Consent Is the New Currency: Google Set to Bring Big Changes to Europe in Q1 2024

Summary

The enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Economic Area from March 6, 2024 is bringing some changes to the way in which Google intends to make advertising on its technologies work.

The biggest change for brands as this date approaches is needing to collect consent from consumers and pass that onto their Google Marketing Platform (GMP) tech by using one of the “certified by Google” Consent Management Platforms (CMP).

Without this important signal, bidding and remarketing will no longer work from March 6 onwards.

Are you affected?

The following GMP products will be affected if consent signals are not properly passed onto Google:

• Ads
• Display Video 360 (DV360)
• Search Ads 360 (SA360)
• Campaign Manager
• Google Analytics 4

If your business uses any of these technologies, then you need to make sure you’re taking the steps outlined below.

Fortunately, Google is giving brands 4 months+ notice to ensure that they can deploy the right solutions, test & make the necessary adjustments. This is because without consent, brands will no longer be able to:

• Bid on audiences
• Run remarketing activities

• Measure performance accurately
• Attribute consistently

What else is coming down the line?

We know is that there will be no “grace period”. Once the DMA comes into effect, these changes will be enforced.

While this is an EEA change, if your primary marketplace is the UK then you can expect these changes to be similarly reflected in law soon – it’s best to get ahead of the curve.

We also expect an expansion of consent signals to offline data.  

If you have a CRM or CDP (Customer Data Platform) which delivers offline data to Google to power their Enhance Conversions product, we recommend you engage with your technology provider to understand how these feeds may need to change in order for you to successfully pass consent with for your offline data too.

What do you need to do now?

To make sure your marketing activities are not interrupted, you will need to:

• Deploy a “certified” CMP across your website
• Implement Google’s “Consent Mode”
• Implement GA4*

*If you measure & attribute media performance & website activity using Google Analytics but are yet to deploy Google Analytics 4 (or make it your source of truth), and you are still using Universal Analytics (UA), you will need to upgrade. UA will not be able to recognise or carry the consent signal. Consent and Universal Analytics are incompatible.

Do not wait till the July sunset deadline as your analytics will stop working by March 6.

We’d love to help you build a measurement roadmap with a correct implementation & future-ready configuration of Google Analytics 4.

Contact us for a free consultation to see how we can help you navigate this change and continue to grow.