Your Stress-Free Guide to Implementing Google Consent Mode

Intro

Need to install Google Consent Mode but wondering how to easily set it up? Still doubting whether to activate it or not? You’re in the right place!

Google states in a 2023 report that “with Consent Mode in place, Air France’s visible conversions rose by 9% across Europe”. The French airline company had previously experienced a 20% drop in conversions after having to comply with stricter guidelines on cookies.

In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know about Google Consent Mode, including benefits, the latest 2024 standards, and most importantly the easiest way to activate it on your website. Let’s dive in.

Starting with the basics, Consent Mode is a tool developed by Google for businesses to achieve a balance between respecting user privacy and preserving valuable data insights even when users hit the “Reject” button on a website’s cookie banner.

It fills in the gaps in measurement when people opt out of sharing their data. This means that if visitors don't give their consent, companies can still obtain important trends from the data provided by those who do.

How does it work?

To honor user consent, Consent Mode adjusts how Google tags operate based on the consent status indicated on the website’s banner. If consent is denied, tags are not loaded, and trackers are not used, meaning no data is collected from the user.

On the other side, to benefit Google users, it uses a technology called conversion modeling to recover lost conversion data from users who didn't consent, providing a clearer view of performance.

Who is it for?

Advertisers and website owners with a European presence usually need consent to carry marketing activities and comply with privacy laws like the GDPR.

This includes showing personalized ads or gathering analytics with trackers for customers who use audience features in Google Analytics, Google Ads, Floodlight, Conversion Linker.

If this sounds like you, Consent Mode is worth considering - and maybe even required. More on this later.

Why marketing data matters

Understanding user behavior through analytics is key to personalizing user experience and boosting conversions. Serving ads might also be a significant part of your marketing strategy to promote your products or services.

Google Consent Mode can be a game-changer for obtaining more accurate insights when using Google features.

The magic of conversion modeling

Consent Mode uses a privacy-friendly technology called conversion modeling, which leverages Google AI, probability, and machine learning to analyze data trends. It models behaviors even for users who didn’t consent to cookie tracking, reporting conversion data for all visitors.

While this might sound technical, the main point is that it helps recover valuable marketing data that would otherwise be lost, all while preserving user privacy. Better measurement means better conversion rate accuracy.

Compliance and privacy:

Ensures compliance with EU consent requirements from regulations like the GDPR and Cookie Law.
Conversion modeling respects user privacy because it doesn’t use any identifying personal information.

Data recovery and accuracy:

Fills measurement gaps and recovers around 65% of ad-click-to-conversion journeys lost due to user cookie consent choices (Google Internal Data, 2023).
Provides a more accurate view of performance than without Consent Mode activated.

Enhanced marketing efforts:

Helps optimizing campaign bids and targeting specific audiences.
Allows better budget allocation to top-performing campaigns.
Improves decision-making and boosts revenue.

Enhanced marketing efforts

In 2024, tech giants in Europe are facing new challenges, combined with new opportunities with technology like AI.

With the enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the EU is ensuring fair competition and setting new rules for "gatekeepers" like Google and Meta to prevent abuse of market power.

This push for fairness and transparency has led Google to overhaul its policies and products, emphasizing user privacy and consent more than ever.

In response to these new regulations and the evolving digital landscape, Google launched the version 2 of Consent Mode. This update includes two additional tags for more granular control over user consent, making it four in total:

analytics_storage: cookies installed for analytics purposes;
ad_storage: cookies installed for advertising purposes;
[new] ad_personalization: defining whether personalized advertising can be enabled, e.g. for remarketing;
[new] ad_user_data: defining whether user data can be sent to Google for advertising purposes.

Consent Mode v2 offers two implementation levels when consent is denied:

Basic: the relevant tags remain completely blocked, and no user data is collected.
Advanced: the relevant tags adjust their behavior, and conversion data is recovered through modeling.

