Google Updates Google Analytics with More Privacy Controls

Google yesterday announced privacy-safe updates to its measurement and analytics products, including a major new feature for Google Analytics to help it operate without cookies.

As part of that effort, Google is extending its advanced machine learning models to ;behavioral reporting in Google Analytics. If, for example, there is incomplete data in User Acquisition reports due to cookies not being available, Google will use modeling to help fill gaps for a more complete view of the number of new users campaigns have acquired.

Another change is that Google will now allow seamless access to Consent Mode, which adjusts how Google tags operate based on user cookie or ad consent choices, directly from Tag Manager accounts. This will allow users to modify and customize tag behavior in response to users' consent preferences. When users don't consent to cookies, Consent Mode will use conversion modeling to recover, on average, more than 70 percent of ad-click-to-conversion journeys.

Additionally, to make it easier for websites to integrate with Consent Mode, Google will soon enable implementation directly from Google Tag Manager accounts, where users will be able to modify and customize tag behavior in response to users' consent preferences.

Google is also Implementing enhanced conversions that allow tags to use consented, first-party data to give a more accurate view of how users convert after engaging with ads.

Users will be able to get the data they need to unlock performance insights, like conversion lift, and improve measurement in cases when ads are shown on one device and the user converts on another. First-party data is hashed to protect user privacy and ensure security, and reporting is aggregated and anonymized.

Advertisers currently testing enhanced conversions are already seeing positive results. U.K. retailer ASOS set up enhanced conversions across Search and YouTube to help close measurement gaps due to browser restrictions and cross-device behavior. This enabled it to measure conversions that would otherwise not have been captured and improved return on ad spend with a recorded sales uplift of 8.6 percent in Search and 31 percent in YouTube.

"Enhanced conversions helped establish a strong measurement foundation, off of which we can better measure the impact of our YouTube buys," said Carolina Vicente, media investment director at ASOS, in a statement.

These new solutions will help marketers succeed with fewer third-party cookies and identifiers, offering new ways to respect user consent, measure conversions, and unlock helpful insights from sites and apps.

"Getting the most out of your marketing investments requires a clear understanding of what actions people take after interacting with your ads. In today's evolving privacy landscape, growing your business calls for new approaches to measurement that preserve advertising performance and also put the user first," Vidhya Srinivasan, vice president and general manager of buying, analytics, and measurement for Google Ads, wrote in a blog post. "Now's the time to adopt new privacy-safe techniques to ensure your measurement remains accurate and actionable. And while this can seem daunting, we're here to help you succeed in a world with fewer cookies and other identifiers with new ways to respect user consent, measure conversions, and unlock granular insights from your sites and apps."

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