As the deadline to implement the update closes in, here’s everything marketers need to know.
After Google accelerated its plan to restrict third-party cookies earlier this year, there’s been plenty of discussion amongst marketers about the future of cookies.
But a more pressing conversation has emerged: As the March implementation deadline approaches, many are considering the impacts that Google Consent Mode V2—an update to their privacy-driven data collection mode—will have on their campaigns, particularly when it comes to retargeting.
So what does this mean for digital marketers?
What is Google Consent Mode V2?
Google Consent Mode is a tool which enables site owners and advertisers to measure conversions and gather website insights while respecting visitor cookie preferences.
When a user doesn’t consent to cookies, Google Consent Mode – at least in its advanced settings – allows a website to recover lost conversions and collect missing data through modelling. This helps advertisers to gain the valuable insights needed to monitor campaign performance while still respecting user privacy.
Google Consent Mode V2 aims to strengthen the tool’s privacy controls and enforce increasingly strict EU consent policies. It’s no longer enough for advertisers to manage consent; now, they must pass these consent signals on to Google in order to continue using their ad personalisation and remarketing features—and any failure to do so will stop ads from being populated to UK and EEA users.
What do I need to do to implement Google Consent Mode V2?
If you are using a Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP), it’s likely that implementing Google Consent Mode V2 will be as simple as ticking a box. The update may even be applied automatically, although it’s worth checking this with your CMP.
It’s also possible to integrate the mode via Google Tag Manager – ask your CMP if they have templates set up for you to do so. For some CMPs, this may provide greater control over Consent Mode’s ‘Basic’ and ‘Advanced’ settings, with the ‘Basic’ option strictly restricting data passed on from unconsenting users and ‘Advanced’ utilising anonymous ‘pings’ to model data within analytics. But we recommend carefully reviewing both of these options when implementing Google Consent Mode.
If you aren’t using a Google-certified CMP or are looking to manually implement Google Consent Mode V2, it is still possible to do so. However, there are additional steps and difficulties required to get this right.
Regardless of the method you use to implement Google Consent Mode V2, you will still need to ensure that your cookie policy and banner are GDPR compliant, as was the case before this update.
Can I check if GA4 is receiving consent signals?
If you are using Google analytics platform GA4, there is now an option to check if Consent Mode V2 has been implemented and Google is receiving these consent signals. This can be found within ‘Admin – Data streams – Web stream details – Consent settings’, and if you’re good to go you’ll see two green ticks alongside ‘Ads measurement consent signals active’ and ‘Ads personalization consent signals active’.
It’s now March. Is it too late to implement Google Consent Mode V2?
No, it’s not too late. The deadline to manually implement Google Consent Mode V2 is March 6th, but you can still amend your settings to ensure you remain compliant for future campaigns—and we certainly suggest you do!
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