Consent Mode lets Google tags adjust their behaviour based on a visitor’s consent choices. Version 2 is required for sites that use Google advertising features with visitors in the European Economic Area. This checklist covers what a working setup needs.
The four consent signals
ad_storage: permission to store advertising cookies.analytics_storage: permission to store analytics cookies.ad_user_data: permission to send user data to Google for advertising.ad_personalization: permission to use data for personalised advertising.
The last two were added in version 2. A setup that only sends the first two is incomplete.
Basic or advanced mode
In basic mode, Google tags do not load until the visitor accepts. In advanced mode, tags load with a denied default state and send cookieless pings, which Google can use for conversion modelling. Choose based on your legal advice and your consent platform’s support.
Setup checklist
- Use a consent management platform that supports Consent Mode v2 and passes all four signals.
- Set default consent states before any Google tag fires, using the Consent Initialization trigger in Tag Manager.
- Set region-specific defaults where your policy differs by country.
- Send a consent update as soon as the visitor makes a choice.
- Check that other tags, such as Meta, respect the same choices through your consent platform.
How to confirm it works
- In Tag Manager Preview, open the Consent tab and check the default and updated states for each event.
- In the browser network log, check the
gcsandgcdparameters on Google requests. - Test accept, reject and no-choice paths, not only the accept path.
Consent Mode is not a replacement for a compliant consent banner. It is the link that makes Google tags follow what the banner records.