Background
The digital ads ecosystem has been evolving tremendously in recent years, as multiple regulations have been enforced impacting user consent and the manner in which personal data is collected, processed, and shared.
Starting with the ePrivacy Directive (Directive 2022/58/EC) and followed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), businesses that offer goods and services online to users in the EEA (European Economic Area) have been required to prove a legal basis for the processing of personal data, and here is where end-user consent started playing a vital role.
What’s new is the Digital Markets Act (also known as DMA, or Regulation 2022/1925), approved in 2023 and starting being enforced in March 2024. This legislation introduces various requirements to Google and other big companies (nominated as ‘gatekeepers’), among others stating that the responsibility for collecting the user consent required for using their core platform services now belongs to the gatekeepers.
Introducing Consent Mode v2
Google’s Consent Mode is a mechanism that allows businesses to pass consent signals from their cookie banner to Google, ensuring that their users’ consent choices are respected. Essentially, it lets you communicate whether your website visitors have agreed to share their personal data with Google for the use of advertising, including measurement and personalization.
When a user gives their consent, Google can use these tools for detailed insights and analytics. If a user doesn’t consent, Google limits the use of cookies and identifiers accordingly.
The advantage of using Google Consent mode is that it uses conversion modeling to understand user behaviour and website performance even when consent isn’t given. It is used to estimate the actions users take on your site, which might otherwise be lost due to their consent preferences. This fills in conversion gaps and ensures that your data and insights remain comprehensive and accurate, helping you make informed decisions based on user interactions with your website.
Consent Mode adjusts how Google tags including Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Google Marketing Platform, and Google Ads behave based on the consent status of the users.
In light of regulatory changes and increased demand for protection of users’ privacy and consent choices, Google is now updating Consent Mode to Consent Mode v2. The main difference is the introduction of two additional consent states: ad_user_data and ad_personalization, which can be attributed to a user’s consent.
- ad_user_data is used to determine whether the user gives consent for Google’s advertising purposes. This will be set to ‘granted’ when the user actively agrees to their data being shared with Google through a consent banner interaction.
- ad_personalization controls whether data can be used for ads personalization (e.g. for remarketing). It can only be set to ‘granted’ when users specifically agree (through the consent banner) that their data is shared with Google for the purpose of ad personalization.
Keep advertising effectively after March 2024 with Consent Mode v2
Adopting or upgrading Consent Mode v2 is vital for businesses who wish to continue using Google Ads in their advertising strategy in the EEA markets, in order to accurately track conversions and effectively optimize their advertising spend. A cookie banner integrated with Consent Mode v2 is the way you can share these signals with Google.
On top of that, profitable advertising relies on accurate measuring of performance. When consent is not given, advertisers can miss out on 30-60% of their data (depending on the industry).
Consent Mode uses conversion modeling – which uses Google’s AI to fill in the gaps in conversion data caused by users rejecting cookies. Modeled conversions use data that does not rely on identifiable signals, but instead uses device type, conversion types, country, time of day, or browser types to model the behaviour of users who decline analytics cookies – based on the behaviour of similar users who do accept analytics cookies. This helps your business gain additional insights and improve reporting, attribution, and bidding strategies.
Users not using Google Consent Mode v2 by March 2024, will not be able to benefit from these insights and will therefore be analyzing website performance and optimizing Google Ads campaigns based on inaccurate and incomplete data (limited to the information received solely from users who consent to analytics and marketing cookies). Finally, advertisers will not be able to capture any new EEA users in their audience lists without Consent Mode v2 after March 2024. This significantly affects the performance of their remarketing and engagement campaigns, but also all measurements related to EEA users.
The best way to keep advertising effectively is to combine a certified consent management platform with Consent Mode v2
Google works together with 9 certified CMP Partners to help businesses adopt or upgrade to Consent Mode v2.
Cookie Information’s consent management platform is one of them – ensuring you seamlessly integrate with Consent Mode v2 and respect your users’ privacy while adhering to the latest regulations.
Start with a 30-day free trial and discover all the advantages of a compliant consent solution that supports your marketing goals.
