Google Ads AI Essentials: Google Tag & Consent Mode Best Practices

A guide on using Google tag and consent mode to gather the data needed to grow your business by making conversion measurement easier and more accurate.

About Google tag and consent mode

Set the foundation for your success. The Google tag is the most essential component of the Google measurement stack and helps you gather information about how people interact with your website after clicking your ads. Alongside Google tag, consent mode automatically adjusts how your tags behave based on the level of consent a user has provided. Together, they provide in-depth website analytics while respecting user privacy preferences, helping you make data-driven decisions that enhance your marketing efforts.

Follow these best practices to get started.

Ensure robust site-wide tagging with Google tag: Add a single tag ID to your website to use across Google products and services.

  • For comprehensive measurement and modeling, this tag should be installed on every page of your website. You can also add an event snippet or a phone snippet to certain pages to track button clicks or phone calls. Follow these steps to set up Google tag on your website.

Streamline tag management with Google Tag Manager: Add, edit, and manage tags with ease across your website without needing to modify code.

  • Improve the user experience of your site with easy testing of tags, dependable data, efficient tag, and page load times. 
  • Tag Manager supports Google-specific tags, a wide array of third-party tags, and even custom tags. See all supported tags.

Gather user consent choices, and adjust tags automatically with consent mode: The accuracy of conversion measurement can be improved in a privacy-first way with consent mode, which enables the customization of tag behavior based on user consent choices. 

  • If you are operating in the European Economic Area and the UK, create a strong framework to collect and maintain users’ consent with consent mode.
  • Fill gaps in conversion attribution using consent mode. This gives you more control over how much credit each ad interaction gets for your conversions.

Work with your developers to upgrade to the latest version of consent mode APIs: The consent more API provides more granular options for seeking and communicating user consent preferences.

  • For our app advertisers working with App Attribution Partners (AAP), please upgrade to the latest AAP SDK/API version and work with your AAP partner to ensure your consent signals are communicated to Google.
  • However, if you still want more configurability and control, you can choose to implement a custom solution. We have several resources to assist you with this.

Stay informed about privacy regulations: Chrome’s planned third-party cookie deprecation marks an inflection point for marketing, and the privacy regulatory landscape will continue to evolve as new regulations are being proposed globally. As these changes roll out, consent mode can help you get ready with the right foundation of durable solutions powered by your consented first-party data and Google AI. That way, you can continue to deliver performance in this dynamic era of online advertising.

Use Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) Partners for automatic consent mode updates: If subject to ePrivacy Directive (ePD) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), CMP Partners offer streamlined compliance management, helping you enable consent mode. These partners can help you save time by:

  • Updating you to the newest version of consent mode automatically.
  • Implementing or upgrading your website / app consent banner.
  • Managing your consent banner content.
  • Passing the consent signals back to Google (via consent mode) to provide verifiable consent for conversion measurement and audience targeting.

 

Customer Success Stories

North Face logo

As a global retailer, The North Face wanted to understand what consumers were looking for in each market and optimize the consumer experience to those preferences. That’s why the brand frequently looks at how consumers are searching for items on its website. By using Google Tag Manager 360, in combination with Google Analytics 360, the brand discovered that their customers were searching for a new term, “midi parka.” With this insight, The North Face quickly renamed one of its products and drove a 3X increase in conversions and revenue.

Air France logo

Air France experienced a 9% conversion uplift after implementing Consent Mode across their European markets. Consent mode enabled sustainable measurement for Air France by allowing Google to model for gaps in conversions when users don’t consent to cookies. 

Video Resources: 

Google Marketing Platform: The North Face Case Study

The AI Essentials are all durable solutions you can use today and in the future. If you've already adopted the AI Essentials, deep-dive into the foundations for durable ads performance and review all the actions you need to take for the third-party cookie deprecation.

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Review all of our AI Essentials.

 

 

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