After the European Union introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive (the EU Cookie Law), websites have been obligated to ask their European user’s cookie consent before placing cookies on their devices. Other privacy laws around the world like LGPD (Brazil), PIPEDA (Canada), and separate privacy laws of the US States also require Cookie Consent.
Third parties like Google also ask websites to get Cookie Consent from their users to deliver advertising or analytics services. If users deny user consent, Google uses techniques like Behavioral modeling or Conversion modeling to model user behavior based on consented users’ behavior. However, Google still needs some users to grant user consent to share their data. The more users grant user consent, the more accurate data could be collected, which could lead to increased sales.
The easiest way to get Cookie Consent is by using a cookie banner. Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) are used to implement a cookie banner that complies with privacy laws. CMPs allow website owners a Cookie Banner customization, where website owners can select their Cookie Banner design, button colors, fonts, and behavior.
But how to know what Cookie Banner design or behavior to use? How to get your users to accept cookies? How does the Cookie Banner design affect the Cookie Banner acceptance rate?
In this article, we present a review of experimental data on the Cookie Banner design and its impact on the Cookie Banner acceptance rate.
How to Get Your Users to Accept Cookies?
In the article titled "How to Improve Cookie Banner Acceptance Rate?” we have presented the more general and long-term strategies for businesses to increase their Cookie Banner acceptance rate. These include building user trust, delivering optimized cookie notices, replaying Cookie Consent, etc.
There are other factors influencing user behavior like preselected checkboxes of the categories of cookies, the absence of the Reject button on the first layer of the banner, using cookie walls, or using a banner that just informs the user that cookies are used. These methods are considered dark patterns and are illegal or fall into the grey zone by the majority of privacy laws, thus, we will not address them. We do not recommend using dark patterns.
Still another method to improve the cookie banner acceptance rate is the optimization of your cookie banner design or behavior.
Experimental data shows that even small changes in cookie banner design affect Cookie Consent opt-in rates.
Cookie Banner Design Best Practice: The Experimental Data
In this article, we present experimental data and studies regarding the impact of cookie banner design and behavior on Cookie Consent opt-in rates. What works and what does not work for the cookie banner design? Read about the cookie banner design best practice to get your users to accept cookies.
Length and content of the cookie notice text
The Finish study of 2021 (Laine, 2021) investigated 50 websites to evaluate if the length and content of cookie notice text affect cookie banner acceptance rates. The shortest text found was merely 105 characters long, whereas the longest text was 1356 characters. The content of cookie notices was similar, stating that the website uses cookies, which are used for statistical purposes and to improve the user experience of the website. Most of cookie notices did not mention any potential downsides to accepting cookies or that the main purpose of collecting user data is to alter the user behavior on the website. The study has found that neither the length nor the content of the cookie notices text did not have a statistically significant effect on user choice for accepting or declining cookies.
The authors even went further and tested two absolutely different texts of cookie notices. One text of the cookie notice stated that only the bare minimum of information is collected to improve the service, it would not be used for advertising purposes and the data would not be shared with third parties. The other cookie notice stated that even the most sensitive information such as users’ health information, exact location, and information of social benefits would be collected, sold to third parties, and used for all kinds on advertising, including political advertising. And there will be no benefits to the user at all. The collected data showed that cookie banner acceptance rates were not statistically significantly different for these two cookie notices!
The same conclusion was reached by Rodríguez-Priego et al., 2016, who discovered that the banner text had virtually no effect on user decisions for Cookie Consent.
Color and position of the Accept/ Decline buttons
The same finish study (Laine, 2021) investigated if the color of the Accept/ Decline buttons influences user choice for accepting or rejecting cookies. They have found that the color of the Accept / Decline buttons influences the Cookie Consent acceptance rate.
Experiments revealed that users were more likely to accept cookies if the accept button was blue and the decline button grey, as opposed to both buttons being blue.
The same results were obtained by Bauer et al., 2021: the highlighted Accept button increased user consent rates.
Placing the Accept button on the left side of the Decline button had no statistically significant effect on consent rates compared to having the Accept button on the right (Laine, 2021).
In conclusion, the highlighted or different color Accept button increases user consent rates.
Granular vs Accept/ Reject cookie consent
A study by Nouwens et al. shows that the granular cookie popup option on the first page decreases cookie consent by 8-20 percent.
This observation was confirmed by other studies: more users are willing to accept a binary choice (Yes/ No) compared to the granular cookie usage for each category or company individually (Christine et al., 2019).
The TWIPLA study has also found that most website users prefer binary decisions. Even when more choices are offered, people usually agree to all cookies or no cookies at all. Only very few visitors selected specific categories or vendors, when they had such a possibility.
