Google Consent Mode V2
Pandectes GDPR Compliance integrates fully with Google Consent Mode v2: Implement Consent Mode v2 now
Following the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google has introduced an updated version of Consent Mode. In this article you will discover all you need to know about Google Consent Mode v2. Below you will find information about:
What is Google Consent Mode?
What is Google Consent Mode v2?
How it works?
Do I need to enable Google Consent Mode v2?
What happens If I do not enable Google Consent Mode v2?
How do I enable Google Consent Mode v2?
How can I check if Consent Mode v2 is enabled?
What is the difference between Basic and Advanced Consent Mode?
Consent mode modeling
Google Consent Mode is an innovative tool designed to harmonize the objectives of data privacy with the demands of data-driven digital advertising. It enables website owners to adjust how Google's services, such as Google Analytics and advertising platforms, collect data based on the consent preferences of their users. Specifically, it allows for the collection of full data when a user opts in, and only anonymized data, devoid of personally identifiable information, when a user opts out.
Google Consent Mode v2 represents an advancement in Google's commitment to fostering a privacy-centric digital advertising ecosystem. This update is part of Google's efforts to enhance the enforcement of its EU user consent policy. Consent Mode v2 introduces two new parameters in addition to analytics_storage for users to send, which are:
ad_user_data: This parameter can be set to 'granted' or 'denied' and is used to indicate consent for sending user data related to advertising to Google.
ad_personalization: This parameter sets consent for personalized advertising.
These additions aim to provide website owners and developers with more granular control over the types of data that can be collected based on user consent, thereby enhancing user privacy and compliance with regulatory requirements.
Advanced consent features in Consent Mode v2 include the ability to:
Specify which Google services you share data with using the Google tag UI.
Set behavior for a geographic region.
Pass ad click, client ID, and session ID information in URLs when users have not granted consent for cookies.
Fully redact (remove) ad information when users deny consent for ad cookies.
When a visitor arrives on your store, they're presented with our cookie consent banner. Should they consent to aspects such as ad personalization and measurement, Google receives a consent signal, enabling access to detailed analytics and tailored advertising. Conversely, if the user declines, tracking and cookie use are restricted to align with their choices.
The limitation on insights due to lack of consent can affect conversions and, subsequently, revenue. To address this, Consent Mode incorporates conversion modeling, offering valuable insights even without user consent. This approach employs machine learning to assess aggregate data, such as user behaviors and trends, providing reliable estimates. This helps to mitigate data gaps, ensuring that your information remains accurate, comprehensive, and valuable.
💡Conversion modeling in Google Consent Mode has demonstrated its effectiveness by recovering as much as 70% of the conversion losses that typically result from user consent decisions.
Initially, Consent Mode was developed to ensure adherence to data privacy regulations while minimizing the effect on data collection for your domain. Yet, starting from March 2024, businesses utilizing Google services must be capable of indicating that they have secured users' consent prior to delivering personalized ads.
At present, Consent Mode is compatible with the following Google services:
Google Analytics
Google Ads (including Conversion Tracking and Remarketing)
Google Tag Manager
gtag
Floodlight
Conversion Linker
If you don't enable Google Consent Mode v2, you may face increased compliance risks with privacy laws, reduced effectiveness in data collection and ad personalization, decreased user trust, potential impacts on advertising performance, and missed opportunities for enhanced privacy features. Finally will result in the limitation of serving only non-personalized ads on Google platforms. In other words this will result in only Limited Ads (LTD) being served to EEA traffic. Limited Ads (LTD) turn off personalization options dependent on local identifiers. Consequently, functionalities like audience targeting, remarketing, interest-based categories, conversion tracking, frequency capping, and certain data transfer elements (like User ID) will be disabled. Such restrictions are likely to significantly diminish the efficacy and measurement accuracy of advertisers' advertising campaigns within the EEA.
In order to enable Google Consent Mode v2 on your Shopify store, you need to have installed our app. If you already have it installed you need to navigate to Settings > Integrations and check the Google Consent Mode integration and then save. After that the app will automatically set the default state and then send the appropriate signals to Google on consent submission.
Please see this guide on how to check whether your Consent Mode has been implemented properly.
Google provides two implementation options: Basic and Advanced. The choice between Advanced or Basic Consent Mode depends on your tag configuration settings, a decision not influenced by Pandectes. Pandectes role is to relay consent information to Google, which then decides the next steps based on that data. Our app integration is by default in Advanced mode.
Google's tags come with "Built-in Consent," meaning they will load by default without requiring specific consent configurations. However, their operational behavior adjusts based on the consent levels granted by the visitor, a feature Google describes as Advanced Consent Mode.
The distinctive aspect of the advanced mode is that tags are activated prior to any interaction by the user with the our banner. Essentially, Advanced Consent Mode allows tags to be executed even without the user's consent for cookie usage. Nonetheless, the behavior of all tags is modified based on the user's preferences: depending on specific parameters and their values, a tag may either refrain from setting cookies or disable ad personalization.
For accuracy, Google recommends using the advanced implementation. The basic version is better than not having a consent mode at all.
