What is Google Consent Mode?

What is Google Consent Mode?

Google Consent Mode is a framework that allows websites to communicate a user’s consent status to Google through a Consent Management Platform (CMP). Once Consent Mode is properly configured, Google Tags and third-party tags that create or read cookies will adjust their behavior based on the user’s consent choices, typically collected via a cookie banner or consent dialog.

This helps websites comply with privacy regulations such as the GDPR, which require non-essential tracking cookies to be blocked unless the user has explicitly given consent.

Consent mode does not automatically collect consent preferences

Google Consent Mode does not include a cookie banner or a consent management platform. It only manages how Google tags behave after a user has made their consent choice. To gather those consent choices, you need a separate cookie consent banner or consent management tool to ask users for permission.

Consent mode terminology

To understand how Consent Mode works, it’s important to first be familiar with a few core terms. These terms define how user consent is handled and how Google tags behave in response. Each plays a specific role in ensuring data is collected only when appropriate, based on the user’s preferences.

• Consent checks: Internal checks performed by Google’s tools and marketing platforms. These checks decide, based on the user’s consent state, whether to allow or block personal data collection for each consent type.
• Consent state: Indicates whether consent has been granted or denied for a given consent type. Tags and Google tools use this state to determine whether personal data collection or storage is allowed for each user.
• Consent type: Refers to the category of storage, such as ad storage or analytics storage. Consent is granted or denied separately for each type.

How consent mode works

Google Consent Mode works by communicating a user’s consent states to tags and tools, so they can adjust their behavior in accordance to the users consent preferences and in compliance with privacy laws like the GDPR.

There are three consent states, each set in sequence during a user’s interaction with the site:

1. The on-page default consent state: The initial consent state set by the site before the user interacts with the consent banner.
2. On-page updated consent state: The consent state updated by the user’s choices via the consent banner.
3. Current consent state: The active consent state at the time a specific tag or tool runs. This reflects the most recent user preferences, whether consent has been provided or not.

The current consent state tells Google whether it is allowed to read or write cookies – not as a blanket rule, but individually for each consent type: Advertising cookies, functionality cookies, analytics cookies, etc. This enables more granular consent preferences, allowing users to approve some cookie types while rejecting others. For example, a user might deny consent for advertising cookies (ad_storage) but allow analytics cookies (analytics_storage).

Consent types and what they do

Consent mode implementation

Google Consent Mode can be implemented on your website or app in two ways: Basic Consent Mode or Advanced Consent Mode. The choice determines how and when tags are allowed to fire, based on the user’s consent preferences.

You can configure Consent Mode on a per-tag basis in Google Tag Manager by setting the ‘Additional Consent Checks’ field to one of the following options:

• No additional consent required (Advanced Consent Mode): Indicates that your tag does not need to check for additional consent in order to fire.
• Require additional consent for tag to fire (Basic Consent Mode): The tag will only fire if the status of all of the specified consent types is ‘granted’ when the tag is triggered.

Additional consent checks tag settings in Google Tag Manager

Basic Consent Mode

In a Basic Consent Mode setup, tags are configured to require additional consent checks before they can fire. This means that if a user does not consent to data collection:

• No data is sent – not even the user’s consent status.
• No cookies are set.
• Tags remain blocked until the user grants consent for the relevant consent type via the consent banner.

Given the benefits of advanced consent mode, we only recommend this implementation for:

• Google tags that do not have built-in consent checks.
• Non-Google third-party tracking scripts as they will not adjust behavior based on the consent state of the user.

Advanced Consent Mode

If Advanced Consent Mode is implemented, tags will fire without waiting for user consent. For this reason, you should only use advanced consent mode with tags that have built-in consent checks. With advanced consent mode, cookies are not set without consent, and the tool will adapt its behavior based on the user’s consent state, which is communicated through cookieless signals called Consent Mode pings.

The benefit of advanced consent mode is that it enables Google to collect a small amount of deidentified data which can be used for conversion and behavioral modelling. The modelled data is then able to be injected into your reporting tools to fill in the blanks where users denied personal data collection.

Tags with built-in consent checks

Advanced consent mode should only be used for the following products that contain built-in consent checks and adjust behavior based on consent state:

• Google tag
• Google Analytics
• Google Ads
• Floodlight
• Conversion Linker

Basic Consent Mode vs Advanced Consent Mode

Consent Mode allows your Consent Management Platform (CMP) to act as an intermediary between your website’s tag configuration and your marketing and analytics platforms. It functions like a bridge with a gate at each end.

In Basic Consent Mode, the gate on the website side is initially closed, while the gate on the analytics platform side remains open. When a user provides consent, the gate on the website side opens, allowing data to flow to the analytics platform without restriction.

In Advanced Consent Mode, the gate on the website side is open from the start, but the gate on the analytics platform side remains closed. The platform will only open its gate if it receives a signal (ping) from Consent Mode confirming that the user has granted consent.

Consent Mode in action

Consent mode pings & modelling

When users deny consent for cookies, tags with consent mode implementation send consent mode pings – cookieless packets of data that reports basic activity and consent choices back to Google – instead of using cookies or app identifiers (which track users). Google products use these pings to mitigate data collection gaps through consent mode modeling

Based on these consent mode pings Google uses uses machine learning to model the behavior and likely conversions of users that deny cookies.

• Behavioral modeling predicts the actions of non-consenting users (such as page views) based on patterns observed in users who provided consent.
• Conversion modeling estimates conversions among non-consenting users by comparing their behavior to that of similar users who did consent.

Google uses this modeled data to fill gaps in analytics and conversion reporting, allowing advertisers to maintain accurate measurement and optimize campaigns, without compromising their user’s privacy and consent choices.

Types of Pings Sent:

There are three types of consent mode pings sent to googles servers if consent mode is enabled.

1. Consent state pings that tell Google whether the person gave or denied consent
2. Key event pings sent to indicate that a key event has occurred.
3. Google Analytics pings sent on each page of a website using Google Analytics when events are logged.

Consent Mode pings contain functional information like time stamps and referrers, and non-identifying information like page views and anonymous event data.

Data advanced consent mode sends to Google Analytics if consent is denied

How to implement consent mode on a website or app.

Get started with consent mode consent mode is extremely simple. You just need a solution for each step of the process which is almost identical for both websites and apps.