The same result was also confirmed by Congiu, 2024: when users are offered a granular customization option rather than only the Reject button, only 3% of them select the option and reject non-necessary cookies.
In conclusion, people prefer to accept a binary choice (Yes/ No) compared to the granular cookie usage for each category of cookies. Only very few users (2-3%) select specific categories of cookies.
Position of the banner
Christine et al., 2019 have found that users are more likely to interact with a cookie notice shown in the bottom-left part of the screen.
Similar results were found by TWIPLA. They have found that a cookie consent notice placed in the bottom-left of the screen will get the most interaction (both declines and acceptances) with acceptance rates between 18 and 26%, a banner positioned bottom-right will provide the highest acceptance rate, with about 34% on desktop and 3.4% on mobile; while the lowest interaction is associated with a banner placed at the top of the screen, from one end to the other.
The study of Morningbound has also found that when the banner is placed at the bottom of the screen, people are more likely to take action.
However, other authors (Laine, 2021) have found that the position of the cookie banner does not influence the user behavior .
Even if the results on the cookie banner position are a bit contradictory, most authors observed that the position of the cookie banner affects the cookie consent opt-in rates. Users are more likely to notice a Cookie Consent banner placed in a prominent position on the website. Studies have found that a cookie banner placed in the bottom-left of the screen will get the most interaction (both declines and acceptances), while a banner positioned bottom-right will provide the highest acceptance rate with about 34% on desktops.
Full-screen cookie banner
The study of Morningbound performed an experiment: they used a bottom banner and full-screen banner for 5 months each in order to compare the cookie banner acceptance rates. The assumption was that the bottom bar was easier to ignore compared to the full-screen popup which prevented the user from seeing the content. They expected that more users would opt-in on cookies purely because there would be more users that were actively deciding.
The results show that a full-screen popup did not increase cookie consent opt in rates. On the contrary, the bottom cookie banner resulted in higher consent acceptance rates (76.26% vs 70.8%). Similar results were received on other websites where the experiment was conducted.
The reason for this could be that users, presented with the full-screen banner, are forced to make a decision regarding cookie consent, and the decision must be made before they can use the website. But they came to the website for other reasons, not to make such a decision.
On the other hand, bottom cookie banners are more subtle, they do not disturb website users, and users are more likely to click away by allowing all cookies without thinking much about the banner.
In conclusion, a full-screen cookie banner does not increase cookie consent opt-in rates. Bottom cookie banners lead to higher consent opt-in rates than full-screen banners.
Repeated nudging of cookie banner
The Finish study (Laine, 2021) has found that the strongest factor influencing user behavior was not the design, but the behavior of the cookie banner. 80% of the users who accepted cookies stated that if they had a real choice like having the possibility to make the cookie consent choice in browser settings, they would have declined cookies. It seems that the banner itself is something that influences the user’s decisions instead of any specific details in the banner, colors, or position of the banner.
Replaying cookie banners and repeatedly nudging to accept cookies is the strongest factor influencing the user behavior and opt-in rates. It could affect up to 80% of the users who accepted cookies.
The same results were found by Hertwig & Grüne-Yanoff, 2017: repeated nudges to accept cookies significantly increase cookie banner acceptance rates.
In conclusion, replaying cookie banners and repeatedly nudging to accept cookies is the strongest factor influencing cookie consent opt-in rates.
Other factors, affecting cookie consent opt-in rates
There are also other factors, influencing cookie consent opt-in rates, like a desktop vs a mobile display, showing a cookie banner on the first web page the user visits or on the following pages, etc. However, there is not much confirming data about it, so we just mention the studies without making any conclusions.
A study by TWIPLA shows that website users are more likely to interact with a cookie banner on a desktop display than on a mobile display.
The home page of your website is not the ideal place for your cookie banner. A study by Nouwens et al. shows that removing the cookie banner and the opt-out button from the first page the user visits, increases consent by 23 percent.
A study by Bauer et al. shows that cookie banner design can increase the cookie consent acceptance rate by 17 percent.
Conclusion
Experimental data shows that even small changes in cookie banner design affect cookie consent acceptance rate. Replaying cookie banners and repeatedly nudging to accept cookies is the strongest factor influencing cookie consent opt-in rates. The right colors of the Accept/ Decline buttons and the banner position could increase cookie banner acceptance rate. The length and content of the cookie notice text did not affect cookie consent choices. More choices at the cookie banner like having a granular popup also did not affect cookie consent opt in rates.
These results could be interpretated in two ways. First, even when a cookie banner perfectly complies with all privacy regulations, and user gives explicit cookie consent, the validity of consent can be questioned. Cookie banner design and behavior can significantly change cookie banner acceptance rate. We expect that these issues will be addressed by at least some privacy laws in the near future.
