Welcome to this new edition of Product Lab, our editorial series that provides an in-depth look at the features of Axeptio's CMP.
Today, we will be addressing a topic that may appear technical at first, but is in fact a valuable source of information for your digital strategy: the metrics available in your Axeptio back-office. Beyond simply tracking CMP performance, these metrics are powerful tools to help you understand user behaviour, improve your website's UX, personalize content and measure the true impact of your marketing campaigns.
In this edition, we will provide an overview of the Axeptio dashboard, discuss the four key metrics that should be monitored, review the principles behind the opt-in vs. opt-out logic, and explore how consent analytics can be used to drive strategic growth.
One Dashboard, Four Core Metrics
Depending on the subscription plan, an intuitive dashboard is available that tracks the performance of your consent banner over time.
Among the available metrics, you will find web analytics essentials such as pageviews (for which you can find the exact definition here), the volume of unique visitors, and the percentage of new visitors during a given period. Most importantly, there are four key indicators that allow you to monitor how your CMP is performing — across both desktop and mobile.
An infographic is worth a thousand words, and the following diagram illustrates the logic behind optimizing the performance of your CMP.
1. CMP Interaction Rate
This is the first optimisation lever to consider. It quantifies the proportion of visitors who actively engage with your CMP — whether they accept, refuse, or customiz
e their consent choices.
A high interaction rate is an indication that your interface is both visible and engaging. This is the foundation of effective consent management. Axeptio allows you to implement several design adjustments to enhance this rate. These include adding drop shadow, setting up a contextual consent wall and customising your banner's colour scheme.
The interaction rate is calculated by dividing the number of users who made a choice by the total number of visitors.
2. CMP Consent Rate
This metric is used to monitor the number of users who have interacted with your banner and have consented to the collection and processing of their data.
This metric reflects the level of trust inspired by the banner, the clarity of the messaging, and the appeal of the design. If you would like to improve it, it is essential to personalise the text of your CMP, align the banner visually with your brand identity, and clearly explain the benefits of giving consent.
The consent rate is calculated by dividing the number of users who have consented by the number of users who have interacted.
3. CMP Opt-In Rate
This rate indicates the total number of visitors who have consented to the use of their data, in relation to the total number of users exposed to CMP.
Your opt-in rate directly impacts your ability to segment, personalise, and activate your audience. It is important to note that the higher the rate, the more data you can leverage for journey mapping, campaign targeting and conversion tracking. Given that it is a result of the previous two rates, the key to increasing opt-ins lies in combining the right UX, design and messaging strategies.
The opt-in rate is calculated by multiplying the consent rate and the interaction rate
4. Bounce Rate
This is the percentage of users who leave your site after visiting just one page, often without interacting with the CMP.
A high bounce rate can be a red flag. It could indicate poor user experience, long loading times, or design issues that interfere with navigation. In addition, fewer page views means fewer opportunities for interaction and, ultimately, fewer opt-ins.
Here's the good news: If your company uses Axeptio, then your web performance is already in good hands. Our CMP is designed with lightweight scripts and optimized server response times to ensure effective management of bounce rates.
Opt-In vs. Opt-Out: It's more than a metric, it's also a legal framework
If your organization is tracking consent KPIs in your Axeptio back-office, then you understand that these numbers are driven by a key legal distinction: whether consent is required before processing data or not.
In this regard, the world's two predominant legal philosophies — opt-in and opt-out — are particularly relevant.
Opt-in is the most privacy-focused approach, as it ensures that no data can be collected or processed without the user's explicit consent. In essence, the system remains inactive until the user responds affirmatively. This framework is essential to regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and Quebec's Law 25 (and both are fully supported by Axeptio).
Opt-out, on the other hand, enables data processing to start as soon as the user arrives, as long as there is a clear and accessible way to express their decision to opt out. This model is the foundation for laws like the CCPA in California. In this case, the challenge is not about collecting consent. It is about providing transparency, offering user-friendly preference management, and ensuring clear opt-out options. Axeptio's CCPA-compliant CMP offers exactly these features.
So what does this mean for you?
- Under opt-in-based regulations, your focus should be on improving your consent rate, because without consent, you can't collect and activate data.
- Under opt-out-based regulations, your goal is to build trust — by being transparent, informative, and respectful of user choices, even if data processing is allowed by default.
If that's not clear, full documentation is available here. See you soon for a new issue of Product Lab!
Would you like to join Axeptio and gain control over your consent KPIs?
