Microsoft UET Consent Mode, handled properly
Universal Event Tracking is how Microsoft Advertising, formerly Bing Ads, measures what happens after a click, and its tag needs to be told what your visitor decided. Consent Studio sends UET Consent Mode signals from the same banner that asks the question, before the tag runs and again the moment they choose.
- On by default
- Sent before the tag runs
- On every plan
From €10 a month. No credit card, no per-visitor billing.
A cookie banner that works with Microsoft UET Consent Mode
UET Consent Mode is part of the banner rather than an add-on. It is switched on when you start, so most of this is worth knowing rather than doing.
Marketing consent drives both signals
Microsoft models advertising consent and nothing else, so UET takes two values and one answer decides them both. Grant marketing and ad storage and ad user data are granted together; refuse it and both are denied. Analytics consent does not reach Microsoft, because there is nothing there for it to set.
- Ad storage and ad user data
- One category, both
Denied first, then remembered
A first-time visitor has made no choice, so the default sent before your tags run is denied on both counts. A returning visitor is different: their stored answer is what goes out as the default, so Microsoft has the right state from the first request rather than a blanket refusal it then has to correct.
- Denied before an answer
- Restored on return
It goes out before your own code reacts
The consent update is pushed to Microsoft in the first step of the banner’s own pipeline, ahead of anything you have listening for a consent change. After it, a cookie_consent_update event follows on the same queue for containers that trigger on it, in that order deliberately.
- First in the pipeline
- Legacy trigger follows
One answer controls every tool on your site
A banner that only governs the platform leaves everything you added on top of it running. Consent Studio speaks to the tools around it as well, and by default holds anything it does not recognise until the visitor says otherwise.
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How to set up cookie consent for Microsoft UET Consent Mode
Nothing here is a separate product to buy or a script to add. UET Consent Mode ships with the banner and starts switched on, so this is mostly confirming.
Install the banner
Add Consent Studio to your site, either as a script in your template or as our official tag in Google Tag Manager. The UET signals are part of the banner rather than an extension, so once it loads they are already being sent. Nothing else has to be installed for UET Consent Mode to work.
Keep your UET tag where it is
Consent Studio pushes to Microsoft’s queue; the UET tag reads it. That means the tag has to be on the page for any of this to matter, and it should stay exactly where Microsoft’s own instructions put it. We do not install UET for you and you should not delay it behind the banner, because a tag that is not there when the signal is sent has nothing to read.
Confirm it is on
Open Web CMP and go to Consent Modes. UET Consent Mode is enabled by default, so this is a check rather than a change, and it sits beside Google Consent Mode because the two are the same kind of thing pointed at different vendors. If you have deliberately turned it off, this is where it goes back on.
Check what Microsoft is reporting
Conversions attributed to visitors who declined will fall, and that is the signal working rather than breaking. What is worth watching is the opposite: if nothing changes at all after you install, the UET tag may not be reading the queue, which usually means it is loading before the banner or is not on the page you tested.
A cookie banner alone is not enough
Most sites are leaking before anyone notices. Not through malice, but through a tag somebody added in a hurry, a vendor that changed its script, a plugin that phones home.
- Unconsented tracking
- Unwanted overseas transfers
- Consent records you cannot produce
- Scripts you never approved
The Full Consent Stack.
Three products, one consent record. What a visitor agreed to in the banner is what every downstream tag sees.
Which plan Microsoft UET Consent Mode needs, and why
Either plan does this. UET Consent Mode travels with the banner on every plan, so the cheapest one signals exactly what the most expensive one does. Pick a plan on volume and depth instead.
Essential is enough
€10/month
- Microsoft UET Consent Mode, on every plan
- Google Consent Mode v2, on every plan
- Unlimited pages, 200,000 consent actions a month
Every plan includes
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Frequently asked questions about Microsoft UET Consent Mode
What is Microsoft UET?
Universal Event Tracking is the tag Microsoft Advertising, formerly Bing Ads, uses to see what happens after someone clicks an ad: conversions, campaign performance and remarketing audiences. UET Consent Mode is the layer on top of it. It tells the tag what the visitor agreed to, so the tag knows whether it may store advertising identifiers before it stores any.
Does Microsoft Advertising require consent mode?
Yes, and it has been required since 5 May 2025. For advertisers reaching visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, Microsoft asks for a consent signal to keep using measurement and audience features. Without it, conversion data from those regions is incomplete and remarketing audiences stop growing, in the same way Google Consent Mode v2 governs Google Ads.
What happens to conversions if I do not send UET consent signals?
Microsoft receives no permission to store advertising identifiers, so conversions from visitors in consent regions go unattributed and remarketing lists stop populating. Reported performance drops without your campaigns changing, which is the hardest kind of problem to diagnose because nothing looks broken.
Is UET Consent Mode the same as Google Consent Mode v2?
They are the same idea aimed at different vendors, and they are not interchangeable. Google takes five signals covering advertising and analytics; Microsoft takes two, both advertising. Consent Studio sends both from the same banner, so one answer from your visitor reaches Google and Microsoft correctly without either being configured twice.
Does Microsoft Clarity need UET Consent Mode too?
No, they are separate. Clarity is a distinct integration with its own consent call, mapping analytics and advertising storage individually, and it is switched on separately in Consent Studio. Running Clarity and Microsoft Advertising together means enabling both; enabling one does nothing for the other.
Do I need a higher plan for UET Consent Mode?
No. UET Consent Mode is on every plan, including the cheapest, and it is switched on by default when you start. It is not an add-on, not metered, and not gated, so the plan you choose changes your volume and depth rather than whether Microsoft gets the signal.
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