Microsoft UET Consent Mode: What Is It and How To Use It?

Microsoft UET Consent Mode communicates a visitor’s advertising consent to Microsoft Advertising and adjusts how the UET tag accesses cookies. A working setup connects the choice made in the cookie banner with the consent state used by the tag.

That connection matters for conversion measurement and remarketing. A banner can save a preference correctly while an incomplete integration leaves UET using the wrong state. This guide covers the consent settings, implementation options and checks needed to find those gaps.

What is Microsoft Universal Event Tracking (UET) Consent Mode?

Microsoft Universal Event Tracking (UET) Consent Mode is a mechanism that controls UET’s cookie access according to the visitor’s advertising consent.

UET is Microsoft Advertising’s website tracking technology, used to measure purchases, enquiries and other actions and to support remarketing audiences. Consent Mode tells the tag whether the relevant permission is granted or denied.

A consent management platform collects and stores preferences, then communicates them through an integration. Consent Mode applies those instructions to UET; it does not collect consent or validate the wording of the banner.

Who needs Microsoft UET Consent Mode?

Websites using UET should check their consent implementation, particularly when receiving visitors from the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom or Switzerland. A business based elsewhere can still receive traffic covered by Microsoft’s regional requirements.

Microsoft’s announcement of 31 March 2025 set 5 May 2025 as the deadline for providing consent signals for visits from these regions. It identified Consent Mode and supported TCF integrations as available approaches. See Microsoft’s consent signal announcement for the original requirements.

Missing or incorrect signals can affect conversion attribution and remarketing. A purchase or enquiry recorded by your website may not appear as an attributed advertising conversion. Likewise, visitors who refuse advertising consent should not be treated as eligible for consent-dependent remarketing.

The UK ICO requires consent for storage and access technologies used for online advertising, including related campaign measurement. The banner and cookie policy should explain the purposes, recipients and available controls. Sending a technical signal alone does not meet those obligations.

How does Microsoft UET Consent Mode work?

UET receives advertising consent through the ad_storage parameter.

This exception does not permit normal advertising cookie use after refusal.

On arrival, the integration establishes an initial state and checks for an applicable saved preference. It then passes that state to UET and updates it when the visitor confirms or changes their choice.

The parameter concerns UET advertising storage. It is not a website-wide switch for analytics, Clarity or server-side data transfers. For example, accepting analytics while refusing advertising should not produce a granted UET advertising signal.

Basic vs advanced Microsoft UET Consent Mode

Basic Mode blocks UET until advertising consent is granted. Advanced Mode allows UET to run with denied consent and send restricted, cookieless measurement signals.

Microsoft’s 19 February 2026 guidance recommends Advanced Consent Mode for measurement. It explains that UET must load early enough to operate with the default state and receive a granted update when permission is obtained. Fully blocking the tag prevents that advanced behaviour. The implementation principles are covered in Microsoft’s Advanced Consent Mode guide.

Restricted measurement is different from normal cookie-based advertising tracking. It does not guarantee modelled conversions or recovery of every missing conversion. “Cookieless” also does not establish that all processing is outside privacy law; the requests and applicable rules still need assessment.

Microsoft UET Consent Mode vs Google Consent Mode

Microsoft UET Consent Mode and Google Consent Mode both adjust tag behaviour according to user consent. They serve different platforms and use platform-specific consent APIs.

A Google Consent Mode v2 configuration does not automatically establish a working Microsoft UET integration. The official UET GTM template can read GTM consent information in supported configurations, but its initial state and updates still need verification. When both platforms are used, the CMP should map each preference to the relevant platform signals.

How to set up Microsoft UET Consent Mode

Choose one coordinated route: a supported CMP integration, the official GTM template or direct JavaScript. TCF is an alternative consent-signalling framework. A CMP may use GTM or JavaScript internally, so these components can work together without becoming competing sources of consent.

Check your UET tag and CMP setup

Compare the website’s UET tag ID with the intended tag in Microsoft Advertising. Identify whether it is installed through GTM, a CMS plugin or site code, and check for duplicate installations.

Confirm which saved preference represents advertising permission and which integration communicates it. If native support already handles UET updates, adding a second manual implementation can introduce conflicting states.

Configure Microsoft UET Consent Mode in GTM

In your GTM container:

1. Create or open the tag using the official Microsoft Advertising UET template and enter the correct UET tag ID.

2. Review Enable consent updates, which handles subsequent consent changes.

3. Assess Inherit initial consent, which allows the template to use the initial GTM consent state. Enable it only when that state is correctly established by your CMP.

4. Choose triggers that match Basic or Advanced Mode.

5. Use Preview to inspect initial consent, the banner’s saved choice and the resulting UET behaviour before publishing.

The two consent options serve different purposes. An update listener alone can miss a choice made before UET loaded; inheriting an incorrect initial state can also produce the wrong result.

