• by Laurie Sullivan , 6 hours ago

Microsoft's free behavior analytics tool Clarity, which helps website owners understand how visitors interact with their website, will require all third-party publishers to ensure ad placements meet editorial and safety standards.

Any Microsoft Advertising clicks coming from pages that do not have Clarity will be filtered out and result in non-billable impressions and clicks.

If a publisher's webpage is missing the Microsoft Clarity tracking code, Microsoft's systems will identify this. Any engagement via impressions or clicks on Microsoft Ads on that non-compliant page will be marked as non-billable.

The financial impact for publishers means they will not earn any revenue from those specific ad interactions.

Microsoft will filter these out to ensure that advertisers pay for clicks that occur only on verified, quality-controlled pages.

Microsoft Advertising liaison Navah Hopkins announced the news on LinkedIn, Microsoft's social network for businesses.

"Pages sending you traffic need to have Clarity installed in order to result in a charge for the impression/click," Hopkins wrote in the post. "This is part of our wider effort to create a more safe and trustworthy inventory for advertisers."

The update explains processes for paid inventory. Advertisers can have Clarity embedded on the website landing page to understand how people behave. This will not impact whether there is a charge for the ads, she clarified based on questions from marketers in the post.

The ad-safety standards revolve around requirements similar to other platform such as Google. The standards include -- but are not limited to -- ads that appear on pages containing illegal products or services, counterfeit goods, sexually explicit material, hate speech, content that encourages violence, or promotion of illegal drugs, tobacco, and firearms.

It also restricts content related to alcohol, gambling, and prescription drugs, are heavily regulated and restricted to specific markets or require specific certifications, as well as exploiting sensitive topics such as tragedies, disasters, political issues, or religious agendas for commercial gain.

In late October, Microsoft completed the final phase of cookie consent enforcement that went into effect October 31, 2025.

Each time a website owner receives traffic from someone who originates from a European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland, website owners in these areas now will be required to send valid consent signals to Clarity before the platform collects analytics data or sets cookies on visitor browsers.

The signal communicates a user's consent choices to Microsoft's platforms typically through a cookie banner integrated with a Consent Management Platform (CMP). Sometimes it's done directly.