Google Consent Mode? Yes, of course. Now version 2 is out, sure… But what exactly is it? What does it mean to me? Don’t worry, so that you don’t keep saying “yeah, right” and making mental notes to google for more information or leave the task to your techie, in this post we clarify what’s behind the term “Google Consent Mode”. Also, as version 2 comes into effect from March 2024, we keep you up to date on the changes and what you should do to avoid problems with your website or your campaigns. Because yes, even if it seems like a very cryptic term that has nothing to do with you, if you have a business with an online presence and you use tools like Google Analytics or Google Ads, it does affect you.
What is Google’s Consent Mode?
Let’s start with the basics: What is Consent Mode? It is practically Google’s way of complying with two European regulations, the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, which came into force in 2018, and the ePrivacy Directive, which has been in implemented in 2002 and, logically, with the constant changes within the digital world, revised several times.
In short, and to avoid getting lost with laws, these two regulations are designed to ensure the security and data protection of European internet users. This affects not only European companies and websites, but also anyone outside the European Union who targets European users. A California-based eCommerce, for example, that wants to attract customers from any European country with its advertisements, is obliged to comply with these regulations.
Hence, Google is obliged to adapt its services, and so are you. On the one hand, to protect users according to the law and, on the other hand, to continue to allow the possibility of personalising ads and adapting their distribution according to the individual user data we have, thanks to Cookies. Google’s solution? To ask users’ permission, every time they enter a website, to collect their data through, exactly, Cookies.
A brief overview of Cookies
Cookies, as nice it sounds, have nothing to do with your favourite biscuits. At this point, we all know that. Cookies are small pieces of text that are sent from any website to the computers of users on the internet. It practically creates a link that makes it possible to identify users and observe their habits.
On the one hand it sounds like spying, which is why the aforementioned laws have been created. On the other hand, thanks to this dynamic you can log into a website, for example your Amazon account or your bank account, without having to enter your login details every time you open the page. So in itself, cookies are not bad. There are different types though, among others:
- Cookies that are used to detect the IP address of your browser are called First Party Cookies.
- The ones that are mainly used to know the habits of the users are called Third Party Cookies, as they are shared with third parties to create advertisements etc.
We could go into more detail about cookies, but we don’t want to get too far off track, and the ones that are important for Google Consent Mode in the end are these two.
What does Google Consent Mode have to do with my business?
Well, all this data collection, which can be used to create user profiles based on their interests, location etc. has led to the hyper-personalisation of digital ads. If you for example have a sports shop, you can create ads that will be shown only to people who, according to what we know about them from cookies, are really interested in sports. This way your ads will be much more profitable, because you won’t pay for them to be seen by your neighbour, for example, who at most walks her dog and probably doesn’t want to buy technical clothing. You pay for them to be seen by a person really interested in sports, who perhaps regularly enters your website and will most likely make a purchase. And that’s where you win.
Back to the subject. Precisely so that users have a say in what you do and don’t do with their personal data, the obligation to ask for permission has been established. So if you want to use Google Analytics or Google Ads, you have to ask for the users’ consent. Until now, if the user did not give permission, it was complicated to measure data and personalise ads.
The only backdoor that was still open was the advanced mode, which means that data is still collected, but anonymously. So models are created and ads are launched based on these models. Obviously they are not as accurate as the ones that are created based on the information we have when a user accepts our request. How does that work? Yes, with a banner, that’s what we see when we enter a web page. What we don’t see is the important part, that this banner is connected to a platform to manage the information, a CMP (Consent Manager Platform), that is to say the permissions or rejections received in order to configure how the cookies should work, if they can be activated.
What changes with Consent Mode V2?
So far so good. Our little recap about the Consent Mode in general was necessary to be clear about what changes in this respect from now on. To begin with, if you want to continue using Google services for your business, you are obliged to implement the new Consent Mode.
To do so, Google gives you two options:
- Basic mode, which gives the user the possibility to accept or reject the data collection and only transmits information about the users who gave their consent.
- The advanced mode gives a user the possibility to accept or refuse data collection and transmits to you the information about the users who gave consent. For the information about users who refused consent, there’s a plan B.
What is the plan B of the advanced mode in Google Consent Mode V2 about?
While Google Consent Mode V1 was still valid, we said that when a user refuses our request to collect their data, there was an option to create ads based on anonymous models created by Google’s algorithm. To create these models, it practically takes advantage of the data of the users who gave us permission and makes an estimate. If x people from the consenters behave like this, probably x people from the deniers behave the same way.
With Google Consent Mode V2 and its advanced mode, we can actually take advantage of more data so that the Google algorithm creates these anonymous models for us. How? Where do we get more data from, if we don’t have permissions? Well, it practically takes advantage of the time it takes for the user to reject the request. In the meantime, tags called “cookieless pings” are triggered and transmit information only about the type of device, the type of conversion, the type of browser, the time and the country. As Google defines this as non-identifying information, the model that is created is still anonymous, but it becomes a little more useful when it comes to personalising your ad.
So far, so good. Now, having a choice of which type of Consent Mode V2 to use is not the only new feature.
New parameters in Google Consent Mode V2
With Google Consent Mode V1 we receive information about two types of consent. On the one hand, through the cookie, we learned whether the user agreed that we use their information for analytical purposes and on the other hand, whether they agreed that we use their information for marketing purposes.
With Google Consent Mode V2, it is not that these parameters have been replaced by others. Basically, the advertising parameter has been specified in more detail. There are two new subcategories, so to speak, advertising purposes and remarketing purposes.
Final conclusion
All this being said, we hope that everything that the term Google Consent Mode and its version 2 entails is a little clearer. Now, how do you know if you have to do something? Very simple: do you use Google services like Google Ads or Google Analytics for your business and do you want to continue to do so? Then yes, you are obliged to implement Google Consent Mode V2. For that, if you are not quite sure how to do it on a technical level, you can leave the task to a specialist, but now at least you know what it’s all about.
This way you make sure that your marketing strategy is in line with the law and on the other hand you also build trust with your customers. Giving them the option to reject cookies does not mean that you will lose the information you need to create ads and generate sales. It means that you are transparent, which for loyal customers is an important factor when it comes to making a purchase. Plus with the new modes and parameters we’ve mentioned, you actually have more options at hand to run your campaigns. It’s just a matter of adapting them to the new digital environment.
