First, we explore the changes required to maintain high standards for user consent, foster trust and improve conversions, with Claire Norburn, UK ads privacy lead at Google. That starts with consent mode.
Successful businesses need a successful digital strategy. With changes on the horizon in 2024, including significant shifts in technology and AI innovations, along with increased expectations from users for more control of their data, this presents both challenges and opportunities.
“Consumers are demanding greater transparency and control over how their data is used. At the same time, they desire personalized experiences,” explains Claire Norburn, UK ads privacy lead at Google. “Companies that hope to succeed must address this apparent paradox. Advanced AI solutions provide the tools to achieve this balance, fostering trust and improving conversions.”
Privacy considerations will support how much value advertisers can get from their data, with the emphasis for advertisers put on gaining consent and optimizing the consent process.
“Don’t let these changes derail your marketing.” says Norburn. “We’re here to help and partner with businesses to navigate this complex digital landscape. Our focus is on providing continuously updated, responsible advertising solutions to help advertisers thrive while respecting user choice. Expect new product features upholding high consent standards, all designed to enhance marketing impact while prioritizing user privacy.”
It’s important for marketers to take action to continue reaching their most valuable audiences, while preserving the ability to measure the effectiveness of ads. Consent mode is a critical tool along this journey to deliver optimal results.
“Advanced AI solutions provide the tools to achieve this balance, fostering trust and improving conversions”
Claire Norburn, UK ads privacy lead, Google
Consent mode explained
“Balancing respect for user privacy with the need for effective measurement is a core challenge for businesses. What consent mode allows is for companies to navigate this by modeling key trends even when users choose not to share personal data,” explains Norburn.
When a user lands on a web page or app and selects their consent preferences on a consent banner choosing whether their data can be processed and used for marketing purposes, consent mode communicates that user’s choice to Google’s Tags and SDKs, which will adjust their behavior to meet the user’s preferences and respect that choice.
If they say yes, Google would observe their data as normal. However, if that user chooses to deny consent to one or more functions - such as personalized advertising - Google’s tags or SDKs Google’s tags or SDKs will adapt accordingly or stay entirely blocked, depending on the advertiser set-up. In addition to ensuring user consent choices are respected, it enables Google to use modeling to estimate conversions from users that did not provide consent. This means that Google can surface the most accurate data in the account to enable better reporting and optimization.
Consent mode has been available since 2020, allowing advertisers to control whether Google Analytics, Google Ads or Floodlight tags could read or write cookies or other identifiers based on user preferences. With the introduction of two new parameters - ‘ad user data’ and ad personalization’ - the V2 upgrade “introduces enhancements that make it even easier to implement personalized advertising strategies while adhering to user preferences,” adds Norburn. This is a necessary upgrade for advertisers wishing to continue reaching customers in the European Economic Area (EEA) beyond March 6, 2024.
“Balancing respect for user privacy with the need for effective measurement is a core challenge for businesses. What consent mode allows is for companies to navigate this by modeling key trends even when users choose not to share personal data.”
Claire Norburn, Google
“Since its implementation, consent mode has led to a 12% uplift in modeled conversions and correctly attributed millions in revenue to search over a 10-month period. We are now confident in our measurement capabilities”
Joe Pascoe, chief marketing officer, Victorian Plumbing
Modeling = results
Consent mode has been designed to bridge the gap between respecting user privacy and helping marketers to achieve their marketing goals and works seamlessly with consent banners, translating user choices into tailored tag behavior. What’s more, it employs modeling to estimate conversions, providing better insights for business decisions. For example, modeling enabled by consent mode can recover, on average, 65% of ad-click-to-conversion journeys that are lost when users decline consent.
As privacy expectations evolve, this will be crucial for marketers who want to respect user choices without sacrificing performance. “Its powerful modeling capabilities recover a significant portion of conversions that would otherwise be lost to user privacy choices - which translates into superior data for budgeting and campaign optimization,” explains Norburn.
E-commerce retailer Victorian Plumbing has been plugging gaps in conversion data with consent mode. Its chief marketing officer Joe Pascoe explains: “the continued success of our search campaigns hinges on our ability to measure and understand the impact of every pound spent - but the phasing out of third-party cookies across browsers is making this significantly harder.
“Since its implementation, consent mode has led to a 12% uplift in modeled conversions, and correctly attributed millions in revenue to search over a 10-month period. We are now confident in our measurement capabilities: we can see precisely where our ad spend makes a difference and optimize accordingly while ensuring the highest possible protection for people’s data.”
Managing implementation
The easiest way to manage the implementation of consent mode is by working with a consent management platform (CMP). “Having a CMP and Google tags already in place meant that the hard work was done,” says Pascoe. That’s because CMPs can help streamline compliance by centralizing the user consent process - to support the banner and consent collection work or develop in-house solutions to collect users’ consent.
“Through seamless integration, CMPs ensure Google tags work in accordance with user preferences, simplifying advertising practices while remaining user-centric,” explains Norburn. “We have partnerships in place with more than 15 certified CMP partners who - on top of supporting users’ consent collection - help share consent signals with Google tools.”
“Through seamless integration, CMPs ensure Google tags work in accordance with user preferences, simplifying advertising practices while remaining user-centric”
Claire Norburn, Google
3 steps to get ready
According to Norburn, a successful consent mode deployment boils down to three essentials:
A compliant consent banner that respects user choice
The use of supported tagging solutions
If you target EEA audiences, act now and implement consent mode to avoid losing remarketing and audience segmentation capabilities from March.
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Move on to explore the next step in the Ready. Set. Grow. series with Google