Aiara is certified by Google — what that means for Swiss websites

In mid-August 2026 the confirmation arrived: the Aiara Privacy Suite is a Google-certified Consent Management Platform. That concludes a process which began in early summer — and the end of a path we had set out on considerably earlier.

What the certification is about

Since 2024, Google has required everyone serving ads in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom to use a certified Consent Management Platform. The background is the Digital Markets Act: Google may only combine data from different services where valid consent exists — and must ensure that this consent was actually obtained.

Instead of auditing every individual website, Google audits the software behind it. A certified CMP guarantees that consent is captured correctly, translated into a machine-readable format and passed on to the advertising partners involved. Anyone using a non-certified solution risks Google restricting the delivery of personalised advertising.

What was examined

The audit is not a form you fill in. Google tests the platform on its own environments — in our case on a WordPress and a Blogger installation with our banner embedded. Among the things examined:

• whether the banner appears at all and consent is actively obtained
• whether refusing is just as easy as agreeing
• whether the transmitted consent string is technically well-formed
• whether withdrawal works at any time and the signals are updated accordingly
• whether the information on vendors, purposes and storage durations is complete

This part cost us a fair amount of detailed work. One example: the consent string contains timestamps for creation and last change. These must be deliberately imprecise — rounded to midnight — so that they cannot serve to recognise individuals. Such details decide between passing and failing, and they appear in no marketing brochure.

IAB Europe was the foundation from the outset

The Google certification was the second step, not the first. The groundwork was laid considerably earlier: with the registration as a Consent Management Provider at IAB Europe. Aiara carries identifier 507 there.

The distinction between the two matters, because it is often confused:

IAB Europe operates the Transparency and Consent Framework — essentially the shared language of the European advertising industry. When someone clicks "Accept all" on a website, that decision has to reach what may be hundreds of advertising partners. The framework defines how this message is constructed: which purposes exist, which vendors are involved, how the string is encoded. Without this shared language, the receiving side simply does not understand the consent.

Google examines whether a platform meets its own requirements and is admitted for advertising services. Google speaks the framework as well, but imposes additional conditions.

You need both. One is the language, the other the authorisation. We deliberately dealt with the language first — a certification without a sound technical foundation would not have been obtainable anyway. The route there runs via an official compliance report, submitted iteratively and improved until all technical checks pass. Only then is the identifier assigned.

What this means for your website

For existing customers nothing changes that causes effort — and that is the actual point. The certification applies to the platform, not to the individual website. Your banner meets the requirements without you changing anything.

In concrete terms:

If you use Google Ads or Google Analytics and your website is also accessed from the EEA, you are already running a certified solution. The Consent Mode signals are set correctly, including the two additional values the Digital Markets Act requires.

If you run programmatic advertising — selling ad space automatically through marketplaces — additionally enable TCF mode in the banner editor. The banner then communicates consent in the language of the framework, with the complete vendor list. Ordinary cookie consent under the Swiss FADP and the GDPR does not need this, and we do not recommend it there either: the interface becomes considerably more extensive.

If you are an agency, you can use the certification as evidence towards your clients. Anyone wanting to know whether the solution in use satisfies Google's requirements will find Aiara in Google's public list of certified CMPs.

A Swiss provider on a short list

Google's directory of certified platforms comprises more than 150 entries. According to our review in August 2026, none of them comes from Switzerland — making Aiara the first Swiss provider on that list. We add the date because such things can change and we do not want to make a claim that is outdated within six months.

More interesting than the ranking is what lies behind it. A certification of this kind is no by-product for a small provider. It costs time, fees and a great deal of technical detail work in places nobody sees. That it pays off comes down to our audience: Swiss businesses and agencies who run advertising and would rather not choose between Swiss law and European advertising requirements.

What comes next

Both certifications are renewed annually. Google reviews on a cycle, IAB Europe requires a yearly fee and confirmation that the platform continues to operate compliantly. That runs in the background at our end.

In parallel, the rulebook keeps developing. The next major change to the framework is due in mid-October 2026 and mainly concerns presentation: vendors must explain their purposes in more detail, and certain information may no longer sit next to controls that cannot be switched off. We are implementing this before the deadline — for you, nothing changes beyond a few wordings in the banner.