Google Ads and the Consent Mode change of 15 June

No. Your campaigns keep running, adverts keep showing and clicks keep coming in. Google also does not say anywhere that the data flow stops if you do nothing: the change shifts which switch decides, it does not turn anything off. What can change is the quality of your data and reporting, and only if your Consent Mode was incomplete.

Not automatically. An ordinary cookie banner lets visitors give consent, but does not send a technical signal through to Google. CMv2 is an additional layer through your CMP and Google Tag Manager, and you have to switch it on explicitly.

Yes. Use the preview mode in Google Tag Manager and look for the consent status. In Google Ads you check that under Goals, then Conversions, then Overview.

Both, and they are three separate matters. Consent for advertising cookies does not come from the GDPR but from Article 11.7a of the Dutch Telecommunications Act, the Dutch implementation of the ePrivacy Directive; that is supervised by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (Autoriteit Consument en Markt, ACM). The GDPR then determines what you may do with the data collected, and that is supervised by the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens). CMv2 is something else again: it is Google's technical standard that determines how that consent gets passed on to Google's systems.

Consent Mode v2 is a technical standard from Google that your website uses to tell Google what a visitor has accepted on the cookie banner. Has someone accepted everything? Then Google may use full conversion and analysis data. Has someone refused, or only accepted functional cookies? Then CMv2 sends a reduced signal to Google, without personal data but still as a source for statistical modelling.

There are two main signals that CMv2 sends to Google. The first is ad_storage, which indicates whether Google may place advertising cookies. The second is analytics_storage, for analytics cookies. Both signals are automatically set to denied until the visitor gives consent. Google uses the patterns of visitors who do give consent to build a model for visitors who do not. That way Google can still make an estimate of conversions without processing personal data.

To make this work you need two things. First, a certified Consent Management Platform recognised by Google. Well-known examples are Cookiebot, Usercentrics, Complianz and CookieYes. A self-built cookie banner or a free WordPress plugin of unknown origin will not work for this. Second, you need a correct setup in Google Tag Manager, where the CMv2 tags load before all other tags.

It is that second point where it goes wrong on most SME websites. The plugin is installed, but the GTM setup is not right. As a result, Google thinks the signal is missing while the business owner thinks everything is fine. You only notice that gap once your reporting crashes.

Let us be honest about the consequences. Not in vague terms, but concretely what you will notice if you still do not have a working CMv2 setup after 15 June.

Your reporting crashes. As mentioned, 30 to 60 per cent of your measured conversions disappear. Your dashboard looks worse. Your cost per conversion rises on paper, not because you pay more but because fewer conversions are recorded. If your reporting and your logged enquiries no longer match, you no longer know what works and what does not.

Google's Smart Bidding gets tuned worse and worse. The system draws the wrong conclusions because it has fewer conversion signals. Keywords that are performing fine suddenly look too expensive. Google shifts budget towards terms that happen to be measurable but might be less relevant for you. You pay the same but get less control over where your money goes.

Your competitors who do have CMv2 set up correctly stand better in the auction. With comparable bids, Google favours advertisers with richer conversion signals. Over time you lose market share this way to advertisers who simply have their technical setup in order. That is not theory, that is how the bidding process works.

And perhaps the most dangerous part: you make decisions on the wrong data. You adjust your strategy based on something that is not accurate. You stop something that works, or you scale up something you cannot actually judge properly. The longer that goes on, the more damage it does to your campaign and to your trust in Google Ads as a channel.

The reflex is often to write more content or push harder on link building. But if traffic is shifting to AI answers, you first want a clear view of where you are losing traffic and why you are not being mentioned.

Do not just look at search volume in tools, but put the figures side by side: positions, sessions, scroll behaviour and click behaviour on important pages.

With a tool like WP UX Heatmap and Scrollmap you see directly in WordPress where visitors drop off, which parts get ignored, and whether people even reach your call to action.

Ask AI overviews and search assistants the same questions your audience asks. Who gets mentioned, which arguments are used, and how often does your brand come back.

This gives an honest picture of your position in the new search experience, separate from positions in the classic list of results.

Your pages must not only rank, they must also make sense to AI systems: clear answers, strong arguments, a clear structure and consistent information about who you are and who you are the best choice for.

This often means your pages are set up more compactly, more clearly and more decision-focused than old SEO landing pages.

With llms routing, schema data and a good internal structure, you help AI systems link your content to the right questions.

For this, TheSEO has developed, among other things, an llms generator and an AI snippet preview, so you can see what story AI can tell about your brand.

TheSEO combines classically strong SEO with a strategy for visibility in AI overviews and search assistants. No isolated tricks, but an approach that starts with insight and ends with concrete improvements at page and brand level.

In many cases the actual search volume stays the same or even rises slightly. What changes is the way answers are given. AI overviews and search assistants give an immediate summary with a limited number of sources. If your brand is not among them, attention shifts to others and it feels as if demand has shrunk.

Look at your most important keywords in an incognito window and check whether AI overviews appear. Then check which names get mentioned. You can map this systematically with a scan such as AI Traffic Loss Shield, so you can see per page and keyword where the risk is greatest.

Yes. By writing clear content about who you are, what you do and who you are the best choice for, and combining this with llms routing, schema data and a logical internal structure, you give systems more confidence in your brand. That increases the chance you get mentioned as an example or a recommendation.

All the signals from our research point to a lasting shift. Users get used quickly to answers, comparisons and lists they get straight from a search assistant. Anyone who learns now how to become visible in those answers builds a lead that is hard to catch up on later.

TheSEO maps out your current situation, measures the risk of AI traffic loss, helps redesign key pages and guides the technical side with llms files, schema data and internal structure. We also deploy tools such as WP UX Heatmap and Scrollmap and AI Traffic Loss Shield so you can keep steering yourself.