A more detailed presentation of what you get with Basic & Advanced implementation of Google Consent Mode and with out Google Consent Mode is presented below.
Purpose: To fill in measurement gaps when users do not consent to ads cookies or analytics cookies. This situation creates challenges for advertisers by losing visibility into user paths on their site and the ability to directly link ad interactions to conversions.
How It Works: Google AI is used to adjust the behavior of Google tags so they do not read or write cookies for advertising or analytics purposes when consent is not given. Conversion modeling then uses observable data and historical trends to quantify the relationship between consented and unconsented users. It assesses attribution paths for unconsented journeys based on observable user journeys where consent was given, aiming to provide a more complete view of advertising spend and outcomes.
Modeling comes with some minimum requirements which are:
Advanced Mode Implemented: To have implemented the Advanced Mode of Google Consent Mode
Minimum Ad clicks: To reach a threshold of 700 ad clicks over a 7 day period, per country and domain grouping
Integration in Reports: Modeled conversions will be included in the "Conversions" column of Google Ads campaign reports, offering the same level of detail as observed conversions. This data is also used in Google’s bidding tools for campaign optimization.
Impact of Consent Rates: Unconsented conversion rates are significantly lower than consented ones. Analysis shows that consented users are typically 2-5 times more likely to convert than unconsented users, though this can vary widely.
No Additional Action Required: Starting in April 2021, consent modeling is automatically available for reporting and bidding in Google Ads accounts.
Recommendations for Advertisers: Advertisers are advised to use consent mode to send cookieless pings for more accurate modeling when cookie consent is denied. This approach respects user privacy while enhancing modeling accuracy.
Accuracy and Limitations: While conversion modeling aims to minimize over-prediction and fill in the path between ad interactions and conversions, it may not account for all real conversions due to the inability to attribute some conversions to ad clicks without cookies.
Optimization Advice: Advertisers who adjusted their bidding strategies due to consent changes are recommended to revert to their previous strategies (e.g., from Maximize conversions to Target CPA or Target ROAS) for optimized performance post-modeling launch.
Introduction
Following the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Google has introduced an updated version of Consent Mode. In this article you will discover all you need to know about Google Consent Mode v2. Below you will find information about:
What is Google Consent Mode?
What is Google Consent Mode v2?
How it works?
Do I need to enable Google Consent Mode v2?
What happens If I do not enable Google Consent Mode v2?
How do I enable Google Consent Mode v2?
How can I check if Consent Mode v2 is enabled?
What is the difference between Basic and Advanced Consent Mode?
Consent mode modeling
What is Google Consent Mode?
Google Consent Mode is an innovative tool designed to harmonize the objectives of data privacy with the demands of data-driven digital advertising. It enables website owners to adjust how Google's services, such as Google Analytics and advertising platforms, collect data based on the consent preferences of their users. Specifically, it allows for the collection of full data when a user opts in, and only anonymized data, devoid of personally identifiable information, when a user opts out.
What is Google Consent Mode v2?
Google Consent Mode v2 represents an advancement in Google's commitment to fostering a privacy-centric digital advertising ecosystem. This update is part of Google's efforts to enhance the enforcement of its EU user consent policy. Consent Mode v2 introduces two new parameters in addition to analytics_storage for users to send, which are:
ad_user_data: This parameter can be set to 'granted' or 'denied' and is used to indicate consent for sending user data related to advertising to Google.
ad_personalization: This parameter sets consent for personalized advertising.
These additions aim to provide website owners and developers with more granular control over the types of data that can be collected based on user consent, thereby enhancing user privacy and compliance with regulatory requirements.
Advanced consent features in Consent Mode v2 include the ability to:
Specify which Google services you share data with using the Google tag UI.
Set behavior for a geographic region.
Pass ad click, client ID, and session ID information in URLs when users have not granted consent for cookies.
Fully redact (remove) ad information when users deny consent for ad cookies.
How it works?
When a visitor arrives on your store, they're presented with our cookie consent banner. Should they consent to aspects such as ad personalization and measurement, Google receives a consent signal, enabling access to detailed analytics and tailored advertising. Conversely, if the user declines, tracking and cookie use are restricted to align with their choices.
The limitation on insights due to lack of consent can affect conversions and, subsequently, revenue. To address this, Consent Mode incorporates conversion modeling, offering valuable insights even without user consent. This approach employs machine learning to assess aggregate data, such as user behaviors and trends, providing reliable estimates. This helps to mitigate data gaps, ensuring that your information remains accurate, comprehensive, and valuable.
💡Conversion modeling in Google Consent Mode has demonstrated its effectiveness by recovering as much as 70% of the conversion losses that typically result from user consent decisions.
Do I need to enable Google Consent Mode v2?
Initially, Consent Mode was developed to ensure adherence to data privacy regulations while minimizing the effect on data collection for your domain. Yet, starting from March 2024, businesses utilizing Google services must be capable of indicating that they have secured users' consent prior to delivering personalized ads.
At present, Consent Mode is compatible with the following Google services:
Google Analytics
Google Ads (including Conversion Tracking and Remarketing)
Google Tag Manager
gtag
Floodlight
Conversion Linker
What happens If I do not enable Google Consent Mode v2?
