Consent Mode is the mechanism through which your site tells Google's tools what the visitor accepted. Since March 2024, version 2 has been required to keep using Google Ads and Google Analytics advertising features in consent regions. If your banner does not send these signals, your campaigns and audiences degrade silently.
The four signals that matter
| Signal | What it controls |
|---|---|
analytics_storage | Measurement cookies (Google Analytics 4). |
ad_storage | Advertising cookies and conversion tracking. |
ad_user_data | Sending user data to Google for advertising purposes (new in v2). |
ad_personalization | Ad personalization and remarketing (new in v2). |
The default and update mechanism
Consent Mode works in two beats. A default state is declared before any Google tag loads: for a site under an explicit-consent law, everything is denied except security. Then, when the visitor chooses, an update transmits the real state, signal by signal.
// Before any Google tag: denied by default
gtag("consent", "default", {
analytics_storage: "denied",
ad_storage: "denied",
ad_user_data: "denied",
ad_personalization: "denied",
security_storage: "granted",
wait_for_update: 500,
});
// After the visitor's choice: a faithful update
gtag("consent", "update", {
analytics_storage: "granted", // the visitor accepted analytics
ad_storage: "denied", // but refused advertising
ad_user_data: "denied",
ad_personalization: "denied",
});Order is critical
The default signal must fire before the first Google tag, or that tag loads without instructions and sets its cookies. That is why Google Tag Manager's "Consent Initialization" trigger exists: it guarantees the consent instruction goes first.
What Consent Mode does not do
Consent Mode is an information channel to Google, not an enforcement mechanism. A compliant banner must do both: actually block non-consented scripts, and transmit the v2 signals so Google's tools respect the visitor's choices. Consorm implements Consent Mode v2 directly in your Google Tag Manager, with the default declared at the right moment and every decision relayed faithfully; the implementation details are in the documentation. And if your Google Ads tracking deserves a tune-up too, our Google tag installation service configures conversions, remarketing and Consent Mode v2 end to end.