to a date on the board slide, check the conditions:
- The Fabric integration has been generally available since July 31, 2024.
- It only works in premium workspaces and needs a Power BI premium license or Fabric capacity. Microsoft offers a free Fabric trial capacity. Treat it as a way to get started, not a capacity to run the business on.
- Data changes arrive “within up to three hours.” It is a reporting layer, not a live wallboard.
- The Dataverse shortcut connects with a single credential that must have System Administration permission in the Dataverse environment. That is a conversation with IT and security, not a marketing task. Book it early.
Takeaway: list every report that went dark and mark each one “rebuild in Fabric” or “retire.” There is no third option.
2. Segments: the names survived, the members did not
Microsoft is blunt about this one: outbound segments “aren’t removed, but aren’t usable.” The member list lived in an internal table, and Microsoft removed that table. What remains is each segment’s name and its query, meaning the logic that defined who belonged.
The query is the part worth saving. Microsoft confirms the segment queries “remain available,” and the leftover tables are accessible through the Power Apps Maker portal. Have your CRM admin export the stored segment queries into a document your team can read. Those queries become your specification.
This is the most likely way a team sends to the wrong audience. Microsoft says outbound segments “may still be visible in real-time journeys. However, these segments aren’t updated and shouldn’t be used.” A familiar name in a picker invites a click, and a busy journey builder has no reason to suspect the segment stopped updating.
The right path is a manual rebuild. Microsoft documents no conversion tool for segments, so stop looking for one. Rebuild each segment you still need as a real-time segment, using the exported query as the spec, and drop the ones nobody can justify.
Start with marketing lists. They are a Sales entity, and Microsoft says you can keep using them in real-time journeys, including inside dynamic segments. Any list your sales team owns stays usable.
Consent needs its own check. Outbound consent data and subscription lists were not removed, but they “can’t be used in real-time.” Do not assume any opt-in carried over. Have the team confirm consent on every rebuilt segment before its first send.
Takeaway: this week, send every journey builder the list of outbound segment names with a written rule that none of them gets used. Then ask your CRM admin whether security roles or view settings can keep them out of sight without touching the outbound records themselves.
Before scoring: test the form that feeds it
A scoring model is only as good as the lead records it scores, so check the form first. Outbound forms and marketing pages cannot be used in real-time. Events created in outbound “must be recreated in real-time using the user interface or API.” Every form you rebuild becomes a fresh entry point into Sales.
Duplicates also hurt scoring. In our experience, two lead records split one person’s engagement, so neither shows the full picture of their interest. Before you blame the rules in a model, rule out duplicates.
Bot protection needs a check too. Microsoft removed the HIP captcha from Journeys forms in June 2026 and points to reCAPTCHA instead, according to the forms overview. Any form rebuilt from old instructions needs its bot protection reviewed.
Takeaway: submit every rebuilt form twice with the same email address and look at what lands in Sales.
3. Scoring models: rebuild the MQL, then re-agree it with sales
Outbound lead scoring models “weren’t removed,” but they “can’t be used in real-time.” Microsoft documents no way to export an outbound model or import one into real-time journeys. Teams that ran outbound in Dynamics 365 Marketing have to rebuild. Your CRM admin first enables the Lead Management feature switch, and then your team recreates the model in real-time journeys.
The lead scoring documentation sets four limits to plan around:
- up to 40 groups per scoring model
- conditions use Dynamics 365 standard interactions only
- no fields with field-level security in conditions
- models refresh every two hours
The refresh deserves a warning. The product says “real-time,” but the scoring runs on a schedule. Do not promise sellers a same-minute handoff based on score alone. If speed matters for a hot form, such as a demo request, route that form directly instead of waiting for the score.
Qualification has rules of its own, per Qualify the best leads. Only live models qualify leads, and “only leads in an open status can be marketing-qualified.” The action sets the lead’s Status Reason to Marketing Qualified, or sets Sales-Ready to Yes. Pick one of the two as your handoff signal and agree it in writing with your sales leader. The handoff to sales is won or lost on that agreement, because a score nobody on the sales side trusts is just a number.
