Microsoft Advertising will require advertisers to provide explicit user consent signals starting May 5.
First communicated to advertisers a few weeks ago, this change ensures compliance with global privacy regulations while maintaining the ability to gather insights that optimize ad performance.
Why we care. As data privacy concerns grow, businesses face increasing pressure to protect personal information. Microsoft’s enforcement of Consent Mode offers a way to balance privacy with performance, reinforcing trust while meeting regulatory requirements.
What is Consent Mode? Consent Mode is a feature from Microsoft Advertising that respects user privacy preferences while allowing advertisers to track conversions and optimize campaigns. It adjusts cookie access based on user consent, using the ad_storage parameter to either allow or block cookies. This applies to:
- Universal Event Tracking (UET) on the Microsoft Advertising Platform.
- Universal Pixel, Segment, and Conversion pixels within Microsoft Invest, Curate, or Monetize.
Consent signals can also be shared through the IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) or directly via a Consent Management Platform (CMP).
How to implement Consent Mode. Businesses can send user consent signals using one of these three options:
- Direct integration. Implement Consent Mode with UET, Universal Pixel, Segment, or Conversion pixels.
- IAB framework. Pass consent signals directly in a TCF 2.0 string or through a CMP.
- Third-party tools. Integrate Microsoft’s Consent Mode through tools like Google Tag Manager.
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About the author
Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.
In 2008, Anu’s career started with
delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side.
She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Amsterdam), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna) and more.