Consent Mode v2 is the version of Google’s consent mode that, since November 2023, uses four parameters to tell Google tags what the visitor has accepted: ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization. Without it, Google doesn’t receive the visitor’s choice, which affects ad personalization, remarketing and measurement, especially with traffic from the European Economic Area. It isn’t the cookie banner. It’s what carries the banner’s decision to the tags.
If you got here from a notice in your Google Ads or Google Analytics account, your question is: do I need this, and what happens if I don’t have it? The answers follow Google’s official documentation, and where it’s silent, I flag it as an open point.
What Consent Mode v2 is
Consent Mode v2 is Google’s consent mode in its second version, with two extra parameters for advertising. The Google Ads Help Center explains that with consent mode, you tell Google the consent status of users and the tags adjust their behavior to respect the choice.
One point that causes confusion: consent mode doesn’t create a banner or widget. It works with the banner you already have, the consent management platform, or CMP. The banner asks the visitor, and consent mode tells Google.
The four consent mode parameters
Four parameters matter for Google Ads and Google Analytics. Each one can be set to granted or denied.
| Parameter | What it controls |
|---|---|
| ad_storage | Storage related to advertising, such as cookies on the web |
| analytics_storage | Storage related to analytics, such as visit duration cookies |
| ad_user_data | Consent to send user data to Google for the purpose of online advertising |
| ad_personalization | Consent for personalized advertising |
Version 2 added the last two, which is why “v2” appears in the name. The documentation also lists functionality_storage, personalization_storage and security_storage, for site features, personalization and security.
What each denial causes, according to Google’s developer page:
- ad_storage denied. No new advertising cookies or identifiers are saved, and existing ones are not read.
- analytics_storage denied. Tags neither read nor write analytics cookies. Google Analytics receives cookieless pings, for basic estimation and measurement.
- ad_personalization denied. Personalized advertising is turned off, and remarketing stops receiving data.
- ad_user_data denied. The collection of personal data for online advertising is turned off. Google’s list includes user_id and the hashed first-party data from optimized conversions.
That last item ties consent mode to Google Ads enhanced conversions. If the visitor denies ad_user_data, the hashed data you would send to recover the conversion is not used.
Basic mode and advanced mode
It can be implemented in two ways, and the difference is in when the tags load. According to the Google Ads Help Center, in basic mode the tags stay blocked until the visitor interacts with the banner, and no data goes to Google before that. In advanced mode, they load with consent denied by default and send cookieless pings.
| Basic mode | Advanced mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Tag loading | Blocked until the visitor interacts with the banner | Loads with defaults set to “denied” |
| Data before consent | None, not even the consent state | Consent state and cookieless pings |
| If the visitor declines | Nothing is sent to Google | Pings continue, without cookies |
| Conversion modeling | General model | Advertiser-specific model |
The documentation says to follow your company’s guidelines and doesn’t name either option as the right one for everyone. What it does state is that advanced mode allows more detailed modeling, because the model is specific to the advertiser rather than general.
What cookieless pings are
When consent is denied, compatible tags don’t write cookies, but they do send signals to Google’s servers. The help center lists what can be included: a timestamp, user agent, referrer, an indication that the URL had a click identifier such as the GCLID, and the consent state.
With these signals, Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 estimate conversions. There is one condition: to protect privacy, tags must reach a minimum data collection threshold. And the impact only shows up in reports after at least 7 full days of implementation.
What happens if your account doesn’t have consent mode v2
Without it, Google doesn’t receive the visitor’s choice, and Google’s documentation on EEA traffic is clear about the effect for those who rely on personalization and measurement.
According to Google’s page on consent mode updates in the EEA, Google is stepping up enforcement of the EU User Consent Policy. To keep using tags for ad measurement and personalization, as well as remarketing, the advertiser must ask for consent to use the personal data of EEA users and share consent signals with Google.
The text separates three situations.
- You have a banner and use consent mode, with no personalized ads. You don’t need to do anything.
- You have a banner, use consent mode and run personalized ads, such as remarketing. If your CMP is Google-certified, the provider updates to the latest version. If the banner is your own, you need to implement version 2.
