Is Consent Mode v2 mandatory?
Technically, Consent Mode v2 is not mandatory, but Google requires advertisers to comply with their EU user consent policy – if they want to keep using measurement, ad personalization, and remarketing features.
To comply with the policy, you must collect user consent from users based in the EEA and share these with Google. And this can only be done through Consent Mode v2.
So you do have a choice. But if you don’t implement it and share your consent signals, Google may limit your use of their products.
Limitations include blocking your ability to capture new EU/EEA user data in your Google Analytics 4 audience lists and blocking you from sharing audience lists with Google Ads. This means you won’t be able to remarket to new site visitors.
If that’s not in your interest, then you probably want to implement Consent Mode v2 before the deadline in March 2024.
How do you benefit from Consent Mode v2?
Consent Mode v2 benefits advertisers in many different ways, but we’ve tried to boil it down to a list of 3 particularly relevant reasons: remarketing, conversion modeling, and measurement.
If you want to dive deeper into the nitty gritty details of what it is, and how it works, you can read more in our article “Consent Mode v2 – For Dummies.
1. Audience lists and remarketing
By ensuring a more accurate collection of data on user interactions and behaviors CMv2 improves the precision of your audience segmentation for remarketing campaigns.
It lets you create highly refined audience lists which are crucial for tailoring your ads and delivering more personalized and relevant advertising. By presenting ads that are closely aligned with their preferences and previous behaviors, you significantly increase the likelihood of drawing these potential customers back to your site.
This also increases the efficiency of your ad spend by focusing resources on users who have already shown an interest towards your offerings.
And it ensures that your marketing efforts are optimized for efficiency, leading to higher conversion rates and a better return on investment.
2. Conversion modeling
Very few websites – if any – have a 100% consent rate. This means you don’t have full visibility into customer journeys, behaviour, and conversions in Google Ads and Analytics.
To mitigate this lack of visibility, CMv2 enables modeling. This feature uses machine learning to predict (or “model”) the actions of users who decline analytics and/or marketing cookies, drawing on the behavior of users who have consented.
Modeling improves the accuracy of your conversion data by feeding the bidding algorithms with better insights. This helps you optimize campaigns and allocate budgets effectively and efficiently.
3.More precise measurement
As mentioned CMv2 enables you to collect user interaction data from new users within the EEA across Google Ads and Google Analytics.
The data you collect via CMv2 is an important part of ensuring the accuracy of various metrics and measurements related to website and ad performance. By providing a granular view of how users engage with site content and navigate through different pages, CMv2 helps you to make data-driven decisions.
With precise and comprehensive data, you can better tailor your strategies and ultimately drive better business outcomes.
Ready for the deadline?
So if you want to keep your Google setup fully functional, and haven’t already implemented Consent Mode v2, here’s a friendly reminder to do something about it before March 2024.
Visit our Help Center for a comprehensive list of articles dedicated to everything Consent Mode v2.