In this first article about Consent Mode . We are going to Google Consent give you the main keys to understand what it is, why it is important, the different ways to implement it and the most frequent doubts that arise when we talk about it.
Table of Contents
What is Google Consent Mode?
Also known as “consent mode”, it is a system develop by Google so that, depending on the type of cookies (and specific consents) select by the user in the cookie banner, the different Google tags act in one way or another, collecting and sending to Google only the permitt data.
Google implement a change in Consent Mode in March that directly affects Google Ads campaigns. Until March, it was not mandatory, but since March it is essential if you do not want data collection for your campaign audiences to stop .
According to current cookie regulations such as the GDPR in Europe or the CCPA in California, websites cannot collect certain data without the user’s consent. To date, many portals are in breach of this legislation, either because they do not have an adapt cookie banner or because it does not work as it should. Google has defin its own system so that, depending on user acceptance, its services (Google Ads, Google Analytics 4, etc.) adapt to the new legislation.
In this way, when the user does not authorize tracking through analytical, advertising or both cookies, Google tags collect very limit information , but it still allows the modeling of visits and conversions, mitigating to a certain extent the loss of data while respecting the user’s privacy. If the user gives his consent, then tracking is done using cookies without losing data.
Why is it important?
Get notifi when you message too much to a country-specific email marketing list. Text messages continue to play an country wise email marketing list important role and email marketing lists once had to be charg separately to receive more email marketing messages. In order not to leave unnecessary messages unnecessarily, we must meet the “character limit”.
Consent Mode v1
In a first version, Google defin these parameters, which could be communicat to you through our cookie banner and a technical integration:
- ad_storage : Link to advertising cookie consent
- analytics_storage: Link to analytics cookie consent
Failure to inform Google of these settings, while potentially violating GDPR law, did not affect Google Ads campaigns.
Consent Mode v2 (“mandatory” from March 2024)
Google adds two more mandatory parameters link to cookies and consent for marketing cookies:
- ad_user_data : Link to specific user consent regarding permission to collect personal data to be us for advertising purposes.
- ad_personalization : Link to the user’s specific consent for their data to be us for remarketing purposes.
On the other hand, it warns that if the information about the consent status is not sent to the user, the Google Ads audiences bas on the website (visitors who have done “something”) will stop collecting data, which can be very harmful to campaigns that work with this type of audiences, which are usually these:
- Demand Generation Campaigns (formerly Discovery)
- Display campaigns
- Video campaigns
- App campaigns
- Maximum performance campaigns (Pmax), which show ads in search, Shopping, discovery, YouTube, etc.
Adds additional, more advanc settings
Additionally, consent mode such as ads_data_raction, which if set to “true” prevents click ids (gclid) or advertising cookie how to write a competent technical task for text content identifiers from being pass in navigation, and the allow_ad_personalization_signals setting which also governs what type of data Google advertising services can access. If there is a conflict between this setting and consent mode, the “stricter” setting prevails in favor of data protection.
Finally, the concepts of “Basic Consent Mode” and “Advanc Consent Mode” are introduc :
- Basic mode works like this: When a user accesses the website, no information is sent to Google tags until the user has given consent.
- In advanc mode, if the user does not give consent (which happens, for example, the first time we load the page before making a decision in the cookie banner), data is also sent to Google, which is known as “pings” – limit non-cookie data, which we will not see in Google Ads or Analytics, but which can be us by Google later to model whether it has enough. If later on or after loading the page, the user gives consent, this data is complet with everything that the cookies store, data that would already be reflect on the platforms.
Here we can see an example of what happens after correctly implementing the cookie banner and Consent Mode on a portal:
How to implement Google Consent Mode?
In general, there are 3 ways to implement Consent Mode:
- (Recommend) Implementation via a cookie banner provider (we recommend one of the, such as CookieBot, CookieYes, ConsentManager…) + integration with Google Tag Manager . The CMPs in the list latest bulk sms above have specific templates to facilitate integration with Google Tag Manager.
- Implementation via a cookie banner provider + plugin/module (depending on the complexity, it may also be necessary to use Tag Manager or make technical adjustments to the website).
- (More complex) Completely manual implementation on the web, using or not a cookie banner provider.
On the one hand, it will be necessary to configure everything relat to the cookie banner (the banner itself, texts, operation, types of cookies, etc.). On the other hand, integrate the user’s consent with the different tracking tags that the website uses (Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Meta, LinkIn, Hotjar, Microsoft Advertising, Criteo…), it is advisable to do this through Google Tag Manager and its integration with a specific Consent Mode template, which will establish the consent by default and in case of update.
In a future article, we plan to address an example of a technical implementation with one of the mention providers.
Consent Mode FAQ
No, the cookie banner is what is shown to the user on the website. Consent Mode is an “intermiary tool” that helps integrate the user’s decision about the banner with the sending of data to Google and other services.
How much does Consent Mode cost?
Consent Mode itself does not have a cost , but the implementation of a cookie banner may have a cost, since you will have to hire a provider for this functionality, and they are usually paid. Those that have a free option tend to be quite limit, either in terms of traffic volume or number of pages on the site. On microsites or portals with little traffic, it is possible to implement a free solution, but in most situations you have to pay.