The Consent Mode v2 is the interface through which your cookie banner informs Google tags what a visitor has consented to. If these signals are missing for users from the European Economic Area (EEA), measurement, remarketing, and personalized ads are no longer fully available for these users. Advertisers with visitors from the EEA had to implement it by March 2024, as Search Engine Journal reported on the launch of the requirement. Since June 15, 2026, even more depends on him because Google has taken a second switch out of play.
What Consent Mode v2 transmits to Google
Technically, Consent Mode consists of consent types that your consent tool passes on to Google tags. Google recognizes seven such types, four of which count for advertising and measurement: ad_storage allows advertising cookies, analytics_storage allows analytics cookies, ad_user_data allows the sending of user data for advertising purposes and ad personalization allows personalized ads. The last two were added with version 2, like the Google Ads help regarding EEA requirements describes. Each type is either on granted or on denied, and the tags adapt their behavior accordingly.
On June 15, 2026, Google reorganized the division of responsibilities between Analytics and Ads. Until then, two settings jointly determined data collection for advertising: the switch for Google Signals in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and the advertising settings in Consent Mode. According to Announcement in the Analytics Help Center Does Google Signals since then only manage the connection with signed-in users in Analytics reports, and is Consent Mode the only control for advertising data? For ad personalization Google is announcing a comparable change for later in 2026. Therefore, anyone who has previously used Google Signals as a privacy switch now needs a properly implemented consent signal.
How to choose between Basic and Advanced Mode
Google offers two variants that differ in what happens before the decision in the banner. Basic Mode load the Google tags only after consent, and loudly Google's developer documentation on Consent Mode nothing goes to Google beforehand, not even the standard status. In Advanced Mode load the tags immediately with the status denied and send cookieless measurement pings in the absence of consent. For this, in Advanced Mode, you receive a model tailored to your account for missing values in Conversion Tracking, in Basic Mode only a general one.
However, the modeling only takes effect starting from a certain amount of data. According to Google Ads, Conversion Modeling Help Page 700 ad clicks over seven days per country and domain group, which averages out to 100 clicks a day. GA4 requires for the Behavioral modeling on at least seven days, 1,000 events each without consent to analysis, and on at least seven out of 28 days, 1,000 users each with consent. Legally, the Advanced Mode is controversial because even cookieless pings according to Section 25 TDDDG can mean access to information in the terminal device, such as the Dr. Datenschutz Expert Blog explained. If you do not reach the thresholds, Advanced provides no modeling advantage, and Basic is the safe start.
The diagram shows what happens before the decision in the banner. On the left, Advanced Mode is already sending cookieless pings to Google, from which the model estimates missing conversions. On the right, Basic Mode holds everything back until the visitor consents.
Setting up Consent Mode v2 in five steps
The setup is divided into a consent tool, tag management, and privacy policy. You will have the least amount of manual work with a Consent Management Platform (CMP) from the Google CMP partner program, because according to Google Ads Help, certified providers automatically switch to the latest version of Consent Mode. Two parameters from the Google implementation guide Additionally helping: With region do you set default values only for certain countries, and wait_for_update gives a slowly loading CMP a specified number of milliseconds before the tags fire. The order of the following five steps is important because the default status must be established before any tag processes data:
- Select a certified CMP and link the banner with all four consent types
- the default status for users from the EEA to denied set, before a Google tag loads, in the code via the command gtag(‚consent‘, ‚default‘, ...) or via your CMP template
- Send an update with the selected values to the tags with every decision in the banner
- In the consent overview in Google Tag Manager control which tags wait for which consent, including third-party tags
- State the selected mode and the transferred data in the privacy policy
How to check if the signals are coming through
A banner that works visibly says nothing about the signals behind it. For control, Google recommends Tag Assistant together with the Tag Assistant Companion browser extension and describes the procedure in its own Troubleshooting Guide for Consent Mode. Test at least three ways through the banner, namely consent, rejection, and a selection of individual categories, and repeat the test after every update of the consent tool and every new tag integration. Pay attention to these points during each run:
- The first consent event in Tag Assistant sets all four types ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad personalization and analytics_storage
- After clicking the banner, an update event follows with the exact selected values.
- No Google tag fires before the default state, otherwise the signals are missing on the first page view
- Using the location simulation in the Chrome DevTools, visitors outside the EEA receive the default values intended for them.
Clean consent signals are also the prerequisite for Server-Side Tracking, because Google also requires Consent Mode there for users from the EEA. If you want to place your Google campaigns on a reliable data basis, we will accompany you as SEA agency Düsseldorf from setup to ongoing monitoring.
FAQs on Consent Mode v2
Is Consent Mode v2 mandatory?
Yes, for advertisers with visitors from the EEA who use Google tags for measurement, remarketing, or personalized ads. The obligation stems from Google's requirements. The consent itself, which Consent Mode passes on to Google, is legally required.
Does Consent Mode replace the cookie banner?
No. The banner obtains consent, and Consent Mode transmits the result to the Google tags. Without a consent tool, there is no decision for it to pass on. You manage consent for tags from other providers like Meta or LinkedIn via the consent tool or the consent check in the Tag Manager.
Do I need the Google Tag Manager for Consent Mode v2?
No. Consent Mode can also be integrated directly via the Google tag gtag.js, and certified consent tools come with built-in integrations for this. Tag Manager makes control easier because it shows the consent settings of all tags in one place.
What data does Google receive when a visitor declines?
None in Basic Mode. In Advanced Mode, the Google tag sends cookieless pings containing consent status and measurement signals without cookies. From this, Google models conversions that cannot be measured directly without consent. Whether these pings without consent are permissible must be clarified with your data protection officer before switching to Advanced Mode.
How long does it take for GA4 to show modeled data?
At least seven days. Google cites as a prerequisite seven days with a sufficient amount of data within a 28-day period and points out that model training can also take longer. In addition, the model checks other metrics such as the ratio of new to returning users.
