How will Google Consent Mode V2 affect Analytics and Ads Data collection and reporting?

Expect these changes in your dental Analytics and Ads accounts

Over the last couple of months the Dental Media team has been actively engaged in work to ensure that clients’ websites are compliant with the latest requirements for Cookie management and data acquisition. This is broadly known as Google Consent Mode and its latest evolution is Version 2 – please see our recent blogs about the topic and why it’s essential if you use Google Analytics and/or Ads.

In a nutshell you now need to give users of your website the choice of whether they accept cookies universally, selectively or not at all. This requires updating of simplistic, old-style cookie banners to dynamic versions which vary the type of data being sent back to Google based on the user’s preference, actually quite a complex implementation.

As noted in an earlier blog, if you are a digital marketing client of Dental Media, we have already completed this work for you. However, if you are not a marketing client but still use Google Analytics and/or Ads, you need to get in touch to discuss making your website compliant. Failure to do this will very likely result in Google suspending your Analytics and Ads account at some point later this year.

I’m compliant but what should I expect the effect to be on my Ads and Analytics accounts?

That’s a really good question and one we’re still evaluating as implementation of the new standard is still in its infancy. However, initial observations suggest the following.

Ads personalisation

With the enhanced user privacy controls introduced by Consent Mode V2, it has become harder to personalise ads to audiences – this is understandable where a user opts out of cookies. Consequently we should expect ad targeting to suffer as a result of this; however all is not lost as Google is developing methods to model missing data to “fill in the gaps”. We have to see how this evolves.

Apparent reduction in website traffic

We are already seeing apparent falls in traffic across websites where the new cookie control is implemented and it’s fair to say this has caused alarm for some clients who also monitor these trends. However, what we have been able to illustrate is that actual website traffic, search positions and activity at the practice is not down, simply the recording of such due to folk opting out of tracking. Effectively a new baseline is being set.

Apparent reduction in conversions (goals)

A key parameter for measuring the success of digital marketing, whether that’s dental SEO, ads or both, is the number and quality of conversions. Essentially this is a record of how many people actually get in touch after visiting your website or landing page. You can measure all sorts of conversion e.g. how many times your  e-book was downloaded etc but the main indicators are of the contact type, so contact form completions, chatbot interactions and ‘phone calls.

Unfortunately more rigorous cookie consent also means that it’s harder to track these types of user interactions resulting in less data to analyse and inform campaigns.

Remarketing restrictions

Missing data also make remarketing more complex and nuanced and tailoring ads based on user behaviour is more complex than before. Again we have to rely on Google’s predictive AI to help us fill in the gaps whilst still maintaining effectiveness and privacy.

What comes next? Will Analytics and Ads reporting remain effective as we navigate into consent-driven waters?

It may all look a bit gloomy and one-sided so far but it’s still early days. There are clearly new limitations being imposed on data collection, incomplete analytics and hence the current reliability of insights.

However, there are clear signs that Google is building tools to leverage on event based modelling and aggregated data, hopefully allowing us to deliver useful insights to inform our campaigns while still maintaining user privacy.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – should I quit my Ads and SEO campaigns?

That’s a definite “no” and hopefully I can easily illustrate why. For sure we all have a new hurdle to climb over and yes, data will never be quite as good as it was when you could be fairly certain that the cookies on your website were being accepted without question.

It’s important to remember that these new controls don’t stop you using ads or running SEO campaigns, it just means that the data from those campaigns will be less complete. These gaps will also be filled reasonably well moving forward as Google implements new ways to leverage aggregated data and predictive AI. So stepping out now certainly isn’t a good plan; it’s simply a case of riding it out and seeing how things develop.

There are also some other very good indicators of marketing effectiveness we monitor, for example ranking positions in Google, call analytics and website popularity based on server statistics. Plus of course the level of patient activity at the practice.

We will also continue to do our part here at Dental Media, with regular blog updates and commentary in our usual client reports about the latest news.

If you would like to know more about Google Consent Mode V2 or indeed any aspects of digital dental marketing, please get in touch with the team at Dental Media on 01332 672548.