Google Consent Mode v2: Requirements for your website

Which Google uses need consent signals?

Under Google’s requirements for EEA traffic, advertisers must collect consent from EEA visitors and share consent signals with Google, through Consent Mode or the IAB TCF, to keep using measurement, ads personalization and remarketing features. That covers:

• Google Ads: conversion tracking, remarketing and other audience features.
• Google Analytics 4: measurement, and GA4 data used in Google Ads, Search Ads 360 or Display & Video 360.
• Floodlight and Conversion Linker: Google tags with built-in consent checks.

For UK and Swiss traffic, Google’s policy help page says it does not currently expect verified consent signals from advertisers, but the policy’s consent requirements still apply there.

Google ties these requirements to its EU User Consent Policy; our guide to the policy covers disclosures, consent records and audits. Consent Mode does not collect consent or settle your obligations under the GDPR and cookie rules.

Advertisers and publishers have different requirements

Advertisers send their visitors’ choices through Consent Mode or the TCF. Google does not require them to use a CMP from its CMP Partner Program.

Publishers using AdSense, Ad Manager or AdMob for personalized ads in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland need a Google-certified CMP integrated with the IAB TCF, under Google’s rules. Consent Mode alone does not meet that requirement.

Consent Mode support is not Google CMP certification, and certification does not guarantee compliance with privacy law.

How the four signals work

Google’s Consent Mode overview defines four signals for advertising and analytics:

• ad_storage: storage such as cookies or device identifiers for advertising.
• analytics_storage: storage for analytics, for example visit duration.
• ad_user_data: whether user data may be sent to Google for online advertising.
• ad_personalization: whether data may be used for personalized advertising, such as remarketing.

Consent Mode v2 added ad_user_data and ad_personalization. Map each purpose in your banner to the matching signals: a visitor who accepts analytics only should not be marked as consenting to personalized ads.

Defaults and updates: when signals are sent

Each page needs a default consent state before Google tags send measurement data. Google’s implementation guide says the default command must come before commands such as config or event, or the defaults do not work.

Set defaults per region where your rules differ, with a fallback for other visitors. Where consent is required, deny by default: for Advanced setups, Google’s audit guidance expects ad_storage to default to denied in the EEA and the UK.

When the visitor accepts, rejects or changes a choice, send the update on that page before they move on. Later pages and return visits should start from the saved choice.

Basic and Advanced in brief

Basic keeps Google tags blocked until consent, so a visitor who declines sends nothing through them, not even the consent state. Advanced loads tags with denied defaults and can send cookieless pings while consent is denied.

Cookieless does not mean anonymous: assess what Advanced sends before choosing it. Basic vs Advanced Consent Mode compares the two in detail.

What changes in measurement and modeling

When consent is denied, Google can model some of the missing data if your traffic meets its thresholds. Google Ads conversion modeling and GA4 behavioral modeling have separate eligibility rules, and GA4 behavioral modeling requires Advanced.

Modeled figures are estimates, not records of individual visitors, and do not recover every unmeasured conversion.

For the effect on campaigns and audiences, read our Consent Mode overview for marketers. If conversions fall after a banner change, use our troubleshooting guide.

How to check your setup

Test before launch and after changes to tags, the banner or domains, using a fresh browser session for first visits. Google’s verification guide covers the Tag Assistant steps.

• Defaults: the earliest Consent event in Tag Assistant shows the intended default for all four signals.
• Updates: after accepting, rejecting and a custom choice, the latest Consent event matches the choice.
• Tags: the Tags tab shows which tags fired or were blocked; advertising cookies appear only after consent.
• Network requests: in your browser’s developer tools, compare requests to Google before and after the choice. With Advanced, cookieless pings before consent are expected.
• Regions and journeys: repeat for each regional default, including checkout or lead forms, other domains and a return visit.
• Withdrawal: changing the choice through the cookie settings link sends a new update.

Record the date, setup and result of each test. Google Ads also shows consent mode status in its conversion diagnostics. Passiro’s Support Center explains how to configure Google Consent Mode and verify it with Tag Assistant.

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