GTM’s Consent Initialization trigger is for tags that establish or update consent. It runs before ordinary Initialization triggers. It is not a trigger to assign to UET simply to make the advertising tag run earlier. Follow the CMP’s integration instructions and verify the actual sequence.

Configure the default consent state

The following JavaScript example is for a direct Advanced implementation. If your CMP or GTM template already manages the default, configure it there instead of adding a second default command. Establish denied consent during UET initialisation, before measurement can use an unintended granted state:

window.uetq = window.uetq || [];
window.uetq.push('consent', 'default', {
  ad_storage: 'denied'
});

Place this command within the initial UET setup, before the banner’s asynchronous response or any later interaction handler. Microsoft’s direct example places it immediately after the UET tag snippet; confirm the earliest requests use the intended state.

A returning visitor’s applicable saved preference must then be restored promptly. Do not wait for another banner click. In GTM, use the supported template/CMP mechanism instead of duplicating this command in unrelated Custom HTML tags.

For Basic Mode, keep UET blocked until the relevant consent exists.

Update consent after the user’s choice

When advertising permission is granted, send:

window.uetq = window.uetq || [];
window.uetq.push('consent', 'update', {
  ad_storage: 'granted'
});

For refusal or withdrawal, an already-running UET implementation receives:

window.uetq = window.uetq || [];
window.uetq.push('consent', 'update', {
  ad_storage: 'denied'
});

These snippets are API examples, not a complete banner integration. Run them from the CMP’s confirmed preference event. In Basic Mode, a visitor who never consents should not cause UET to load merely to report refusal.

Reapply the saved state on subsequent pages. Changing a preference must affect subsequent UET activity as well as the value stored by the banner.

A persistent cookie preference centre should also allow withdrawal. GDPR Article 7 requires organisations relying on consent to demonstrate it and make withdrawal as easy as giving consent. Handle existing cookies and downstream processing as required; changing the signal alone does not prove those tasks are complete.

How to integrate Microsoft UET Consent Mode with a CMP

Check whether the CMP offers a native Microsoft UET integration. If it does, use its documented settings before adding custom JavaScript. Otherwise, connect the CMP’s saved advertising preference to the GTM template or UET API.

The integration needs to cover three moments: reading an applicable saved choice on page load, receiving a confirmed choice from the banner and applying later changes. For example:

Use the CMP’s preference-saved event or documented callback. A toggle change inside an unsaved preference panel is not necessarily a confirmed decision. In Basic Mode, refusal must not load UET solely to send a denied update.

Microsoft UET Consent Mode on different website platforms

The consent principles remain the same across website platforms; the installation route determines where they must be configured.

• WordPress: Review the WordPress cookie consent plugin and any advertising plugin for duplicate UET installations or competing consent updates.

• Shopify: Check customer privacy settings and how the tracking app or pixel integration receives advertising preferences. A Shopify cookie consent setup should be tested across the parts of the customer journey where tracking is installed.

• Wix: Review the site's tracking integration or custom code and its connection to the available consent controls.

• BigCommerce: Check how script management, storefront integrations and the CMP load UET and apply preference updates.

Using a supported platform does not prove that a particular plugin or app passes consent correctly. Test the actual storefront implementation, including the conversion event.

Benefits of Microsoft UET Consent Mode

A correctly configured implementation gives advertisers clearer control over measurement and consent:

• Consent-aware tracking: UET cookie behaviour follows the visitor’s advertising choice.

• Additional measurement options: Advanced Mode may provide restricted signals that support measurement and modelling where the available data and platform requirements allow.

• Consistent preferences: A CMP integration can restore saved choices across relevant page visits.

• Remarketing controls: Advertising refusal can be reflected in consent-dependent audience processing.

• Easier troubleshooting: Explicit defaults and updates make consent behaviour easier to inspect and test.

These benefits depend on implementation quality. Consent Mode does not guarantee complete conversion measurement or automatically establish legal compliance.

How to test Microsoft UET Consent Mode

Open a clean browser session, enable UET Tag Helper and reload the page. Inspect the consent status reported through asc on page-load and conversion events.

Also open Developer Tools → Network and inspect requests to bat.bing.com. Complete an actual purchase or test enquiry rather than checking only the landing page. Compare event delivery, consent state and storage before and after each choice.

A website cookie audit helps identify cookies written by duplicate or unrelated scripts. Record the URL, choice and observed result, then repeat after deployment. GTM Preview alone does not confirm that the published website behaves identically.

Before signing off, confirm the tag ID, category mapping, default, updates, withdrawal, returning visits and conversion event have all passed.

Common Microsoft UET Consent Mode issues