In 2024, the digital marketing landscape is on the cusp of significant change, shaped by a rapidly evolving ecosystem and a raft of new regulations. Key regulations such as the GDPR will continue to play a pivotal role, alongside new frameworks like the DMA, DSA, and Spain’s updated AEPD cookie guidelines, all of which are set to profoundly impact the sector.
Concurrently, technological advancements are reshaping the field. Next year, Chrome’s departure from third-party cookies—a move soon to be mirrored by all major browsers worldwide—marks a major shift. Additionally, Apple is tightening its grip on cookie and mobile identifier usage through initiatives like ITP and ATT, heralding a new era of digital marketing practices.
But, as an advertiser or publisher, what are the issues to take into account to start the year on the right foot in terms of privacy and digital advertising?
Steps you need to take before March, 2024
In the first steps of your privacy journey, start collecting user consent. We recommend using one of Google’s Partner Consent Management Platforms (CMPs), which can help you make sure you’re respecting existing Google EU User Consent Policy.
- For traffic from the European Economic Area (EEA) [ONLINE DATA], implement Consent Mode by March 6, 2024 to automatically communicate consent signals for online data to Google’s advertising platforms. This will also allow you to preserve online audience functionalities with Google. An important detail: Consent Mode effectively restores about 65% of the ad-click-to-conversion pathways for users who have not given consent.
- [GLOBAL] Adopt Enhanced Conversions to ensure continued access to accurate and timely conversion data. Enhanced Conversions provides advertisers with a more precise and complete view of the customer journey, and it helps them to measure the impact of their campaigns more effectively.
- [OFFLINE DATA] Upgrade Google APIs and SDKs by March 6th to pass consent signals for offline data to Google’s advertising platforms and to prevent data degradation. It’s available now for Customer Match, Call Conversions, EC for Leads & Store Sales, and soon will be available for OCI (Offline Conversion Import) and DV360.
Why is adopting Consent Mode and Enhanced Conversions crucial for advertisers and publishers?
Consent Mode: Accurately Measure Conversions While Respecting User Privacy
Consent Mode is a feature that helps advertisers to recover lost conversions due to consent choices from users who do not give consent, thanks to modeled conversions. It also allows you to better optimise advertising campaigns by recovering lost conversions. Additionally, it enables you to modify the behaviour of your Google Tags according to the consent status of your users regarding cookies for Analytics and advertising purposes.
How does it work?
Activating Consent Mode ensures that Google’s measurement tools maintain the consent mode status of a visitor consistently across various pages. If consent is declined, tags that trigger actions will refrain from storing cookies. Instead, they transmit only essential information regarding user activity. The consent status and user activity are conveyed by sending specific cookieless pings or signals to Google’s server.
Benefits of using Consent Mode
There are several benefits to using Consent Mode, including:
- Enhancing User Privacy: It empowers advertisers to honor user privacy by giving users the choice to manage their data collection and usage.
- Accurate Conversion Measurement: Advertisers can accurately track conversions, even for non-consenting users, through the use of modeled conversions.
- Better Reporting and Optimisation: This mode aids advertisers in refining their reporting and optimisation strategies by supplying more precise data.
Enhanced Conversions: Measure Conversions More Accurately and Future-Proof Your Measurement
Enhanced Conversions is a Google feature designed to more precisely track web conversions, including those from ads that are viewed but not directly interacted with. It securely encrypts customer data, such as email and phone numbers, to both protect privacy and enhance bid optimisation. This is achieved by capturing hashed customer data from the conversion page (like email addresses) and matching it with Google’s hashed user data. As a result, Enhanced Conversions allows for effective tracking of conversions, even for users who opt out of third-party cookies.
How it works: (example with a YouTube ad)
- A Google signed-in user sees your YouTube ad.
- The user clicks on the ad and visits your website.
- The conversion tag on your website captures a field you’ve specified (e.g., email address) and hashes it.
- The hashed data is securely sent to Google.
- Google matches the hashed data against its hashed user data.
- If there’s a match, a conversion is reported in your Google Ads account.
Benefits of using Enhanced Conversions
Enhanced Conversions can help you measure conversions more accurately, future-proof your measurement strategy, and improve the accuracy of your incrementality measurement, even when users opt out of third-party cookies.
Enhanced Conversions can help you get a more complete and accurate picture of how your ads are performing, even in a cookieless world.
Conclusion
Enhanced Conversions and Consent Mode are two powerful features that can help advertisers measure conversions more accurately and future-proof their measurement strategy while respecting user privacy. Advertisers operating globally, especially in the EEA+UK, are encouraged to implement Enhanced Conversions and Consent Mode as soon as possible to ensure accurate conversion measurement and respect user privacy.
Making Science is your trusted partner for staying privacy-ready.
We recommend a digital partner who has mastered the art of privacy for many of the world’s most known brands. Making Science teams across the globe can help you in this journey, adapting your company and structure to the new privacy standards and accompany you in this tech transition to become fully compliant with the new privacy regulations.
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