From November 2025, Microsoft now requires third-party publishers to use Clarity, ensuring transparent, brand-safe ad placements and filtering noncompliant traffic. This tightening of advertising will help publishers and advertisers visualize their user behaviour, including the likes of clicks, scrolls and engagement.
In hand, this will lead to improved data drive CRO choices. However, it’s vital that publishers implement Clarity (and enable Consent Mode), because otherwise any impressions or clicks from that page will be filtered out and marked as non-billable.
The details for Clarity include:
- It’s required that publishers must install Microsoft Clarity and enable Consent Mode, in order to track and analyse user interactions whilst complying to privacy standards.
- The main difference will be that ad traffic from Clarity-enabled pages will count towards billing, ensuring every paid impression meets Microsoft’s editorial and safety standards.
What does this mean for you?
The move is set to improve transparency, user experience and brand identity across the Microsoft Ads network. Time will tell, and we look forward to seeing the effect this has on transparency and results.
This update was announced by Microsoft Product Liaison Navah Hopkins on LinkedIn, and the full article can be found on Search Engine Land.
As we move into 2026, publishers who adopt these tools early will likely see not only compliance benefits but also clearer insight into how users engage with their content, a win for both transparency and performance.
