• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 13, 2021

Google on Thursday announced privacy features that allow marketers to gain insights in Google Analytics and other measurement products without the use of third-party cookies and identifiers.

Investments in machine learning and modeling are behind the features, explains Vidhya Srinivasan, Google Ads vice president of engineering, in a post.

Today’s announcement is centered on advancements in models that report on behavior. "Soon, we'll extend Google’s advanced machine learning models to behavioral reporting in Analytics," she wrote.

For example, if there is incomplete data in a User Acquisition report because cookies are unavailable, Google will use modeling to help fill gaps for a more complete view of the number of new user campaigns acquired.

With or without cookies, advertisers will have the ability to improve on their understanding of the customer journey across apps and websites and use those insights to improve campaigns.

As consumers continue to take control of how their data is used, building a foundation of first-party data becomes more important for advertisers.

Investing in a tagging infrastructure helps make the most of the data that consumers share and lets advertisers accurately measure campaign performance.

In an effort to simplify measurement, brand websites will have an option to integrate with Consent Mode.

Google will enable the implementation directly from the advertiser’s Google Tag Manager account. There, advertisers can modify and customize tag behavior in response to users' consent preferences.

Consent Mode adjusts how Google tags operate based on user cookie consent choices directly from Tag Manager accounts, allowing advertisers to modify and customize tag behavior in response to users' consent preferences.