Support for Google Analytics 4 Consent Mode

Starting March 2024, Google is making a change to how it handles data from shoppers in the EEA (European Economic Area).

“To keep using measurement, ad personalization, and remarketing features, you must collect consent for use of personal data from end users based in the EEA and share consent signals with Google,” Google Analytics Help said.

Why is this happening?

Google has built a new feature into Google Analytics 4 called “consent mode” that enables Google Analytics to collect consent for the use of personal data for the purposes described above.

We’ve enhanced our Google Analytics 4 integration to support consent mode, because we know having access to relevant and reliable shopper data is an important factor when it comes time to make marketing and other business decisions for your storefront.

Google Analytics 4 consent mode support

As of March 1, 2024, we’ve added support for consent mode to our built-in GA4 integration. Consent mode adapts the behavior of analytic scripts and ads that create or read cookies based on a shopper’s preferences.

As a part of this new consent mode solution, we’ve also made some additional changes based on Google’s best practices. 

Previously, if cookie consent tracking was enabled in your BigCommerce store settings, and a shopper declined Analytics cookies via the consent banner on your storefront, then our built-in GA4 script would not trigger at all. 

Now, with the implementation of consent mode, some signals in the form of cookieless pings are sent to Google in addition to the shopper’s consent status. In the absence of cookie data, Google can use these signals to create more accurate reporting by filling analytical gaps using conversion modeling and behavioral modeling.

As before, if Analytics cookies are declined via the consent banner on the storefront, then no cookies are read or created by the script. Similarly, consent is declined by default; shoppers must opt-in.

The final word

There is no action you need to take for this change and it has gone into effect as of March 1, 2024. 

If you have shoppers in the EEA and you are not using our cookie consent banner, then we recommend that you turn this functionality so you can benefit from the new consent mode functionality.