Google Consent Mode
Google Consent Mode passes users' cookie consent choices to Google tags, so analytics and ads respect consent while measurement gaps are partly modelled.
What is Google Consent Mode?
Google Consent Mode is a framework that passes the consent choices users make in a cookie banner to Google’s tags – Google Analytics 4, Google Ads and Floodlight. The tags then adjust their behaviour: with consent they work normally; without consent they don’t store cookies.
Since March 2024, Google requires Consent Mode v2 for advertisers who use its ad and measurement features for users in the European Economic Area, in line with the EU Digital Markets Act and the GDPR. Without it, remarketing and parts of conversion measurement for EEA users stop working. Version 2 uses four signals: ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization.
There are two implementation options:
- Basic: Google tags only load after the user consents. Simple, but without consent there is no data at all.
- Advanced: tags load immediately and, without consent, send cookieless pings. Google uses these to model the missing conversions and behaviour.
Consent Mode doesn’t replace a consent management platform (CMP) such as Cookiebot or Usercentrics – it connects the banner to Google’s tags. Getting it right matters for international accounts: consent rates differ by country and banner design, and wrong defaults can either break measurement or record data without valid consent.
For Smart Bidding, reliable consent signals are now part of the data foundation. A good setup is often combined with server-side tagging.