Back in 2020, Google released a beta version of something called ‘Consent Mode’, which gave users more control over how their online activity and advertising preferences were collected and used by tools like Google Analytics and Google Ads.
In March of this year, Google released Consent Mode V2. This updated version brings those same tools, as well as Google Tags, Floodlight, and Conversion Linker, in line with modern privacy laws and gives users even more control over their tracking preferences rather than just being able to opt in and opt out.
While it’s a great step forward for user privacy, it’s another big hurdle businesses need to overcome to ensure their digital marketing strategies have the right impact.
In this article, we’ve detailed exactly how Consent Mode works, how to implement it, and some of the impacts on your website data that you should be aware of.
What is Consent Mode?
In the past, when a user visited a website, cookies and tracking tools were often enabled by default. These tools passed information about the user’s behaviour and preferences to data collection tools that helped personalise their experience and measure marketing performance.
If a user wanted to opt out of these cookies and change how their data was collected and used, they would need to do this manually via a cookie consent banner.
But now, with Consent Mode v2, only anonymised data gets sent to Google Analytics or Google Ads unless a user interacts with your cookie consent banner, and accepts your cookies.
Consent is denied by default, so if a user neither accepts nor declines cookies, no detailed user activity or engagement data will be collected. Of course, the same goes if a user actively declines the user of cookies for tracking purposes.
How Consent Mode Works
Consent Mode gives users clear consent choices and adjusts data collection according to what they accept or decline.
If a user consents to tracking, all tags will fire as normal, collecting functional and marketing data. If they do not provide consent, certain aspects of tracking will be disabled, but essential data, like page visits and conversions, can still be monitored in a privacy-safe way.
Google’s Consent Mode primarily works by differentiating between two types of cookies:
- Analytics Cookies: These collect data that helps website owners understand how users interact with their website.
- Marketing Cookies: These track user behaviour across different websites and are typically used for advertising purposes.
Anonymised data is still collected
If users opt out of analytics cookies, data collected through Google Analytics will be more limited. However, Consent Mode allows for “pings” to still be sent, which gather anonymised information.
These pings give businesses a way to understand general website performance, even when some users decline consent.
There are a few types of pings, which are:
- Consent state pings: Communicates the default consent state configured on your website and the updated state when a user accepts or declines each type of tracking.
- Conversion pings: Indicates when a conversion has occurred on your website.
- Google Analytics pings: Records each time a page on your website is loaded and when an event is logged (if Google Analytics is implemented on load).
Google has a more detailed breakdown of these pings and how they work here.
While you can still record this basic user activity data with Consent Mode enabled, it can lead to a few gaps in your website data. So, it may appear that your website visits or engagement data has dropped, but it’s just that Google Analytics or Google Ads isn’t recording some activity based on the user’s consent choices.
How to Set Up Consent Mode on Your Website
As Consent Mode is a requirement for all websites under EU data privacy laws, it’s essential to get it all set up correctly and efficiently to keep your website compliant and ensure there’s no detrimental impact on your data collection and marketing performance.
If you want to get started, here are a few simple steps to implement Consent Mode V2.
Step 1: Set up a Consent Management Platform (CMP)
Before you can use Consent Mode, you need to ensure that your website has a Consent Management Platform (CMP) in place. This platform will allow users to give or withhold consent for different types of cookies.
It’s important to integrate your CMP with Google’s Consent Mode to manage how tracking is performed based on user choices.
Step 2: Update your Google Tag Manager
Once your CMP is set up, you’ll need to configure your Google Tag Manager (GTM) to work with Consent Mode V2.
This involves adding specific tags that tell Google Analytics, Google Ads, and other platforms how to behave based on each user’s consent status.
You can add the following tag types:
- Analytics Storage: Manages whether data for analytics purposes is stored.
- Ads Storage: Manages whether cookies related to advertising are used.
- Functionality Storage: Controls the use of cookies that affect site functionality.
Step 3: Configure Consent Mode in your tags
After setting up your tags in GTM, you need to configure each tag to adjust its behaviour based on the user’s consent choices. This ensures that only the data allowed by the user is tracked.
For example, if a user declines consent for ad cookies, your tags should be set up to block the use of these cookies automatically.
Step 4: Monitor and test data collection
Once Consent Mode is in place, monitoring your website data is crucial to ensuring it’s being collected properly.
Google Analytics will provide a clearer view of the data that you are gathering, even if users opt out of certain types of cookies.
Keep an eye on any fluctuations and adjust your tracking setup as needed to optimise performance while staying GDPR-compliant.
