About Google consent mode

With the enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) Google has released an updated version of consent mode. Find out everything you need to know about Google consent mode v2!

1. What is Google consent mode?
2. What is Google consent mode v2?
3. Do I need to enable Google consent mode v2?
4. What happens if I do not enable Google consent mode v2?
5. How do I enable Google consent mode v2?
6. How can I check if consent mode v2 is enabled?
7. Is consent mode included in my Cookiebot CMP subscription?
8. Which banner template should I choose?
9. What is the difference between Basic and Advanced consent mode?
10. Google consent mode and TCF

1. What is Google consent mode?

Google consent mode is a tool that communicates your users' consent choices to Google and adjust tags based on their consent preferences: when a visitor opts in or out, Google consent mode directs Google services to either collect full data (opt in) or only anonymized data (opt out), which doesn't include personally identifiable information.  

2. What is Google consent mode v2?

The primary change in version 2 of Google consent mode is the addition of two new consent types:

• ad_personalization (does the user consent to their personal data being used for advertising purposes?)
• ad_user_data (does the user consent to their data being used for remarketing?)

These two consent types are both mapped to the "marketing" cookie category. That means that the Cookiebot script will automatically send the appropriate signals to Google on consent submission.

3. Do I need to enable Google consent mode v2?

Originally, consent mode was designed to achieve compliance with data privacy laws with minimal impact on data collection for your domain. However, as of March 2024, companies using Google services will need to be able to signal that they have obtained users' consent before being able to serve ads with personalization functionality.

Consent mode currently supports the following Google services:

4. What happens If I do not enable Google consent mode v2?

Failing to implement a solution that collects user consent, either with a CMP or a custom solution, that supports consent mode can have the following consequences: limited data, reduced targeting and restricted Google Ads.

5. How do I enable Google consent mode v2?

In order to enable Google consent mode v2 on your website, you need to have a cookie banner solution in place. If you already have a Cookiebot CMP subscription, the Cookiebot script will automatically send the appropriate signals to Google Tag Manager on consent submission. You will manually need to ensure that a default state is set though.

• Google Tag Manager: ensure that you have enabled Consent Mode (see image below) and have the template updated to the newest version

• Wordpress plugin: ensure that you have enabled Consent Mode (see image below) and have the plugin updated to the newest version

• Direct implementation: ensure to add/update the script as described in this guide.

6. How Can I check if consent mode v2 is enabled?

Please see this guide on how to check whether your consent mode has been implemented properly. 

7. Is consent mode included in my Cookiebot CMP subscription?

Consent mode is included in any Cookiebot subscription, including the free subscription.

8. Which banner template should I choose?

When enabling consent mode without the TCF 2.2 integration, you can always use Cookiebot's standard banner template (which is all set when opening a new domain group). 

9. What is the difference between Basic and Advanced consent mode?

Google offers 2 types of implementations: Basic consent mode and Advanced consent mode.

Whether you use Advanced or Basic consent mode is determined by how you configure tags. See Google’s own documentation on how specific tags behave with consent mode: Consent mode reference and see our guide Why and when you should use the cookie consent update trigger

BASIC: Google tags are blocked before consent.

No data is sent to Google prior to user interaction with the banner.

ADVANCED: Google tags are not blocked before consent.

When using Google Tag Manager, Google's own tags have "Built-in Consent". This means that if you don't specifically configure them to require consent, they will always load, regardless of the consent given, but adjust their behavior based on the consent state.

While consent is denied, the Google tags send cookieless pings.

You can find a detailed overview of Basic and Advanced consent mode in the Google Ads guide: About consent mode.

10. Google consent mode and TCF

If you use TCF 2.2 in addition to Google consent mode; A TCData update (TCData.enableAdvertiserConsentMode) allows Google to infer ad_storage, ad_personalization, and ad_user_data settings from the TC string. This will incorporate consent mode v2 updates directly into the TC string.
However, to mitigate potential issues related to network loading times, we recommend additionally implementing the consent mode script with the default consent states manually to ensure that no Google tags can fire without consent.