I'm sure you've all already heard about consent mode V2 by now and have questions or concerns about how it's likely to impact your role as a PPC specialist. It's been a hot topic recently in the PPC Live WhatsApp chat and has gathered lots of interest, comments and debate amongst PPC experts across LinkedIn.
Consent mode V2 is part of Google's commitment to a privacy-centric digital advertising space. It means advertisers within the EEA must comply to continue to serve personalised ads and retain the use of their remarketing campaigns. To ensure compliance, advertisers must provide two additional parameters in addition to analytics_storage and ad_storage; you must also now add:
ad_user_data
ad_personalisation.
Consent Mode V2 doesn't need to be daunting. Most PPC experts already work with user privacy at the forefront of their minds, most brands have compliant cookie policies, and lots of your clients are already working with the original version of consent mode.
The changes needed are small and likely to take a maximum of a few hours to implement.
Below, I have tried to answer some of the most common concerns for PPC Experts.
Is Consent Mode V2 Mandatory?
As always, this is the case with Google Ads and PPC; where the answer is - it depends!
If you advertise to users within the EEA, provide personalised ads, or run campaigns that target your remarketing audience lists, compliance with Consent Mode V2 is mandatory.
Compliance is based on the user's location, not your business or client's business location. So, media buyers based in America advertising to European users still need to ensure compliance to retain consistent data collection and maintain ad performance.
At the time of writing, advertisers outside of the EEA would need to ensure compliance with local privacy regulations, which may not be impacted by Consent Mode V2.
Even outside the EEA, it may be worthwhile to futureproof your PPC activity and ensure compliance across all territories, as the EU is often the first mover in most privacy innovations.
How do you implement Consent Mode V2?
Implementing Consent Mode V2 is straightforward if you are using a Google Certified CMP (Cookie Management Platform) such as Cookiebot. Google has compiled a helpful list of all certified CMPs, which can be found here. Implementation with one of these platforms should take a couple of hours per client.
If you are using or plan to use Cookiebot, the guys at PPC Mastery have provided an in-depth, step-by-step guide to implementation here.
In essence, any cookies required to serve personalised advertising or compile remarketing lists will need consent from the user before you can collect the data.
Below are a few cookies you would need to collect additional consent before collecting.
Your CRM system, such as HubSpot, Zoho, Salesforce, etc
LinkedIn
Meta
TikTok
Snapchat
Microsoft Ads
Programmatic
Any other platforms used for retargeting.
Google tags do not need additional consent settings as they have the two extra parameters built in. Adding the additional consent again may lead to more significant data loss.
How do I know if consent mode v2 is working?
You can quickly check if your tags are set up for Consent Mode V2 within the GA4 interface.
Log in to your GA4 account
Head over to admin.
Find your web property.
Click data streams.
Under consent settings, you will see two green ticks if you are set up correctly, as per the image below:
What happens if I don't enable consent mode v2?
This has been a topic of conversation recently within our WhatsApp group, with one member asking for a compelling case to implement it on their Shopify store. Failure to comply could result in you losing a few key tools within your PPC toolbox.
Firstly, your ads' performance may drop as you lose the ability to personalise your users' experience.
Remarketing and Performance Max campaigns will likely perform worse as your remarketing lists stop filling up.
The most compelling of all cases for compliance is that you risk your account being limited, suspended or even terminated entirely for failure to comply, as confirmed by Ginny Marvin on LinkedIn.
Key Takeaways
Now is the time to futureproof your campaigns and accounts by implementing V2 of consent mode.
Don't risk losing access to all that low-hanging fruit in your remarketing lists. All PPC marketers are aware of the value of those audiences, and losing the ability to market effectively to them could cause a drastic decline in performance.
To answer the question of whether there is a compelling case for implementing consent mode V2, is an account with slightly less data or more modelled data better than no account at all?
To ensure that you are alerted to when more detailed & implementable pieces of content like this get released, subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get PPC news that will unleash your true PPC potential.