The handoff mechanics improved this year. Creating records and activities directly from a journey reached general availability in the September 2026 update (version 1.3.1162.68), per What’s new. The feature page still carries a leftover “During the preview” note. Ignore it.
Two points on that page do matter. The feature works on contacts and leads, and “Publishing a journey doesn’t guarantee that all records will be created.” Someone has to confirm the follow-up tasks actually exist. Microsoft says the journey’s analytics show the records it created and the details of any that failed, so test with a small audience first and have someone check that view after the first live run.
Routing stays a sales decision. “For leads and opportunities, Dynamics 365 Sales assignment rules take precedence over the owner specified in the journey.” Your journey can create the task, but Sales decides who gets the lead.
Before go-live, backtest the new model against reality. Use this method:
- 1
Pull a recent sample
Export open and closed leads from a recent period, including the leads sales actually worked.
- 2
Score them on paper
Apply the new model's groups and thresholds to that sample and mark who would have qualified.
- 3
Compare with sales activity
Line up the would-have-qualified leads against the leads sellers chose to work and the ones that turned into opportunities.
- 4
Read the misses both ways
Leads the model passes that sales ignored point to loose rules. Leads sales worked that the model missed point to missing signals or duplicate records.
- 5
Adjust, then sign off
Tune the model, then sign the threshold off together with the sales leader before setting it live.
Takeaway: do not set a model live until sales has seen who it would have qualified from last quarter’s leads.
4. LinkedIn lead gen: a sourcing hole since December 2024
First, correct the timeline your sales team is probably assuming. LinkedIn lead generation did not leave with outbound. Customer Insights - Journeys lists it as “Removed as of December 2, 2024.” The Dynamics 365 Sales deprecations page uses a different word: “Effective December 2024, LinkedIn lead generation capabilities are deprecated.” If sellers are asking where the LinkedIn leads went, the gap is almost two years old.
There is no replacement. Microsoft’s answer to “Replaced by another feature?” is “No,” and the most it offers is that the feature “May be evaluated for adding to real-time journeys in a future release.” Plan as if it is not coming.
The only path Microsoft names is a custom integration. The removed features page links to a guide for building one, and that guide is a community.dynamics.com blog post, not product documentation. Treat it as a starting point for a developer, not a supported connector.
The LinkedIn side gates the developer, and that part belongs to marketing. LinkedIn says Lead Gen APIs “require separate access from the LinkedIn Marketing API Program. Developers must apply for access” (Lead Sync use cases), and that “Company Page Verification is required for a developer application applying for access to API” (Getting access to Lead Sync). Your team controls the company page, so start that process now.
Also note that LinkedIn says “You can no longer create and download lead forms for your LinkedIn Page. Existing lead forms continue to function as expected” (Lead forms). A custom sync cannot bring back new Page lead forms.
Make the decision on purpose. Either fund a custom sync for LinkedIn lead ads, or point LinkedIn campaigns at a Customer Insights - Journeys form. Whichever you choose, tag the source on every lead so attribution stays honest when the board asks what LinkedIn produced.
Social posting is gone as well, and Microsoft says it “won’t be added to real-time journeys.” Move it to another tool and stop waiting.
Takeaway: put a named owner and a decision date on the LinkedIn gap in your next planning meeting.
Prove one lead makes the whole trip
The rebuild is done when one real lead travels from a rebuilt form, through a live score and Sales routing, to a seller, and then shows up in a report you trust. Until that happens, anything you have not rebuilt still points at outbound, and your board numbers rest on assumptions.
That walk is exactly what a 30-minute Lead-to-Revenue Review does. Citizen Development Academy runs it. We follow one real lead from form to first seller touch and check five points: shared lead definition, capture and dedupe, scoring readiness, routing and SLA, and handoff feedback and reporting. Nonprofits can get this help free.
Request a 30-minute Lead-to-Revenue Review with Citizen Development Academy