How to integrate Google Consent Mode v2 with Cookie Control
Google Consent Mode serves as a crucial bridge between websites and Google - facilitating the transparent and accurate communication of user consent choices concerning analytical and personalised advertising cookies. Its implementation ensures adherence to EU data privacy regulations, granting users control over their information and fostering trust with website visitors.
From March 2024, Google is mandating the use of Google Consent Mode v2 as part of its commitment to comply with EU user consent regulations. Websites using Google products will need additional user consent for cookies performing certain marketing activities.
The good news is that Google Consent Mode has been a recommendation for quite some time, so if you’ve followed our earlier blog post on how to integrate Google Consent Mode v1 then your site may already have this set up and require only minimal, or no changes, depending on your usage of Google products. In this blog post we will outline the changes in version 2 and potential upgrade pathways. Should the concept of Google Consent Mode be completely new to you, we would recommend first reading our earlier blog post for more context.
Understanding Google Consent Mode v2
Google Consent Mode v2 introduces two new consent properties:
- ad_personalization - which sets consent for personalised advertising.
- ad_user_data - which sets consent for sending user data to Google related to advertising.
These properties are in addition to the existing five from v1 and neither will affect which tags are fired on a website. The older v1 consent properties such as ad_storage still control that; the new properties instead signal to Google how they can use user data for advertising purposes.
Who needs to implement Google Consent Mode v2?
If your website operates within the EEA and leverages any of the following, implementing Google Consent Mode v2 is essential:
- Google Analytics for website traffic insights.
- Google Ads for targeted advertising campaigns.
- Personalised advertising strategies like remarketing.
What do I need to do?
Knowing which of the above statements applies to you and your site is essential, as it determines possible implementation pathways.
If you already use Google Consent Mode v1 and don’t engage in personalised advertising, such as remarketing, then you do not need to take any further action.
If you do engage in personalised advertising, or do not yet support Google Consent Mode v1 then you can either:
- Upgrade your Cookie Control implementation to meet Consent Mode v2 requirements by adding the ad_user_data and ad_personalization consent properties.
As these are focused on advertising, we suggest including them in the marketing category and this can either be done by:
- Following our manual set up guide as discussed in the Optional Categories section of the documentation. This approach allows for easier customisation, so is our recommended approach for most users.
- Adding our Google Tag Manager GTM template. This approach may be simpler if you prefer to work via GTM, though will not as easily be customised.
- Switch to IAB Mode, so that Cookie Control behaves as an approved TCF v2.2 CMP.
This mode is automatically updated in line with the latest IAB specification, though it does mean support is limited to IAB approved vendors and Google’s additional ad tech providers (ATP).
If you have not heard about IAB Europe or the TCF v2.2 and simply want to comply with Google Consent Mode v2, we recommend option 1 for most users.
More information from Google about upgrading form v1 to v2 can be found here.
Cookie Control is available in four editions. All Cookie Control editions may provide compliance with GDPR, CCPA, LGPD and Google Consent Mode v2.
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