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Consent Mode Blocker for Sgtm - Comprehensively test your Server Side Tracking setup with more security.

taggrs-consent-mode-blocker- Test your Server Side Tracking setup extensively with greater certainty

You've implemented your setup for Server Side Tracking, giving you access to extensive data for your analytics platforms. Despite this enrichment, however, you notice a decrease in conversions. This situation may be caused by the implementation of Consent Mode V2. Consent Mode V2 may mean that if users do not accept certain cookies, those specific cookies will not be activated. This can cause you to test Server Side yourself only in preview mode and not in a live situation that provides a representative picture. For this purpose, we have developed the TAGGRS Consent Mode Blocker, which allows you to analyze the effectiveness of your SST set up over a longer period of time.

Important Points 🔑

  1. Implementation of Consent Mode V2 has created issues such as the decrease in conversions due to users not accepting cookies, and the difficulty of conducting a comprehensive live test of Server Side Tracking configurations.
  2. The TAGGRS Consent Mode Blocker enables comprehensive analysis of your Server Side Tracking setup by temporarily setting all consent states in the server container to "allowed. This prevents data collection from being limited by Consent Mode restrictions.
  3. This allows you to test and evaluate your Server Side Tracking setup effectively over a longer period of time without ristrictions from Consent Mode, letting you know if your set up is up to par

Situation: You have implemented Consent Mode and Server Side Tracking and you measure a decrease in conversions. The problem may lie with incorrect configuration of consent mode V2, but it is also possible that, despite the automatic settings within your server container that should handle everything correctly, user refusal of cookies results in a drop in conversions.

Because automatic consent settings (automatic consent mode) apply, you have limited control regarding the processing of consents within the server container. This is contradictory, as one of the main advantages of Server Side Tracking is precisely the ability to control data processing and permissions.

Take, for example, the situation where marketing cookies are not accepted; in such a case, all Google Tags (GA4, Conversion Linker, Floodlight, Google Ads) tags will not be triggered. This leads in the Webcontainer that the consent states are set to Denied and in the Server Container) to False. In itself a good situation, user does not accept Cookies and Google Tags are not fired or limited. Only there is a problem. You cannot extensively test your set up in a longer live situation.

consent-mode-in-preview-mode

Extensive Testing Server Side Configuration made difficult

The challenge is to test your Server Side Tracking configuration extensively without the influence of consent mode. However if you don't set consent mode, you lose certain capabilities in Google Ads and GA4 such as Google Ads remarketing and using audiences. This makes it virtually impossible to test your server side set up without consent mode in a live situation.

Google-consent-mode-v2-Tracking-may-not-work

The transition from client-side to server-side tracking introduces complexity in certain situations that requires thorough testing. While testing your server side implementation, you can use debug mode to monitor conversions, which usually works well. However, it becomes problematic if you want to assess the effectiveness of tracking for a longer period of time, such as a week. Because of the automatic consent settings in the server container, specific tags cannot be activated if the user's consent is not set to 'allowed' (true).

This results in uncertainty whether the challenges with conversion tracking stem from your conversion tags settings within Google Tag Manager (GTM) or are a result of Google's automatic permission mode.

To address this ambiguity, we developed the TAGGRS Consent Mode Blocker for Sgtm. This TAGGRS tool allows you to temporarily set the permission statuses in the Server Container to 'allowed' (granted), so you can thoroughly test your setup. This makes it possible to test without the restrictions Google places on not installing consent mode. After completing your tests, you can easily deactivate the tool. The result of the consent mode blocker is that you can temporarily collect all data without being blocked by consent mode.

how-consent-mode-blocker-works

What you need

Open the TAGGRS dashboard, then go to the Testing section and activate the Consent Mode Blocker.

activate-consent-mode-blocker-taggrs-dashboard

Then you can start testing in Google Tag Manager's debug mode.

test-taggrs-consent-mode-blocker-gtm

In the video below, we show you how to test the Consent Mode Blocker for your own configuration.

After the initial setup, the tool offers the ability to:

  • Disable Consent Mode for a period of time, which allows you to analyze the turnaround time of your conversions over a longer period of time.
  • Evaluate the impact of consent mode on your website by alternately enabling and disabling consent states so that you can accurately measure the impact on your website.
consent-mode-blocker-example-ga4

Please note that this tool is for testing purposes only. Customizing consent states does not do justice to the preferences entered by the website user and therefore does not fall within the limits of privacy laws when used on an ongoing basis.

Conclusion: Server Side Tracking configuration completed.

With the introduction of Consent Mode V2, companies face new challenges in testing the Server Side set up. The TAGGRS Consent Mode Blocker was developed as a solution to address these challenges. It allows users to thoroughly test the Server Side Tracking configuration without the limitations of Consent Mode V2 interfering with data collection accuracy. With this feature, you retain all Google Ads and GA4 functionality associated with using CMV2. This provides more certainty and reliability in the data, which is essential for making informed decisions.


About the author

Ate Keurentjes

Ate Keurentjes

Server Side Tracking Specialist at TAGGRS

Ate Keurentjes is a Server Side Tracking specialist at TAGGRS. He has experience with various Google Tag Manager concepts. Keurentjes has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in data collection / Server side tracking since 2023.

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