Google Consent Mode lets you communicate the consent the website and app user has given for using cookies.
How consent mode works
You collect the user consent via a cookie banner and send that consent to Google via Google Tag.
If a visitor opts-in, meaning they provide their consent to data collection then Google collects all the data that it needs for its services e.g. Analytics, Google Ads.
When a user opts out, meaning they don't provide their consent, that's when Google Consent mode comes into play.
There are two modes of consent implementation
- Basic Consent Mode
- Advanced Consent Mode
Basic consent mode
Basic Consent Mode prevents Google tags from loading until a user interacts with a consent banner. This setup does not send any data to Google before the user's interaction with the consent banner. When the user provides the consent then Google tags load and executes the consent mode APIs. It sends:
- Send default consent states.
- Send updated consent states.
However, when the user doesn’t consent, no data is sent to Google. Google tags are completely blocked from firing.
Advanced consent mode
In advanced consent mode, Google tags load when a user opens the website or app. The tags load the consent mode API and do the following:
- Set default consent states. By default, consent is denied and Google tags send cookieless pings.
- Wait for user interaction with the banner and update consent states.
- When a user grants consent to data collection, Google tags send the full measurement data.
To fill the data collection gaps, Google uses modeling to figure out the metrics for your measurement solutions.
What is Google Consent Mode (Consent Mode V1)
Google's consent Mode conveys users' preference for using cookies and browser storage for
- Google Ads
- Google Analytics
What is Google Consent Mode v2?
Consent Mode V2 requires two more identifiers, in addition to the identifiers in the previous Consent Mode. These two identifiers are
- ad_personalization
- ad_user_data
These two identifiers set the user preferences for Ad Personalization and User Data
Does Consent Mode Provide a Cookie Banner?
No, the consent mode does not provide a consent cookie banner. You have to use another tool, either homegrown or 3rd party, that shows the cookie consent banner to get users' consent. Google consent mode gets the consent preferences from the 3rd party to enable or disable the tags that are impacted by that consent.
This post will be updated with new information soon, so stay tuned.