Get help from our PPC Specialists.
Implementing Consent Mode V2 can be a complex and technical process, but our PPC specialists are always on hand to help.
If you need help configuring Consent Mode and ensuring your website remains compliant while maximising tracking and conversion data, contact our PPC specialists today.
How Consent Mode Impacts Website Traffic Tracking
For business owners and marketing teams, Consent Mode will lead to noticeable changes in how website traffic is reported.
While it helps ensure GDPR compliance, the nature of tracking and data collection shifts may result in fluctuations in traffic figures.
Potential Drops in Visible Website Traffic
Consent Mode disables certain tracking mechanisms like Google Analytics when users opt out of tracking. As a result, fewer user sessions may be visible in your traffic reports.
This doesn’t necessarily mean your website traffic has dropped—instead, it reflects that you can no longer track users who declined consent for data collection.
Gaps in User Behaviour Data
If your website relies heavily on tracking user interactions for detailed behaviour insights, you might notice some data gaps. Without consent, user actions like page views, time spent on site, and bounce rates may not be fully recorded.
Consent Mode, however, helps mitigate some of this by still allowing basic engagement data to be gathered through pings, although this data will be anonymised and less granular.
Impacts on Conversion Tracking
Consent Mode also affects how conversions are tracked. For businesses that rely on tracking conversions (such as form submissions, purchases, or other actions), a lack of user consent can lead to missing data points.
While Consent Mode will still record some conversion data through modelled conversions, it will not be as detailed as when full tracking consent is granted.
Other Ways To Accurately Track Website Visits
Server-Side Tagging
One option is to switch from client-side to server-side tagging. In a traditional setup, tracking tags are fired on the user’s browser, which means they can be blocked by privacy settings or ad-blocking tools.
With server-side tagging, data is processed through a server, allowing for more control over what information is collected and how it’s processed.
This method not only gives businesses a better chance of capturing key data, but it also ensures that sensitive information is handled in a way that complies with privacy laws.
Server-side tagging, when combined with Consent Mode, offers a GDPR-compliant way to gain more accurate insights without compromising user privacy.
Enhanced Conversions for Web
Google’s Enhanced Conversions feature offers another way to track user actions more accurately. This feature uses first-party data, such as email addresses or phone numbers, collected during the conversion process.
The data is then hashed and matched back to Google to provide a more complete view of conversions, even when full tracking consent is not granted.
This method, in combination with Consent Mode, can help fill in gaps left by the lack of tracking consent.
It’s particularly useful for e-commerce websites where understanding user actions, like completing a purchase or signing up for a newsletter, is critical.
Consent Management Platforms (CMPs)
A robust Consent Management Platform (CMP) can help you comply with GDPR easily. CMPs help you gather, manage, and store users’ consent preferences in an organised and compliant manner.
By integrating a CMP with your website, you ensure that users have clear options regarding what data they want to share.
CMPs can also work in tandem with Consent Mode to streamline the consent process and ensure that no data is collected without explicit permission.
This helps maintain transparency and trust with users while ensuring your business remains on the right side of privacy regulations.
The Importance of User Communication & Transparency
While tools like Consent Mode and server-side tagging can help minimise disruptions in your data collection, it’s important to be transparent with your users about the data you collect and why.
Clear, user-friendly consent forms can help users understand the value of providing consent for certain types of tracking.
It’s also a good idea to explain how data improves the user experience, such as by personalising content or offering tailored promotions.
When users feel informed and understand the benefits, they’re more likely to provide consent, which helps ensure you have access to the data needed to optimise your website.
Preparing for Changes in Data Accuracy
As business owners and marketers, it’s important to prepare for the changes Consent Mode will make to your website tracking and data collection.
While the data you collect may become more anonymised and less granular, Consent Mode and other GDPR-compliant tools will help you continue to monitor key metrics. It’s also worth considering combining Consent Mode with other strategies like server-side tagging and Enhanced Conversions to ensure your website analytics remain as accurate as possible.
Final Thoughts
Google’s Consent Mode is vital for helping businesses stay compliant with the frequent changes to data privacy rules we’ve seen in recent years.
Although you may see some fluctuations in your data reporting, Consent Mode strikes a balance between respecting user privacy and providing businesses with enough data to make informed decisions.
By combining Consent Mode with additional tools like server-side tagging, Enhanced Conversions, and a CMP, businesses can continue to track their website performance compliantly and effectively.
If you need any support with enabling Consent Mode on your website, give us a call on 01329 565001 or fill out our contact form, and we can discuss how our PPC specialists can help.
