A Guide for Advertisers
If you’re like many Agital clients, you may have recently received a notification about Google’s consent mode—which might have you scratching your head about what your business needs to do next. The alerts from Google include banners like the one below that might appear in your Google Ads account.
If you receive a consent mode notice, don’t be alarmed! Agital is a premier Google partner, and we’re here to walk you through what consent mode means and any action items that may be required of business leaders. So, here’s what advertisers need to know:
Consent mode is a Google setting that enables Google tags to interact directly with privacy settings on websites. An example would be the familiar cookie consent banners that inform visitors about tracking activities and provide options to accept or decline.
Cookie consent notifications have become commonplace due to regulatory requirements in the EU and EEA. Many companies in the US have already started to implement consent mode proactively, especially companies that have previously advertised in the EU. The changes Google is requesting this month are actually related to “v2”—an upgraded form of consent mode that adds two new tracking parameters:
For advertisers targeting audiences outside the EU, implementing consent mode may not be an immediate priority. But if you advertise in the EU, applying consent mode changes prior to the end of March 2024 is business-critical to maintain compliance.
That said, even businesses that don’t actively advertise in the EU should start thinking about making consent mode changes to their Google Accounts. Just as consent mode is currently required for EU advertising, similar regulations are likely to emerge in other regions, including the US.
Consent mode uses advanced impact modeling to give advertisers data about users and sales on their site, even for the users who decline cookie tracking.
The consent mode impact modeling feature will be extremely important to businesses using Google platforms in the second half of 2024, when Google moves ahead with its planned deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome.
Possible Challenges for Implementation
Enabling consent mode is not as simple as toggling a setting in Google Ads for some of our clients. It may involve backend coding and often requires access to a company’s web infrastructure to make site-wide changes.
Options for Implementation
Advertisers have two primary options for implementing consent mode—they can use a tool called a consent management platform (CMP), or they can apply direct changes to their Google tags.
Consent Management Platforms (CMPs):
Consent management platforms offer comprehensive solutions for implementing consent-based tracking, including creating custom banners and ensuring that all codes and tags respect the client’s consent choices automatically. Google has a list of CMPs with direct integrations into its platform.
Agital has seen good client results from the Cookiebot platform, which has both free and premium versions, as well as a 14-day trial.
Direct Implementation:
Consent mode can also be set up directly on Google tags with coding changes. However, this approach is more manual, time-consuming, and requires savvy coding skills to create the consent banner for a website.
Agital’s development team can assist clients who are interested in taking a more customized approach by integrating with Google’s Consent Management API and making needed changes to the Google Codes on your site.
Choosing to prioritize compliance with global data privacy regulations can benefit brands and advertisers in a couple of ways:
If you have any questions or need assistance with consent mode implementation, please reach out to the Agital team. We are a premier Google partner, and we will be happy to help you stay informed, compliant, and ahead of the game in your advertising endeavors.
To find other ways to optimize your Google Ads performance, get a Google Ads Scorecard from our team. It’s easy and insightful!
