Does Google require a certified CMP for Saudi Arabia?

No. Google's CMP requirement covers personalised ads served through AdSense, Ad Manager or AdMob to users in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, under its EU user consent policy. For visitors in Saudi Arabia, the duty to ask comes from the PDPL, which names no tool: it asks for consent before analytics and advertising tags run.

The requirement is for publishers. Since 16 January 2024 in the EEA and the UK, and since 31 July 2024 in Switzerland, serving personalised ads there through Google's publisher products takes a CMP that has passed Google's certification and integrates with the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework. Without one, a publisher is not eligible to serve personalised ads in those regions.

A Saudi site with European visitors and AdSense or Ad Manager on its pages answers to both: Google’s rule for the European traffic, and the PDPL for visitors in the Kingdom. On the advertiser side, Google tags such as Google Ads and GA4 learn the visitor’s choice through Consent Mode v2.