Consent mode setup that respects each choice and keeps your measurement.

Consent mode setup starts with a list of every tag on the store and what it stores. Google’s consent mode guide describes four signals: ad_storage and analytics_storage control cookies, while ad_user_data and ad_personalization, added in Consent Mode v2, control whether user data is sent to Google for ads and whether it can be used for personalised ads. We map each tag on the store to the signals it needs.

Google’s EU user consent policy requires consent for cookies and personalised ads for visitors in the European Economic Area and the UK. Since March 2024, Google has needed consent signals from sites using its ad tools for EEA traffic to keep features such as remarketing audiences and conversion measurement working. So the setup decides which regions get a “denied” default.

Order matters. The default state has to be set before any Google tag sends data, then updated the moment the visitor answers the cookie banner. In Google Tag Manager this runs on the Consent Initialization trigger; on a store without GTM it goes at the top of the page, before the Google tag. We test both states, accept and reject, and the update in between, with Tag Assistant.

Google offers two modes, explained in its consent mode help page. In basic mode, Google tags don’t load at all until the visitor agrees. In advanced mode, tags load with consent denied and send cookieless pings, which Google can use to model conversions it can no longer observe. We explain the trade-off and set up the mode you and your privacy adviser choose.

Modelled conversions depend on volume. Google Analytics only turns on behavioural modelling when a property collects at least 1,000 events a day with analytics_storage denied for at least 7 days, and has at least 1,000 daily users with it granted on at least 7 of the previous 28 days. Smaller stores won’t get modelled data, and we say so before you pick a mode for that reason.

Shopify stores have their own route. Shopify’s Customer Privacy API stores the visitor’s choice and passes it to Shopify’s pixels and apps. We connect the banner you use (Shopify’s own or a consent management platform) to that API and to Google’s consent signals, so the theme, the checkout and the customer events sandbox all follow the same choice.

Other platforms need the same care. Meta, TikTok and Pinterest don’t read Google’s consent signals, so each pixel is held back or loaded based on the visitor’s choice, through the banner’s own rules or GTM triggers. Server-side events are checked too, since a server-side tracking setup has to pass consent on as well.

This site runs its own consent banner with consent defaults set before any tag loads, and our GA4 audit includes a privacy section. After the consent mode setup we check that conversions still reach Google Ads, look at the share of consented traffic, and leave you a short record of what each tag does in each state.

Testing covers all 3 banner outcomes: accept, reject and no choice yet. In Tag Assistant we check the default state on page load, then confirm that the 4 consent signals (ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization) change the moment a visitor chooses, before any tag fires.

The handover is written down. You get a short record of the setup: which banner runs, which regions see it, the default state for each of the 4 consent signals, which tags wait for consent, which load in advanced mode, and how the Meta, TikTok and Pinterest pixels are held back. When your team adds an app or a tag later, the record says what it needs before it goes live. Run the same 3 banner checks in Tag Assistant after any theme or banner update, because either one can change the order in which scripts load and quietly undo the consent mode setup.