Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) are a must for digital content creators in today’s ad monetizing industry. So far, even though having a certified CMP on your website or mobile app was recommended, it remained only a suggestion. Now things are about to change, since it’s becoming mandatory for publishers using any of the Google Ads services to implement a Consent Management Platform armed with proper IAB certifications. How is it going to affect you and your online business, and what are the steps you should take? Read on to find out!
Let’s start by clarifying what CMP actually is. Essentially, the Consent Management Platform is a pop-up window that should be displayed whenever a new user from the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom visits a website or app. It contains requests for users to grant the publisher permission to process their personal data. It’s worth emphasizing that it’s necessary for content creators using Google’s monetization products to obtain such consent in order to be able to serve personalized ads, like via programmatic, to their audience and generate income from it. In fact, implementing proper CMP affects ad-serving processes.
New standard for CMPs
If you are a publisher or app developer using Google AdSense, Ad Manager, or AdMob and you display ads to users in the EEA or UK, you should have a Consent Management Platform implemented. But we’ve already established that – how do you know that the CMP you’ve chosen is the right one? Here, the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) organization comes to the rescue. They take care of developing standards for the online ad industry, and their certification for CMPs is called TCF (Transparency & Consent Framework).
The TCF framework was first developed in 2018 to meet the requirements of then freshly launched General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), whose primary goal was to homogenize online data privacy laws across European countries. TCF framework has been modified several times ever since, and the most recent version is the TCF v2.2. The newest update, announced in May 2023, will replace the previous one – TCF v2.1 – which has been in use for almost 3 years already (since August 2020). The new amends were created to better meet the legal expectations and guidelines of the Personal Data Protection Authorities (DPAs), the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and User Experience. What’s important here is that since January 16, 2024, it will be mandatory to use a CMP having the TCF v2.2 certification.
Now, let’s take a more profound look into the differences between the TCF v2.1 and TCF v2.2 versions to see what exactly will change in the new Consent Management Platforms in line with the newest Google requirements.
Most important CMP changes in line with TCF v2.2
- Previously, it was acceptable to use the argument of “legitimate interest” as a justification for data collection. It led to the creation of personalized user profiles and displaying ads and content based on them. With new regulations, it will no longer be an option. The only legal basis for these actions will be a user’s consent, meaning that everyone visiting your website or app will be aware of what they are consenting you and the ad vendors to do;
- Legal language is often complex and hard to comprehend. With new amends, your users will no longer have to deal with confusing legalese when managing consents. It’s worth noting that using your audience’s language, which is most often a non-complicated one, is one of the most essential UX rules to keep in mind. When users read things they understand, they feel safer and can make conscious decisions;
- With the new CMP, your audience is going to be more aware of the exact pieces of information that will be collected, as vendors have to disclose categories (for instance, precise location data) within which they gather users’ data;
- According to the new framework, your users should be provided with information on how many partners can access their data and, in consequence, deliver personalized ads that will be displayed to them next to your content;
- With new TCF v2.2 guidelines, users won’t have any problems accessing the CMP settings window at any moment, even after closing it. A popular solution is the “floating button” – after clicking it, the consent managing window should appear in all its glory.
Where to get a certified CMP from
Google has made all the above-described changes out of concern for the comfort and safety of internet users. Although they’ve prepared a list of Google-approved CMPs, it might seem troublesome to find the best Consent Management Platform out of all the available options. Fortunately, we’ve got a solution that will take this burden off of your shoulders – optAd360 CMP! It’s completely free for the publishers, being part of our network, and essential for achieving successful monetization results from ads displayed to the EU and UK users. Not to brag, but we are the first European Premier Google Certified Publishing Partner, which testifies that we have the expertise and knowledge of Google’s products and requirements to provide publishers with coherent and tailored monetization solutions. It also ensures that our products evolve along with the most recent industry updates, so you don’t have to worry any time there are some changes in the imposed requirements. Don’t wait – learn how you can seamlessly implement optAd360 CMP to make your users safe and your income high!
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