The latest requirements for users in Europe

Starting March 2024, Google has mandated new requirements for using its services in Europe. For preserving features like conversion tracking in Google Analytics or remarketing in Google Ads, you need to:

enable Google Consent Mode on your website;
set up an EUUCP-compliant banner to collect user consent.

Marketers who don't use Consent Mode will lose the ability to capture new EEA users in audience lists within Google products.

This could mean losing access to audience functionalities for users in this region, potentially crippling their marketing strategy and overall performance.

Last but not least, without Consent Mode, you miss out on invaluable data that could be reported using conversion modeling for users who reject consent on your banner!

Clearly, the new requirements placed on businesses regarding a topic as tricky as Consent Mode called for a straightforward solution from Google for implementation - which they did.

Google listed specific tools called Consent Management Platforms (or CMPs) to support the activation of Consent Mode v2.

Certified by Google, they ensure that you can install a consent banner with Google Consent Mode built-in, streamlining the process and ensuring compliance with Google’s EU User Consent Policy.

A Consent Management Platform (CMP) is a software solution designed to collect, store, and manage user consent for data collection activities such as analytics, advertising, and retargeting.

This is typically achieved via a consent banner on your website or app, ensuring compliance with major regulations like the GDPR.

iubenda: Your trusted Google-certified CMP

iubenda offers a powerful CMP called the Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution with Consent Mode built-in, which simplifies the process of managing user consent on your site.

Your trusted Google-certified CMP

Here’s what you get when using iubenda:

Quick and reliable activation: As iubenda has been selected as a Google Partner CMP, their solutions provide an easy way to enable Consent Mode. In case of potential future requirements from Google, their CMP will be directly updated by their team of experts;
Ease of use: The visual configurator allows you to see the customization of your banner live. Input the details of your site for an automatic configuration and change what you want;
Effortless compliance: Consent Mode is usually enabled by default, without any action required on your site. It can also be configured via Google Tag Manager or manually for more advanced users;
Full implementation: You can customize your own consent banner with Consent Mode built-in to comply with privacy regulations and Google’s policies;
Expert support: Use their help documents and customer support if you need!

Getting started with iubenda is very easy:

Go to the iubenda page for Consent Mode activation;
Click on “Set up Consent Mode”;
Insert your website’s URL;
Scan your site, get a compliance report and activate iubenda;
If you’re new to iubenda, you’ll have to customize your consent banner! Just follow the wizard for a guided setup.

With iubenda’s Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution online generator, here’s what you need to do:

Input your website’s details and everything will be auto-configured;
Use their visual configurator to change behavior, design, location, colors, add your logo and more;
If needed, set technical parameters like page reload, cookie scripts blocking, preference control panel;
Paste the generated code in your website to display the banner;
Here you go! Your banner is active on your site.

Consent banner customization

The autoblocking feature takes care of automatically blocking third-party scripts that install cookies and trackers.

It is enabled by default when you start using iubenda’s CMP. It automatically activates and manages Google Consent Mode v2 for any Google services-related scripts, requiring no extra effort from you.

It ensures that your Google tags behave according to the user’s consent status, particularly for advertising and analytics cookies.

Yes, it’s that simple! That’s also why it’s the best method that we recommend for installing Consent Mode.

For those using Google Tag Manager (GTM), iubenda has a GTM template that simplifies the activation of Google Consent Mode.

This template is part of the Featured Community CMP Templates and allows you to handle Google Consent Mode efficiently without diving into complex configurations.

Here’s what you need to do:

Add the template to your GTM installation;
Configure the tags; and
Embed it on your website.

Conclusion

If you rely on Google services like Ads or Analytics for European users, activating Consent Mode is essential. As highlighted in this guide, the benefits are clear.

Consent Mode not only ensures compliance with privacy laws and Google's latest requirements but also offers a more accurate view of your marketing performance. Without it, you risk losing access to valuable audience features and missing out on critical insights for making informed decisions.

With a CMP like iubenda, activating Google Consent Mode doesn’t have to be complicated. Sign up, customize your banner, and you’re done!

Your Stress-Free Guide to Implementing Google Consent Mode