- You have a banner and don’t use consent mode, or you have no banner. Google asks you to implement consent mode and, if you have no banner, to set one up.
The same page warns about a trap: if you stop Google tags from loading until the user interacts with the banner, Google can’t verify the user’s choice, and that can lead to data loss. In other words, blocking everything without telling Google can be costly.
The text doesn’t mention account suspension. It mentions loss of personalization and measurement features for the traffic the policy applies to.
And in Brazil: does your account need it?
The Google pages I opened cover the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. They don’t mention Brazil or the LGPD (Brazil’s General Data Protection Law), so you can’t say from them that it’s mandatory for a site that only serves a Brazilian audience.
A sentence from the Google Analytics help center helps frame the issue: each region has its own privacy laws, so the default consent state should be set for specific regions rather than all visitors. The developer documentation recommends the same, limiting defaults to the regions where you show banners.
In practice, the question that decides it is where your visitors are. A travel agency that sells to Europeans has one answer, a neighborhood clinic has another. And what the LGPD requires of your site is a question for a lawyer, not for a tag.
How to implement consent mode v2
Implementation has three parts, in the order they happen.
- Cookie banner (CMP). It asks the visitor. Google has a list of certified CMPs, and using one is usually the shortest path, because the provider keeps the integration up to date.
- Default state. Before the visitor chooses, you set the value of each parameter. The documentation shows an example of denying all four by default, with the command running before any tag that sends measurement data.
- Update. When the visitor clicks the banner, the state is updated. And since consent mode doesn’t store the choice, you need to persist the decision, for example in your own cookie, for later page loads.
With Google Tag Manager
If you use Tag Manager and run your own banner, you should load it through the container, with a consent template, according to the documentation. Google points out a detail that breaks many implementations: in Tag Manager, use the setDefaultConsentState and updateConsentState APIs, not the gtag consent command, because gtag commands go into a queue and may be processed late.
If GTM is still new to you, start with what Google Tag Manager is and how to install it. And if your Analytics isn’t set up yet, the guide on how to set up GA4 comes first.
Code order
The documentation warns that if the consent code runs out of order, the defaults don’t work. The sequence is: first the Google tag with the default consent command, then the consent solution, then the update when the visitor decides. If the banner loads asynchronously, there is a wait_for_update parameter, which gives the CMP a few milliseconds to update the state before tags fire.
How to check that it’s working
After implementing, Google says the consent mode status and the “active” status appear in the “Conversion diagnostics” tab in Google Ads. It’s the first place to look.
To test on the page, Google Tag Assistant shows the default and updated consent states. Test by accepting and declining on the banner, and check that the state changes after the click.
Consent affects conversion tracking as a whole, from GTM tags to conversions imported from the CRM. That work is part of the conversion tracking with GA4, GTM and CRM service.
Frequently asked questions
What is consent mode v2? It’s the second version of Google’s consent mode, which now includes the ad_user_data and ad_personalization parameters, in addition to ad_storage and analytics_storage. It carries the visitor’s banner choice to Google tags.
Is consent mode the same thing as a cookie banner? No. The banner asks the visitor, and consent mode passes the answer to Google. The Google Ads help center states that consent mode doesn’t implement banners or widgets.
What’s the difference between basic and advanced mode? In basic mode, tags only load after the visitor interacts with the banner. In advanced mode, they load with consent denied by default and send cookieless pings. Advanced mode offers advertiser-specific modeling.
Am I required to have consent mode v2 in Brazil? The Google sources I opened cover the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland and don’t mention Brazil. If your site gets European visitors, the policy applies. To find out what the LGPD requires, consult a lawyer.
Will I lose conversions? When the visitor denies consent, tags don’t write cookies, and Google uses cookieless pings to estimate conversions. That estimate has a minimum data threshold and shows up after at least 7 days of implementation.
Do I need a Google-certified CMP? With a certified CMP, the provider updates consent mode to the latest version and you turn the mode on in the banner settings. With your own banner, implementation is manual.
Want to see how your account’s tracking is doing?
If your Google Ads account received a consent notice or you don’t know what state your tracking is in, request the free account audit. The review looks at tags, conversions and diagnostics before any change.