Services / Measurement
Conversion tracking that survives EU consent rules
Smart Bidding is a pattern-matcher: feed it broken conversion data and it optimizes toward the breakage. We set up GA4, server-side tagging where it earns its keep, and the Consent Mode v2 configuration Google has required for EEA and UK traffic since March 2024.
What is Consent Mode v2?
Consent Mode v2 is Google's mechanism for passing a visitor's consent choices to its tags. Version 2 added two signals, ad_user_data and ad_personalization, which govern whether data may reach Google for advertising and whether it may be used for personalization. Google's own EEA consent requirements tie remarketing and conversion measurement to these signals, and the deadlines have passed: audience lists stopped populating without v2 in September 2024, and conversion modeling for non-consented EEA users was switched off in March 2025.
How do we know if your measurement is broken?
Three tests, run read-only in a day. First, a tag-level check of what fires before and after consent, since the most common failure is a banner that blocks Google tags entirely instead of running them consentless. Second, a reconciliation of Google Ads conversions against GA4 and your CRM over 90 days; gaps above roughly 15% mean bidding data is materially wrong. Third, a consent-rate read: benchmark studies put average banner acceptance near 31%, and compliant equal-prominence banners see roughly 60% of visitors decline, so knowing where yours lands sets expectations for what modeling can recover.
What gets delivered?
- Consent Mode v2 wired through your CMP, with the two v2 signals verified in Tag Assistant
- GA4 events rebuilt to match the actions you actually sell against, imported into Google Ads as primary conversions
- Server-side tagging on accounts above ~€10,000/mo spend, where recovered measurement covers the server cost
- A one-page measurement map: which tag fires where, under which consent state, feeding which platform
- A regression checklist your developers run after each release, the same one used in our management guardrails
Why does this matter for CPA?
Because bidding math compounds. The HR-tech account in our teardown undercounted demo requests by roughly a quarter before its consent repair; its tCPA targets were being set against phantom costs. Fix the counting and the same budget buys measurably more, before a single keyword changes. Measurement is the least glamorous work we sell and the most consistent payer.
Frequently asked questions
Effectively yes. Google has required it for EEA and UK traffic since March 2024 if you want conversion tracking, remarketing, and audience features. Enforcement tightened in stages: audiences stopped populating without it in September 2024, and conversion modeling for non-consented users was disabled in March 2025.
Three things, in order: remarketing lists stop filling, reported conversions undercount because modeling is off, and Smart Bidding then optimizes on the distorted data. Accounts in this state usually show a slow CPA drift upward that nobody can explain from inside the Google Ads interface.
Not always. It adds first-party data durability and typically recovers measurement lost to browser tracking prevention, but it also adds a tagging server to maintain. We recommend it for accounts spending above roughly €10,000 a month, where a few percent of measurement accuracy pays for the infrastructure.
Scoped per stack after a short technical review, since a Shopify store with one form differs from a SaaS product with a five-step trial funnel. Typical engagements land between €1,200 and €3,500 one-off. The scope, price, and test plan come in writing before any tag is touched.
Get your measurement checked
The three tests run read-only in a day. You get the findings whether or not you hire us for the fix.
Request a measurement check