Google Consent Mode v2. Are you ready?

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1. Simple checklist to validate if you have prepared your website for Google Consent Mode v2.

Step 1 – Let’s check the Basics


Use the following list to check your basic consent configuration:

  • Have you allowed the traffic from EU countries to your WEB site? If NO, you can stop right here, this topic is not related to you.
  • Have you implemented a Consent mode at all? If you don’t know, ask for assistance – it’s illegal and risky not to implement it.
  • How do you implement a Consent mode: via a Consent Management Platform (CMP), or a self-hosted solution

Below is a simple list of actions you may perform on your WEB site.

  • Open your site in a Private browser.
  • Do you have a consent banner? No? Too bad, look for assistance.
  • Is it a CMP or custom banner? You may need to inspect the HTML or ask your developers.
  • If you DO NOT grant consent, do you see pixels firing? Use Chrome extensions or browser JS console > Network tab to validate.
  • Is Googe Consent mode v2 implemented?

Step 2 – Legal validation

  • Consult with your legal team about how your Organization will map the two new consent states (ad_user_data and ad_personalization) to the existing purposes you have declared in your privacy policy and cookie declaration.
  • Consider the current setup of your active consent solution – you may need to map them to the already configured list of purposes or create new ones.

Step 3 – Implementation

If you use a CMP, they may take care of the implementation. However, some CMPs may require a specific setup in their interfaces, so check their guides.


If you are using a custom solution, you shall speak with your developers and provide them with a mapping between your current purposes and the newly added Google parameters.

Step 4 – Timeline

The update will roll out in March 2024.
Implement final changes and test the tracking setup ASAP.

2. What is Consent Mode v2, and how can it affect you?

Consent Mode v2 is NOT directly related to 3rd party cookie deprecation.
As part of the larger Google Privacy Sandbox initiative for compliance with GDPR and the AADC policies, Google is pushing advertisers to implement Consent Mode v2 by March 2024.
Failing to comply with the policy will affect advertisers’ ability to use certain features such as target audiences, retarget their website users, and potentially all smart bidding strategies and smart campaign types. In short, it will worsen the performance of Google Ads campaigns.

3. What are the ways to implement Consent Mode?

3.1. Consent Management Platform


CMP providers can integrate with consent mode to communicate users’ consent status to Google and adjust the behavior of Analytics, Ads, and third-party tags based on users’ choices.
Here is a list of all CMP providers you could use. – https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/9976101
Using Tag Manager and a Consent Management Platform (CMP), you can enable consent mode for websites.

With a CMP you can implement consent mode with a Basic or Advanced implementation.


3.1.1. Basic Consent Mode Implementation


Consent Mode works by blocking Google tags until user consent is granted.
No data is collected when tags are blocked due to consent choices, and conversion modeling in Ads is based on a general model.


3.1.2. Advanced Consent Mode Implementation


Google tags are loaded before the consent dialog appears.
Tags send cookieless pings when cookie consent is declined.
Advanced implementation enables several models in your GA4 property and Google Ads to fill in the gaps for the missing observed data when users decline consent.
The models use features such as browser type, conversion action type, time of day, and other high-level, non-identifying variables. Learn more about conversion modeling


3.2. Custom Banner


If you decide to build your banner, implement consent mode manually.
Here is more on the topic: https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/security/guides/consent?sjid=17944549395932389215-EU


3.3. Avoid Consent Mode


Technical workarounds are possible but not sustainable in many ways. Avoiding user consent rights will make you non-compliant with the GDPR and the AADC policies which is something you have to discuss with your legal team.

Do you need help for a smooth transition?

Our team can help you with all steps of the process.

Let’s start the conversation.

Contact us at analytics@idconsult.bg 

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