Consent Mode v2 is Google’s mechanism for adjusting how its tags behave according to a visitor’s consent choice. It carries four signals — analytics_storage, ad_storage, and the two added in v2, ad_user_data and ad_personalization — which your consent banner sets and then updates when someone chooses. Since March 2024 it has been required for advertising and audience features to keep operating on traffic from the EEA and the UK.
It is a technical implementation, and describing it as compliance overstates what it does. It carries a consent decision into Google’s tags; the decision itself, the banner capturing it and the lawful basis behind it are governed by data protection law, and applicability should be confirmed with your data protection officer or counsel.
analytics_storage governs measurement cookies. ad_storage governs advertising cookies. ad_user_data, added in v2, governs whether user data may be sent to Google for advertising purposes. ad_personalization governs whether that data may be used for personalised advertising.
Each has to be wired to a category the visitor can decline. A banner offering three categories and a container setting all four signals from one of them is a common misconfiguration, and it stays invisible until someone tests it.
In basic mode the tags do not load at all until consent is granted. In advanced mode they load with a denied default and send cookieless pings, which lets Google model the conversions that consent declines would otherwise remove from reporting.
Advanced mode preserves more measurement and sends more requests before a choice is made, which is precisely the point your data protection officer will want to review. That choice belongs to the review rather than to the tagging team.
Manufacturers running paid campaigns around a trade fair, a product launch or a distributor recruitment drive depend on conversion import and audience lists. Without the v2 signals, remarketing and audience-based features stop accepting EEA and UK traffic, and reporting understates campaign performance.
Our industrial B2B paid media page covers how that measurement is set up alongside the campaigns themselves.
Industrial groups rarely run a single container. A country subsidiary adds a local tag for a regional campaign, a distributor microsite carries a container left by a previous agency, and the careers site was set up by another team entirely.
Inventory every container and property publishing under the group, confirm each implements the signals identically, and record who holds edit access. Consent handled correctly on the flagship site and left inconsistent across subsidiary properties is a frequent finding.
Load the site in a clean browser session, decline consent, and confirm that no advertising request leaves the browser and that measurement matches the mode you selected. Accept, and confirm the signals update without a page reload. Check a datasheet download form and a portal login as well, since those pages often carry additional tags.
Repeat after any container change. See GA4 and consent mode for how we build and evidence this.
Consent Mode carries a decision into Google’s tags. It does not determine whether your banner captures valid consent, whether the categories are described plainly, whether other vendors on the page respect the same decision, or whether the lawful basis for your processing holds.
Those are legal questions. See GDPR and consent for the technical programme, and is Google Analytics GDPR compliant for how the two relate.
It is Google’s mechanism for adjusting how its tags behave according to a visitor’s consent choice, carrying four signals: analytics_storage, ad_storage, and the two added in v2, ad_user_data and ad_personalization. Your consent banner sets and updates them. Since March 2024 it has been required for advertising and audience features to keep operating on EEA and UK traffic.
Version 1 covered whether measurement and advertising storage could be used. Version 2 adds ad_user_data, governing whether user data may be sent to Google for advertising, and ad_personalization, governing whether that data may be used for personalised advertising. Both have to be wired to categories a visitor can decline rather than defaulted from a single toggle.
It matters less, though correctly configured signals still let GA4 model behaviour from visitors who decline, so reporting understates traffic and conversions by a smaller margin. If your organisation is likely to run a trade fair or launch campaign at any point, having the signals in place beforehand avoids rebuilding the tagging under a deadline.
Basic withholds the tags entirely until consent is granted. Advanced loads them with a denied default and sends cookieless pings that let Google model missing conversions, preserving more measurement while sending more requests before a choice is made. That trade-off is what your data protection officer should review, so take the decision to them rather than settling it in the container.
Test it rather than assume it. In a clean session, decline consent and confirm no advertising request leaves the browser and that measurement matches your chosen mode; accept and confirm the signals update without a page reload. Check a datasheet download form and a portal login too, since those pages often carry extra tags.
The technical mechanism behaves identically everywhere. What counts as valid consent, and which categories require an opt-in, follows national implementations of the ePrivacy rules and varies in detail. For a group serving several markets from one build, your data protection officer should confirm the country-specific position before the banner copy is finalised.
Tell us which containers and properties publish under your group and we will test whether declining consent stops what it should.