In today’s digital world, where data privacy issues are increasingly important, advertisers and businesses serving audiences from the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK must adapt to new regulatory requirements. One of the key tools for complying with these requirements is Consent Mode. In this article, we’ll take a detailed look at the latest updates to Consent Mode v2, its regulatory framework, countries of application, and the best practices for configuring this tool.
Regulatory base and countries of application
In 2024, advertisers serving EEA and UK users must update or implement Consent Mode to preserve online audiences and maintain effective measurement with Google due to continued regulatory changes in the field of digital marketing. Since March 2024, the new provisions of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) will impose additional obligations on companies working with users from the EEA, including EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These regulations provide additional options for user data storing and processing as well as obtaining consent for this from users from these countries.
Consent Mode v2 offers advertisers new options for managing user consent and ensuring compliance with updated regulatory requirements, which include improved options for data collection and processing, allowing businesses to maintain the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns while meeting privacy requirements.
The impact of updates on advertisers and businesses
Being a key player in digital marketing, Google is implementing significant updates in its products to ensure the privacy of user data. These changes apply to Google Ads, Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager and Google Marketing Platform (GMP) products.
Google’s updates apply not only to EEA countries and Great Britain, but also to advertisers from other countries, if their buyers are already or may be users from these countries. Even if the client’s site is located in Ukraine or Georgia, and a user from the EU or Great Britain visits this site, consent must be obtained for the processing of his personal data for further use. This highlights the importance of implementing Consent Mode to comply with new regulatory requirements.
The consequences of non-compliance with Consent Mode
Advertisers who fail to implement consent mode on their sites or apps and violate the requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) may face serious consequences.
Google does not officially comment on possible consequences for violating the provisions of the DMA. Clearly, the company does not have the authority to impose fines. Instead, however, Google actively helps its customers by updating its products so that advertisers can comply with user privacy and legal requirements.
How does Consent Mode work
Consent Mode is a setting that informs the Google Tag or SDK about users’ consent (or non-consent) to the data transfer. This allows these tools to adjust the subsequent handling of the data accordingly and include modeling to recover lost conversions in case of decline.
Consent transfer mechanism
When searching for information about a product or service, we see an ad and click on it if we are interested. After visiting the advertiser’s site or application, we see a consent mode banner and make a choice whether to transfer our data to the site/application owner for advertising and analytical purposes.
Parameters transferred by consent
If we agree, Google Tag accesses our web data, namely:
- Information about IP addresses.
- Logged full URL of the web page, which includes information about ad clicks in URL parameters such as GCLID/DCLID.
- Third-party cookies previously set for google.com and doubleclick.net, as well as first-party conversion cookies such as gcl.
For mobile apps, the following data is collected:
- Advertising ID and/or IDFA.
- App instance ID generated by the Google Analytics for Firebase SDK.
For more information about data collection under different user consent options, see Consent mode on websites and mobile apps guide at Google Analytics Help Center.
If no consent is given
If the user has not given consent, no cookies are stored during the tag activation, and signals, minimal information about the user’s actions, are transmitted. Such signals are processed by Google’s artificial intelligence, and missing information about conversions and behavior is modeled using Google’s machine learning.
This way, complete user information (cookies) or just basic signals can be used by advertisers in Google’s analytics and advertising platforms for further optimization and improvement of advertising campaigns. According to Google, its artificial intelligence models restore the connection between the display of advertising to the user and his conversion on the site in 65% of cases, if consent to use personal data was not given.
Different consent mode types
There are two types of consent mode implementation: basic and advanced. Advanced mode provides more data to model when the user does not provide consent.
- Basic Mode. In basic mode, Google tags are not uploaded or transmitted to Google until the user interacts with the consent mode banner. If the user does not give their consent, Google does not transfer their data at all (not even the consent status), and the activation of Google tags does not happen.
Basic Consent Mode
- Advanced Mode. In advanced mode, Google tags are loaded immediately after the user opens the site or application, and the consent is requested afterwards. This allows Google’s algorithms to get more data and make more accurate conversion modeling for users who decline access to their analytical data.
Advanced Consent Mode
New features and settings in Consent Mode v2
Until 2024, Consent Mode used two consent options, ad_storage and analytics_storage. They controlled the read and write status of cookies related to analytics and advertising for web or app instance ID and device ID for mobile apps. Starting in 2024, two new parameters were added, ad_user_data and ad_personalization. The former is responsible for the transfer of user data to Google for advertising purposes, and the latter controls the activation of personalized advertising (remarketing). From March 2024, the use of the updated Consent Mode v2 became mandatory for collecting user consent.
Using offline data for advertising campaigns
If the advertiser would like to use offline data from their CRM or database, some additional settings must be made. To use offline data in Google Ads or DV360 advertising campaigns, an advertiser must update the API for the corresponding platform and start sending consent mode signals. For mobile apps, the situation is similar – it is required to update the API to transfer offline audiences through Customer Match and start sending consent signals.
Thus, Google’s updates on user data protection have a significant impact on advertisers around the world. Regardless of business location, it is important to implement Consent Mode to comply with new regulatory requirements. This will not only ensure compliance with the law, but also allow advertisers to optimize their advertising campaigns using both full user data and signals processed by Google’s artificial intelligence.
We have prepared a detailed guide on setting up Consent Mode and included practical advice on setting options. Download the guide for detailed instructions and guidance to help you effectively implement the consent regime and meet all regulatory requirements.
If you have any additional questions, you can get more help on Consent Mode and Privacy for your business from our experts by sending a request to hello-gmp@admixeradvertising.com
Admixer Advertising is an official Google Marketing Platform partner since 2016. We help brands access and improve their use of advanced advertising technologies, analytics, creative and cloud platforms. Stay with us and be always aware of the latest news in the field of digital marketing!
1. Google “Welcome to Durable Measurement in 2024”, January 2024
