Increased regulations have been put in place across numerous regions globally to help protect user privacy. It’s important to understand and comply with these user data protections, and Google Ads is strengthening enforcement of policies such as our EU user consent policy to do our part to help protect users and ensure that your advertising can meet regulations and thrive.
Consent mode and banners can help with privacy compliance and building trust with users.
Consent
User consent is permission granted to a website or app to proceed with data collection and usage. It ensures a personalised experience for users and is built around their browsing patterns, deriving insights into how users interact with a site or app.
Consent banner
A consent banner is a notification that shows up on a website or app and that informs users about their choices for sharing their personal data. To facilitate the set up of a consent banner, Google has developed a Consent management platform (CMP) Partner Program. You can also build a custom consent banner.
Consent mode
Consent mode allows you to signal consent status to software development kits (SDKs) and can help Google model for gaps in conversions. It communicates your users’ cookie or app identifier consent status to Google and helps you adhere to local regulations. Google Ads and Analytics as well as third-party tags that create or read cookies will dynamically adapt to consent mode signals.
Learn how to set up a consent banner and consent mode for your app ads.
Basic consent mode
Basic consent mode prevents SDKs from loading until a user interacts with the consent banner. When the user consents, SDKs load and execute the consent mode application programming interface (APIs). If a user doesn’t consent, no data is sent to the SDK, including the consent status, and the SDKs are completely blocked from executing.
Basic consent mode requires more implementation work than Advanced. Learn more about setting up a consent banner and consent mode for your app ads.
Advanced consent mode
Advanced consent mode lets SDKs load when a user opens the app. Consent status is updated only after the user interacts with the consent banner. SDKs send measurement data only when consent is granted.
Advanced consent mode enables improved modelling compared to the basic consent mode as it provides an advertiser-specific model based on data collected prior to updating content status rather than a general model.
How consent mode works with performance tracking
Consent mode helps you maintain measurement features like conversion tracking, and personalisation features like targeting specific audiences. When there is less data in your Google Ads account or Google Analytics account because of users’ consent choices, performance tracking adjusts accordingly based on the Google AI modelling of ad click to conversion journey. Conversion modelling helps provide a representative view of performance, more efficient campaign optimisation and bidding, and more accurate, privacy-safe measurement by modelling for lost conversions.
Consent mode with conversion modelling and Google Analytics for Firebase
Conversion modelling can help improve efficiency in measurement even when consent status prevents observation of the exact path between ad interactions and conversions. Conversion modelling uses Google AI to analyse observable data and historical trends, and quantify the relationship between users who’ve consented and not consented.
Google Analytics uses modelling to estimate key events when data is limited due to privacy restrictions or technical limitations. This includes but is not limited to scenarios in which third-party mobile identifiers are blocked, first-party mobile identifiers have expiry limits and users haven't granted consent. Google Analytics can assess these events by using traffic and user behaviour data to ensure accurate attribution. Learn how to set up consent mode in Google Analytics.
Learn about the EU consent policy for Customer Match upload partners.
