- Google Ads
- Floodlight
- Google Analytics
- Google Tag Manager*
*Google Tag Manager uses the built-in API and is available for all tags but is implicit to the same Google products as shown above.
What does Google Consent Mode do?
Consent Mode is an API by Google to update consent states when communicating with your chosen CMP, in this case, Complianz. The difference between our standard set-up and Consent Mode is that Google is no longer blocked before consent but will be notified on consent state updates by Complianz, and Google will take the appropriate actions.Google Analytics Example
We will use Google Analytics is an example, as it is most common for all users. Behavior should be the same for the API. Data logging would be based on a per-service basis.
Default Consent | IP addresses | Default Data Collection | Data Collection on Consent | Cookies | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Anonymized | Allowed | Anonymized | Anonymous Data (1) | Anonymous Data (1) | Always |
Standard Not Anonymized | Denied | Optional | None | Not Limited | When Granted |
Google Consent Mode | Denied | Optional | Cookieless pings will be sent to Google Analytics for basic measurement and modeling purposes(2) | Not Limited | When Granted |
(1) Data is directly available in your Analytics dashboard
(2) Data logging and visualization for end-user is unknown. To make sure it works correctly. See below explanation. Source: Google
How to check if Consent Mode is working?
Because we need to unblock all Google scripts so Consent Mode can work properly, extensions for your browser will not be able to read the API logging properly. There are two things you can do to check if the API at least gets the correct information based on your consent status: Does your consent status equal the API logging? If so, are cookies set on granted and not on denied?Logging the API Consent State of Consent Mode
In your browser console you can add the following script to see the current status of the API:Now check if cookies are set based on the API expectations:
In your browser console you can add the following script to see the current status of the API: When the default state is:
/* No Cookies */
analytics_storage:
Default: denied
Update: denied
/* Cookies */
analytics_storage:
Default: denied
Update: granted
Enabling Consent Mode in Complianz
You can enable consent mode in the wizard under Statistics – Configuration. Make sure you have either a Tag Manager Container Code (GTM-****) or a Google Analytics 4 code (G-****). We currently do not offer support for Universal Analytics and Consent Mode.
If you have enabled Consent Mode for Google Analytics, make sure you don’t implement Analytics elsewhere. That’s all.
Configuring Tag Manager
If you use Tag Manager, you will need to configure your Tags for Consent Mode and remove current custom events, if you prior configured Tag Manager for Complianz.
Changing your current configuration
If you have already configured Complianz for Tag Manager and you want to switch to Consent Mode you can do the following:
- Remove all custom events and exceptions that deal with Complianz events or cookie changes.
- Default to triggering with “All Pages” or choose any trigger you want. The consent is implemented in the Tag itself.
- You can use a ‘hybrid’ solution as well, because Complianz events will still fire.
Enabling Consent Mode
After enabling Consent Mode in Complianz, the aforementioned Google Products with built-in support for Consent Mode can now be fired on “All Pages”. The built-in consent checks within these tags will determine which functionality is allowed to be loaded.
Although some Google services are implicit, it is still possible to be explicit about the conditions.
Analytics Example
As explained earlier, some Google Products have native solutions for Consent Mode. In those cases, Google has already defined which functionalities can be loaded based on consent.
Alternatively, you can configure an explicit action to define which type of consent is required before the tag is allowed to fire. You can choose between different categories.
- Go to your specific Tag. In this example Google Analytics
- Go to “Advanced Settings”
- Go to “Consent Settings (BETA)”
- Choose one of the categories below. In this example, we use “analytics_storage”
- Done (Don’t forget to submit)
Complianz category | Use cases | |
---|---|---|
security_storage | Functional | Payment fraud detection and login security |
functional_storage | Functional | Preparation of new or dynamic content |
personalization_storage | Preferences | Personalized content without user-interaction |
analytics_storage | Analytics* | Any form of statistics not anonymized and stored locally |
ad_storage | Marketing | Any script or cookie tracking user behavior |
Third-party tags with Consent Mode
Third-party tags will require built-in support for Consent Mode in order for these tags to work out-of-the-box. You can define additional consent tags as explained above, to specify which type of consent should at least be obtained before the tag is allowed fire.