If, like me, you have been receiving the emails from Google about the fact that you need to action implementing a Google certified CMP on your websites by 16th January and not really understanding what you need to do, then find out how you get a free Google certified CMP here!

Firstly let’s cover the basics. In my case I am looking at this from the point of view of having Google Adsense on my websites but it applies to Google AdSense, Ad Manager or AdMob.

What is a CMP?

A CMP is a Consent Management Platform. Yes you probably know that and that may not mean anything. It is (as I understand it, after much investigation) the pop up that appears to let people agree or not to the cookies that are on your website.

The CMP that is used to provide this pop up must be one that is certified by Google, otherwise ads may not be served in Europe and the UK and you could end up losing advertising revenue.

Can I install a free Plugin for this?

I tried looking around for a free plugin to install on my WordPress sites and I did find one that seemed to do the job – which was CookieYes. It worked fine on one of my sites but when I tried it on the next one all I got was the code showing up and not the buttons. I couldn’t find a solution for this so I had to disable it and look further.

I did find another one that might have worked, but you needed to set up an account for it, which I didn’t want to do, and on further investigation I found an easier alternative.

Easy and Free Solution for a Google Certified CMP

Anyway, the easiest (and free) way that I have found to implement a certified CMP is to use the one that Google themselves have created. You can do this within the Google Adsense interface.

First, go to your Adsense home page and click on Privacy and Messaging.

Then go to the Manage option for consent management solutions as per below:

Here you can create your consent message and choose the various options for it as well as which sites you wish it to appear on. You will need to make sure that you have a privacy policy URL for each site before you can apply the message to that site.

You can also assign a logo to show up on each site to make it look more customised.

The deadline for having a Google certified CMP is 16th January 2024 at which point Google will enforce the requirement and may stop showing ads.