If you want to be using Google Ads in a seamless way, Google needs you to transition to version 2 of Google Consent Mode by March 2024. If you don’t, and if you’re based in the EEA, you won’t be able to use audiences anymore for remarketing purposes and you might have issues to track conversions. Here is why and what you need to do by March 6th this year!
GAFAMs required to better protect users’ privacy
Following the recent regulations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Service Act (DSA), Internet giants will soon have to comply with new obligations. Through the DMA and DSA laws, the objective of the European Union is to make the European digital sector fairer by regulating the domination of the gatekeepers, more especially the GAFAMs, and increasing the power of European businesses and Internet users.
These new regulations don’t apply directly to the users of GAFAM services, but what players like Google, Meta & co will put in place does have an impact on your business.
The first important change you need to consider is the Google Consent Mode.
Consent Management Platform and Cookie Consent Banners vs. Google Consent Mode
Let’s start by clarifying that the Google Consent Mode is not your Cookie Consent Banner nor your Consent Management Platform (CMP).
A cookie consent banner is compulsory to comply with GDPR in Europe: your websites’ visitors need to be able to indicate which cookies they accept or reject. The banner can be custom-made or provided through a Consent Management Platform that helps you collect user’s consent on your website such as OneTrust, Didomi, Cookiebot, etc. Having a cookie consent banner in place is a prerequisite to be able to implement the Google Consent Mode.
The cookie consent banner collects user’s cookie preferences, whilst the Google Consent Mode implementation allows Google’s tools (like Google Ads) to know how to collect and use the data received. The Google Consent Mode allows you to adjust how your Google tags behave based on the consent status of your users.
What does the Google Consent Mode v2 change for you?
Implementing the Google Consent Mode v2 is a must if you want to continue using Google Ads seamlessly. But what will be the difference vs. your current situation?
To understand what impact implementing the Google Consent mode v2 has for you, you should know first what is currently implemented on your website. If you have no idea whether you already have integrated a Google consent mode on your website, contact us to figure it out! We’ll gladly help you clarify the situation.
So, what difference between a website with no Google Consent mode, Google Consent mode v1, and Google Consent mode v2?
| Implementation | User Accepts Cookies | User Declines or Ignores Cookie Banner |
| No Google Consent Mode | Information is sent to Google servers | No information sent to Google |
| Google Consent Mode v1 | Information is sent to Google servers. | Anonymous, non-identifiable pings sent for data extrapolation.
Compliance with privacy rules is questionable. |
| Google Consent Mode v2 Basic | Information is sent to Google servers.
New parameters added : ad_user_data and personalisation |
No information is sent to Google servers. |
| Google Consent Mode v2 Advanced | Information is sent to Google servers.
New parameters added : ad_user_data and ad_personalisation |
Anonymous, non-identifiable pings sent for data extrapolation.
Compliance with privacy rules is questionable. New parameters added : ad_user_data and ad_personalisation |
Difference between a website with no Google Consent mode, Google Consent mode v1, and Google Consent mode v2
No Google Consent Mode implemented
If we disregard the impact on your Google Ads campaigns, from a strictly legal standpoint, you could perfectly use your consent mode platform without implementing any Google Consent Mode. In this case:
- If user accepts cookies, the CMP sends the information to Google servers
- If the user declines cookies, or does not interact with the banner, the tag is blocked and no information is sent to Google
Google Consent Mode v1
With the objective of retrieving data from users declining or not interacting with the cookie banner, Google introduced its Google Consent Mode (i.e. in its first version) in 2020 with the following rules:
- If user accepts cookies, data is observed as normal and information is sent to Google servers,
- If user declines cookies or doesn’t interact with the cookie banner, no analytics or marketing cookies are set, accessed or read BUT cookieless pings are sent to Google as anonymous and non-identifiable Google Analytics events.
This means that, in case of decline, information is sent to servers but in a restricted way. The main objective of Google is to fill in the data gap by modelling the behavior of those users declining cookies.
Even though Google claims that the solution complies with privacy rules, the implementation of the functionality is subject to quite some debates. Many of our clients received objections from their legal department recommending not to implement this first version of Google Consent Mode without additional information.
Google Consent Mode v2
Because of the need to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Service Act (DSA), Google updated the Google Consent Mode and made the implementation of the newest version mandatory.
Two options are possible, depending on your legal requirements:
- Basic Implementation: In case of decline or no interaction with the cookie banner, no information is sent to the Google servers.When user accepts cookies, data is observed as normal.
- Advanced Implementation: In case of decline or no interaction with the cookie banner, cookie less pings are sent to the Google servers. This implementation is therefore more or less the equivalent of the Google Consent Mode v1 and has the same legal uncertainties.
In both cases, two additional parameters are added, both requiring explicit user approval through a cookie consent banner.
- ad_user_data for consenting to send user data to Google for advertisingpurpose,
- ad_personalization for agreeing to use data for ad personalization
How to integrate Google Consent Mode v2?
Implementing Google Consent Mode doesn’t happen automatically from your Cookie Consent Banner or Consent Management Platform. It requires additional setup to ensure that the user’s consent preferences are effectively communicated and applied to Google’s tools.
Integrating Google Consent Mode can be done via some Consent Management Platforms certified by Google, via Google Tag Manager and / or via developers’ implementations. The steps to follow will depend on your configurations. If your Consent Management Platform is certified by Google, check the guidelines on the website – for example the guidelines from OneTrust, Didomi, or Cookiebot. If your CMP is not certified by Google, you will need specific configurations. The same applies if a custom banner is implemented on your website.
If you need some help, we’d be more than happy to help you understand your website’s current situation and to implement the Google Consent Mode v2!