Second, the possibility to change the cookie banner design or behavior offers chances for website owners to influence the user behavior and increase cookie consent opt-in rates. Usually, users don’t care much about the content of the cookie notice, so businesses can collect more personal information without worrying about decreased cookie banner acceptance rate. Using the cookie banner design best practice, cookie consent opt-in rates, including targeting or analytics cookies, could be increased by 23 percents or even more. This is a huge number, which could lead to substantially increased revenues for websites by simply changing the design or behavior of the cookie banner.
Perform an A/B testing of your cookie banner design and see what works for your customers and what does not work.
How to Choose the Perfect CMP for Your Cookie Banner?
There are many CMPs which offer cookie notice solutions. If you want to get your users to accept cookies, you must optimize your cookie banner design and behavior. So, how to choose the CMP that would allow to create the perfect cookie banner, which complies with privacy laws and has the highest cookie consent opt-in rates?
Once you know the summarized experimental data about the cookie banner design’s impact on user behavior from different countries and markets, you may want to experiment with your cookie banner design and behavior. Test and see what cookie banner design and behavior works best for your customers and market.
CookieScript CMP is one of the best CMPs, which offers the following functionalities to create a perfect cookie banner:
- Full compliance solution. CookieScript CMP comes with the Cookie Scanner, Privacy Policy Generator, script manager, and user consent manager. It blocks cookies, Third-Party Cookies, Local Storage and Session Storage, so you can be sure your website is compliant with the GDPR and other privacy regulations 100%!
- Google-certified CMP. CookieScript is a Google-certified CMP partner, included in the list of Google-certified CMPs, and comes with a full IAB TCF v2.2 integration.
- Supports Google Consent Mode v2. If you want to use Google services (GA4, Google Ads, gtag, and Google Tag Manager) in the EU or EEA, you need to use a Google-certified CMP.
- Fully customizable cookie banner. CookieScript CMP allows cookie banner behavior adjustments, design customization, and has a self-hosted code option. You can change the color of the Accept/ Decline buttons, the accent color and more.
- Free staging banner. CookieScript CMP allows you to perform an A/B testing of your cookie banner design and behavior and see what works best for you.
- Geotargeting. The CookieScript plugin allows you to create multiple cookie banners and deliver them based on user location.
- Privacy laws’ compliance hints. Not sure if your banner is compliant with privacy laws after you have customized it? No problem, our privacy laws’ compliance hints will show you if your banner is compliant if you change some feature of your cookie banner.
- Multiple integrations. CookieScript CMP could be easily integrated with Google advertisement services and Google Analytics 4, with other platforms, and with content management systems such as Drupal, Magento, Shopify, WordPress, PrestaShop, etc.
- Easy to set up. CookieScript CMP could be easily implemented even by non-professionals.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to get your users to accept cookies?
Experimental data shows that even small changes in cookie banner design affect cookie consent opt-in rates. Repeated nudging of the cookie banner is the strongest factor influencing cookie consent opt-in rates. The highlighted Accept button and the right position of the banner also increase user consent rates. The bottom-left position will get the most interaction (both declines and acceptances), while a banner positioned bottom-right will provide the highest acceptance rate. With CookieScript, you can create, customize, and test all features of your cookie banner, get a full compliance solution and a free staging banner.
Is it better to use granular or Accept/ Reject cookie consent on the banner?
Studies show that people prefer to accept a binary choice (Yes/ No) compared to the granular cookie usage for each category of cookies. Only very few users (2-3%) select specific categories of cookies. Use CookieScript CMP to create and customize your perfect cookie banner.
Does the position of the popup influence cookie consent opt-in rates?
Yes, a cookie banner, positioned bottom-left will get the most interaction (both declines and acceptances), while a banner positioned bottom-right will provide the highest acceptance rate. Cookie consent opt-in rates could increase by 18-34%, depending on the popup position on the screen. With CookieScript CMP , you can create and test all positions and other features of your cookie banner.
Does the cookie notice text affect cookie consent opt-in rates?
No, experimental data shows that neither the length nor the content of the cookie notices text did not have a statistically significant effect on user choice for accepting or declining cookies. Other factors of the banner like the cookie banner position or the color of the Accept button affect cookie consent opt-in rates much more. With CookieScript CMP , you can create, customize, and test all features of your cookie banner.
How to get a perfect cookie banner?
Experimental data shows that even small changes of cookie banner design affect cookie consent acceptance rate. Choose a CMP that allows the biggest customization of the features of the banner, perform an A/B testing of your banner design, and see what works for your customers and what does not work. CookieScript CMP is one of the best CMPs, which offers a full customization of your cookie banner, full compliance solution, and a free staging banner.