Last week, Google Ads sent an email to US advertisers using Google Ads or Google Analytics with upcoming compliance changes.
Many are asking, “why now”?
As user privacy concerns are at an all-time high, many individual states enacted their own privacy law provisions, which will be implemented later this year.
Read on to learn how Google is preparing its products for compliance, what this means for advertisers, and whether you should take action.
What’s changing in privacy?
Two major updates are coming to the US privacy landscape this year.
Five states have privacy law provisions in place. These states include Florida, Texas, Oregon, Montana, and Colorado.
Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) Applications. The State of Colorado will begin enforcing the provisions of its Universal Opt Out Mechanism (UOOM).
This means that individual states are cracking down on user privacy and how data processing occurs on those users.
This is also known as “Restricted data processing” (RDP), a compliance tool that Google developed in 2019 to help advertisers comply with the laws of different countries and states.
What is Google doing to help advertisers comply?
Due to these upcoming status changes, Google is making several changes to protect data and ensure advertisers are in compliance.
For new US state laws taking effect
In the email sent to advertisers, Google is updating the language to these existing terms:
Google Ads Data Processing Terms Google Ads Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms Google Measurement Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms Addendum to US State Privacy Laws
If you’ve already accepted the online data protection terms for your Google Ads account, you don’t need to take any further action with this update.
Additionally, Google states that it will act as a service provider or processor while Restricted Data Processing (RDP) is enabled for the above states. The good thing about this at the product control level in Google Ads is that if enabled, RDP functionality will expand as other states enact their own privacy laws.
For partners operating in Colorado
This change is more specific to advertisers operating in the state of Colorado.
In Colorado’s upcoming privacy law, the Universal exclusion mechanism requires Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals to opt-out of ad targeting.
When users or potential customers create or receive a global privacy control, they can send this signal to Google as a privacy setting (like RDP mentioned above) to disable things like:
Ad targeting Sales data Part of data
To comply with this law, Google may receive GPC signals directly from users and will enable RDP mode on their behalf.
What does this mean for advertisers?
While the legal language above is extensive, we look at how these changing state laws and Google’s response may affect advertisers.
#1: Less custom ad inventory
One of the first apparent updates will be less personalized ad inventory.
Due to restricted data processing updates and opt-out mechanisms, it is easier for users not to be targeted.
If users choose not to enable ad targeting, this directly affects advertisers’ ability to personally target those users, affecting ad inventory.
This can affect the inventory, targeting efficiency, and bidding strategies they use in campaigns.
#2: Customer targeting will be affected
Similar to the above, the match rate for customer list targeting lists and other remarketing lists will likely decrease. This is mainly due to the update of global privacy controls.
Users must have consented to receive marketing updates from a brand. Also, they won’t be tracked if they’re not signed in to their Google Account, or if they decline to be tracked while signed in.
If you use customer targeting lists, look at these match rates when reviewing performance volatility.
#3: Performance reporting will likely suffer
According to Navah Hopkin’s LinkedIn post On this update, advertisers are in for a “wild summer.”
If advertisers’ ability to serve personalized ads or fully utilize customer list targeting or other remarketing capabilities, performance will undoubtedly be impacted.
This can mean volatility or fluctuations in reporting on conversions, campaign attributions, ROAS or CPA metrics.
Navah makes a great point in his post comments on this topic, stating that advertisers should “stay away from hard numbers” when it comes to reporting.
Simply put, there will be more limitations on what advertisers can and can’t report, and performance reporting shouldn’t be the “end-all” when making strategic campaign decisions.
To sum up
This isn’t Google’s first rodeo around user privacy laws and compliance.
What started in 2018 with compliance tools for GDPR updates in the EEA and UK is certainly coming to the US.
In the ever-changing world of user privacy and data regulations, advertisers can breathe a sigh of relief with these welcome updates from Google. They show that they are proactive about compliance policies for individual state laws and give advertisers a warning before any action is required.
Ultimately, advertisers should remember that they are responsible for ensuring compliance for their company and on behalf of the companies they advertise for.
Featured image: Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock
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