What is Consent Mode v2 - everything you need to know about it
Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2024 5:39 am
What is Consent Mode?
Consent Mode is a way to transfer information to Google systems about the user's consent (or refusal) to install cookies and track them using analytical and marketing tools. Thanks to it, these tools know to what extent they can process the collected data. Additionally, thanks to the consent mode in the extended version, Google provides modeling of the behavior of users who have not expressed such consent.
The first version of consent mode was introduced in 2020 to enable data collection for Google Analytics and Google Ads while complying with European Union data protection regulations (GDPR). Google Consent Mode version 2 is an updated version, created to comply with the new Digital Markets Act, which came into force in March 2024.
Google Consent Mode is not a standalone solution for managing user consent. It does not replace the need for a consent platform (CMP) or cookie consent banner/widget. Instead, Consent Mode works as a complementary feature that works with CMP to ensure that Google scripts operate in accordance with users’ consent preferences.
How does consent mode work?
Google Consent Mode is an API that works by setting 4 cash app database consent modes for tags. Two of them were available in the first version, and two new consent modes were added in version 2. Here are the currently available modes:
analytics_storage - consent to analytics,
ad_storage - consent to measure advertising effectiveness,
ad_user_data (new) - consent to the use of data by Google for advertising purposes,
ad_personalization (new) – consent to remarketing in personalized ads.
When a user gives consent (status = granted) or refuses it (status = denied) via a CMP banner, information about this goes to Google. This will allow the tools to know how they can collect and process data about a specific user. We can pass information about the consent status directly to the tools or via Google Tag Manager (GTM).
In GTM, consents are automatically assigned to Google tags (Google Analytics or Google Ads). In such a situation, if the user does not consent to tracking for analytical purposes, Google Analytics will receive such information and will process information about him to a limited extent (advanced mode). If we assign additional consent to the tag (basic mode), then no information about the user will be collected until the user grants the required consent. In the screenshot below, notice that consents are built into the Google Tag right away.
Google Tag and Built-in Consents
Types of consent modes
As mentioned above, we can implement consent mode in two ways: basic and advanced.
In the basic version, all Google tags are blocked and are only triggered after obtaining the appropriate consent category. This means that no information is shared with Google platforms if the user does not accept this consent category. Enabling Consent Mode in this way means that we will not be able to use data modeling in Google Analytics, and data modeling in Google Ads will be limited to the general model.
In the advanced version, tags will be fired, but will adjust their behavior based on the consent level for each tag. If consent is not given, pings will be sent to the tools and cookies will not be installed on the user's device. Google will use these pings to model the behavior of users who have not given consent and then calculate estimated conversions (data modeling).
Consent Mode is a way to transfer information to Google systems about the user's consent (or refusal) to install cookies and track them using analytical and marketing tools. Thanks to it, these tools know to what extent they can process the collected data. Additionally, thanks to the consent mode in the extended version, Google provides modeling of the behavior of users who have not expressed such consent.
The first version of consent mode was introduced in 2020 to enable data collection for Google Analytics and Google Ads while complying with European Union data protection regulations (GDPR). Google Consent Mode version 2 is an updated version, created to comply with the new Digital Markets Act, which came into force in March 2024.
Google Consent Mode is not a standalone solution for managing user consent. It does not replace the need for a consent platform (CMP) or cookie consent banner/widget. Instead, Consent Mode works as a complementary feature that works with CMP to ensure that Google scripts operate in accordance with users’ consent preferences.
How does consent mode work?
Google Consent Mode is an API that works by setting 4 cash app database consent modes for tags. Two of them were available in the first version, and two new consent modes were added in version 2. Here are the currently available modes:
analytics_storage - consent to analytics,
ad_storage - consent to measure advertising effectiveness,
ad_user_data (new) - consent to the use of data by Google for advertising purposes,
ad_personalization (new) – consent to remarketing in personalized ads.
When a user gives consent (status = granted) or refuses it (status = denied) via a CMP banner, information about this goes to Google. This will allow the tools to know how they can collect and process data about a specific user. We can pass information about the consent status directly to the tools or via Google Tag Manager (GTM).
In GTM, consents are automatically assigned to Google tags (Google Analytics or Google Ads). In such a situation, if the user does not consent to tracking for analytical purposes, Google Analytics will receive such information and will process information about him to a limited extent (advanced mode). If we assign additional consent to the tag (basic mode), then no information about the user will be collected until the user grants the required consent. In the screenshot below, notice that consents are built into the Google Tag right away.
Google Tag and Built-in Consents
Types of consent modes
As mentioned above, we can implement consent mode in two ways: basic and advanced.
In the basic version, all Google tags are blocked and are only triggered after obtaining the appropriate consent category. This means that no information is shared with Google platforms if the user does not accept this consent category. Enabling Consent Mode in this way means that we will not be able to use data modeling in Google Analytics, and data modeling in Google Ads will be limited to the general model.
In the advanced version, tags will be fired, but will adjust their behavior based on the consent level for each tag. If consent is not given, pings will be sent to the tools and cookies will not be installed on the user's device. Google will use these pings to model the behavior of users who have not given consent and then calculate estimated conversions (data modeling).