Google Consent Mode v2 has a pretty huge impact on ads and analytics run on Google’s network and is critical for publishers and advertisers alike. In this post we’ll explain in clear terms what Consent Mode v2 is, the main changes from the first version of Consent Mode, if and how it affects your revenue plus any changes you need to make to keep using Google Ads and Analytics effectively.
Consent Mode Background
Over the last few years, the impact of privacy laws like the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive on businesses and the public has grown tremendously. Consent and the lawful management of personal data has been central to legal privacy requirements and has led to changes and innovations in the way businesses operate.
One of these major changes was the introduction of Google Consent mode.
Additionally, with the introduction of the new Digital Markets Act (DMA or Regulation 2022/1925), Google, along with a few other huge companies (like Meta) has been named as a gatekeeper. This designation gives certain enhanced responsibilities to Google and other gatekeeper companies, including the direct responsibility of obtaining user consent for their central services. The DMA will be enforced from March 2024.
Google Consent Mode v2
What is Consent Mode?
Because a legal basis (e.g consent, legitimate interest) is required to process personal data for things like measurement, personalisation, tracking, Google introduced Consent Mode as a way to allow websites to signal user consent choices directly to Google, so that user preferences for their personal data are respected – as legally required and in line with their EU User Consent Policy (applies to the entire EEA & UK).
Consent Mode modifies how Google tags including Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, Analytics, Marketing Platform behave based on the user consent preferences.
It works like this
A user enters your site and sees your cookie consent banner. If they agree to grant consent for things like advertising personalization and measurement, a consent signal is sent to Google, allowing detailed insights, analytics and personalized ads. If the user doesn’t consent, then tracker and cookie usage is limited in accordance with the user’s preferences.
As you can imagine, limited insights can impact conversion and by extension, revenue. For this reason, Consent Mode includes conversion modelling to give valuable insights even when consent isn’t granted by the user. Consent modeling uses machine learning to analyze aggregate data like user journeys and trends, to give useful estimations, filling in blind-spots and keeping your data accurate, comprehensive and useful.
💡Through conversion modeling, Google Consent Mode has been shown to recover up to 70% of reported conversion losses due to user consent choices.
What’s new in Consent Mode v2
Google is now updating from Consent Mode to Consent Mode v2. At least part of this can be attributed to the ongoing development of privacy legislation, including the recent DMA.
With that said, the main difference between Consent mode and Consent Mode v2 is the addition of 2 new parameters – ad_user_data and ad_personalization .
- ad_user_data, indicates whether a user has consented to send their data to Google for advertising purposes
- ad_personalization, whether personalized advertising can be enabled (for things like remarketing). This parameter passes granted or denied values based on the preferences users set on your site’s cookie banner.
If consent is denied for one or more parameters, the relevant tags adjust their behavior or stay entirely blocked.
For some additional context, the initial pre-existing parameter tags (analytics_storage & ad_storage) were related to data collection, and these 2 new v2 tags relate to how data is used and shared.
The addition of these 2 new tags now mean that a total of 4 signals are required for Consent Mode.
“From March 2024, we will require these 4 signals to be passed via Consent Mode in order for personalized advertising within Google to be enabled for new EEA users.”
If you use use audience features for advertising, you’ll need to upgrade or implement this new version of Consent Mode.
Consent Mode Basic Implementation vs Advanced
Consent Mode offers both a Basic and an Advanced implementation – with advanced being recommended.
Under the basic implementation, no information is collected at all, not even consent status. Tags stay blocked until consent has been granted and will not load unless consent is granted. If the user consents, tags load and behave as normal
Under the advanced implementation, Google tags are loaded before the consent dialog appears and tags send cookieless pings when cookie consent declined.
Using Consent Mode v2 continue maximizing your revenue after March 2024
From March 2024 onwards, all 4 signals mentioned above must be passed via Consent Mode for personalised Ads to run.
Advertisers not using Consent Mode may see a potential drop in measured conversions and a resulting lower confidence in bidding and optimization. Without Consent Mode v2, the conversion rates your observe may not accurately reflect reality. When consent isn’t given, Advertisers can lose out on up to 60% of measurement data – making upgrading to Consent Mode v2 vital for businesses.
⚠️ Importantly, after March 2024 those who don’t have Consent Mode implemented will not be able to capture new EEA users in their audience lists such as Google Analytics for audiences, remarketing in Google Ads, Floodlight, etc. It will affect campaigns like display remarketing, campaigns for engagement. This drastically impacts performance across the board and well as measurements for European users.
Easy Consent Mode v2 Implementation Using a Google Certified CMP
The easiest way to keep your revenue and business campaigns running smoothly is to use a Google Certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) with Consent Mode v2.
CMPs handle the consent banners, consent management and signalling with Consent Mode to transmit the necessary parameters to Google as required.
Google has certified a few trusted CMP Partners, and work with them to make Consent Mode adoption as easy as possible.
Google’s CMP Partner program helps advertisers better implement Consent Mode by providing:
✅ Faster Activation,
✅ Easier Implementation
✅ Technical Support
iubenda’s certified Consent Management Platform is one of Google’s CMP partners. We make it incredibly easy to install or upgrade to Consent Mode v2 in a matter of minutes.
🎉 iubenda’s Consent Mode support is included in all our plans –including the Free plan.
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