Google Consent Mode V2 and Google Analytics 4: Data collection without consent

The implementation of a consent banner on websites often leads to data gaps in analytical evaluations if users do not give their consent. Google Consent Mode V2 and Google Analytics 4 offer innovative solutions to close these gaps and still protect the privacy of users.

Behavioural modelling with Google Consent Mode V2

Google Consent Mode V2 uses Google AI to estimate the behaviour of users who do not accept Analytics cookies. This estimated data is based on the behaviour of similar users who have consented to the use of cookies. This enables comprehensive analytics reports without jeopardising user privacy.

Read more about the new Google Consent Mode in our blog post: The new Google Consent Mode: Everything you need to know. 

Funktionsweise der Verhaltensmodellierung

Google Analytics 4 uses two modelling methods to close data gaps: 

1. User and session metrics: These include active users per day and rates of important events. 

2. Behavioural modelling: The behaviour of users who reject analytics cookies is estimated based on the behaviour of similar users who accept such cookies 

Thanks to this modelling, you can answer questions like these: 

• How many active users:inside do I have daily? 

• How many new users did I gain through my last campaign? 

• What does the conversion path from the landing page to the purchase look like? 

• How many visitors:inside my website come from different countries? 

• How does the behaviour on mobile devices and computers differ? 

Prerequisites for behaviour modelling

In order to be able to use behaviour modelling effectively, the following conditions must be met: 

1. Activation of Google Consent Mode V2: This must be activated on all pages of your website or app pages. 

2. Tag loading: tags must be loaded before the cookie banner appears, and the Google tags must always be loaded regardless of whether consent has been given 

3. Ereignisdaten: 1,000 or more events with analytics_storage='denied' must be recorded daily for at least 7 days. 

4. Nutzerdaten: Events from at least 1,000 users with analytics_storage='granted' must be recorded daily for at least 7 of the last 28 days. 

Estimated vs. collected data

When users give their consent, their data is collected directly and assigned to various identifiers. This is referred to as observable data. If no consent is given, events are not linked to fixed user IDs. Google uses machine learning to estimate the behaviour of these users based on the behavioural data of similar users who have consented to data collection.

To ensure the accuracy of the models, Google uses holdback validation. With this method, part of the data is held back to test the accuracy of a model after it has been trained with the remaining data. In this case, estimated data is only taken into account if a high model quality is guaranteed. If not enough data is available, no estimated data is used.

Implementation and utilisation

Make sure that Google Consent Mode V2 is activated on all pages of your website and/or apps. Make sure that tags are loaded before the cookie banner appears. If the requirements are met, behaviour modelling is automatically activated and integrated into your reports.

Find out more about the benefits of Google Consent Mode V2 for marketers in our blog post: The benefits of Google Consent Mode V2 for marketers.

If you need support with the implementation of Advanced Google Consent Mode V2, feel free to contact us. We at Arcmedia are at your side with our expertise.