If you don't enable Google Consent Mode v2, you may face increased compliance risks with privacy laws, reduced effectiveness in data collection and ad personalization, decreased user trust, potential impacts on advertising performance, and missed opportunities for enhanced privacy features. Finally will result in the limitation of serving only non-personalized ads on Google platforms. In other words this will result in only Limited Ads (LTD) being served to EEA traffic. Limited Ads (LTD) turn off personalization options dependent on local identifiers. Consequently, functionalities like audience targeting, remarketing, interest-based categories, conversion tracking, frequency capping, and certain data transfer elements (like User ID) will be disabled. Such restrictions are likely to significantly diminish the efficacy and measurement accuracy of advertisers' advertising campaigns within the EEA.
How do I enable Google Consent Mode v2?
In order to enable Google Consent Mode v2 on your Shopify store, you need to have installed our app. If you already have it installed you need to navigate to Settings > Integrations and check the Google Consent Mode integration and then save. After that the app will automatically set the default state and then send the appropriate signals to Google on consent submission.
How Can I check if Consent Mode v2 is enabled?
Please see this guide on how to check whether your Consent Mode has been implemented properly.
What is the difference between Basic and Advanced Consent Mode?
Google provides two implementation options: Basic and Advanced. The choice between Advanced or Basic Consent Mode depends on your tag configuration settings, a decision not influenced by Pandectes. Pandectes role is to relay consent information to Google, which then decides the next steps based on that data. Our app integration is by default in Advanced mode.
Google's tags come with "Built-in Consent," meaning they will load by default without requiring specific consent configurations. However, their operational behavior adjusts based on the consent levels granted by the visitor, a feature Google describes as Advanced Consent Mode.
The distinctive aspect of the advanced mode is that tags are activated prior to any interaction by the user with the our banner. Essentially, Advanced Consent Mode allows tags to be executed even without the user's consent for cookie usage. Nonetheless, the behavior of all tags is modified based on the user's preferences: depending on specific parameters and their values, a tag may either refrain from setting cookies or disable ad personalization.
For accuracy, Google recommends using the advanced implementation. The basic version is better than not having a consent mode at all.
| Feature | Basic consent mode | Advanced consent mode |
|---|---|---|
| Tag loading | Blocked until user interaction with a consent banner. | Loads with defaults set to denied, unless configured otherwise. |
| Data transmission | No data is sent before a user consents - not even the default consent status. | When consent is denied, consent state and cookieless pings are sent. When consent is granted, cookies are written and all measurement data is sent. |
| Consent states | Set after user interaction. | Defaults set to denied, unless configured otherwise; updates based on user choice. |
| Tag behavior after user interaction | Loads and executes consent mode APIs only when a user grants consent. | Adjusts tag behavior based on user consent choice. |
| Conversion modeling | General model (less detailed modeling). | Advertiser-specific model (more detailed modeling). |
A more detailed presentation of what you get with Basic & Advanced implementation of Google Consent Mode and with out Google Consent Mode is presented below.
Consent mode modeling
What is Consent Mode Modeling?
Purpose: To fill in measurement gaps when users do not consent to ads cookies or analytics cookies. This situation creates challenges for advertisers by losing visibility into user paths on their site and the ability to directly link ad interactions to conversions.
How It Works: Google AI is used to adjust the behavior of Google tags so they do not read or write cookies for advertising or analytics purposes when consent is not given. Conversion modeling then uses observable data and historical trends to quantify the relationship between consented and unconsented users. It assesses attribution paths for unconsented journeys based on observable user journeys where consent was given, aiming to provide a more complete view of advertising spend and outcomes.
Modeling requirements
Modeling comes with some minimum requirements which are:
Advanced Mode Implemented: To have implemented the Advanced Mode of Google Consent Mode
Minimum Ad clicks: To reach a threshold of 700 ad clicks over a 7 day period, per country and domain grouping
Key Features and Benefits
Integration in Reports: Modeled conversions will be included in the "Conversions" column of Google Ads campaign reports, offering the same level of detail as observed conversions. This data is also used in Google’s bidding tools for campaign optimization.
Impact of Consent Rates: Unconsented conversion rates are significantly lower than consented ones. Analysis shows that consented users are typically 2-5 times more likely to convert than unconsented users, though this can vary widely.
Implementation and Usage
No Additional Action Required: Starting in April 2021, consent modeling is automatically available for reporting and bidding in Google Ads accounts.
Recommendations for Advertisers: Advertisers are advised to use consent mode to send cookieless pings for more accurate modeling when cookie consent is denied. This approach respects user privacy while enhancing modeling accuracy.
Considerations
Accuracy and Limitations: While conversion modeling aims to minimize over-prediction and fill in the path between ad interactions and conversions, it may not account for all real conversions due to the inability to attribute some conversions to ad clicks without cookies.
Optimization Advice: Advertisers who adjusted their bidding strategies due to consent changes are recommended to revert to their previous strategies (e.g., from Maximize conversions to Target CPA or Target ROAS) for optimized performance post-modeling launch.
Updated on: 26/03/2024
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