{"id":1579,"date":"2024-10-12T11:48:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T09:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sabatka.net\/cs\/?p=1579"},"modified":"2026-10-12T11:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T09:50:48","slug":"what-is-consent-mode-v2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sabatka.net\/en\/what-is-consent-mode-v2\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Consent Mode v2: What It Is and How It Works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your website has a cookie banner. A visitor clicks “Reject all”, the banner faithfully stores the choice, and you are convinced you’re done. Google Ads still reports missing consent signals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The banner did nothing wrong. It just never told the tags, the pieces of code on your site that send data to tools like Google Analytics or Google Ads. The banner collects consent, but the tags on the page can’t read it by themselves. Google consent mode v2 is the link between the two: a way for the banner to tell the tags what they are allowed to do. And you can check whether it works in a few minutes, right in your browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In this article I explain what consent mode is, why Google wants it, what the difference between Basic and Advanced is (and why “Advanced” does not mean “better”), and how to check the consent state in your browser’s developer tools (DevTools, the F12 key).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why we need Google consent mode v2: managing consent<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The banner is a doorman. Consent mode is the walkie-talkie the doorman uses to tell the rest of the building who he let in. Without the walkie-talkie, the doorman can do his job perfectly and the tags still won’t know a thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be precise: the banner (a CMP, short for consent management platform) collects and stores consent. Consent mode passes it to the tags so they can adjust their behavior. The tags then send data in requests, meaning the messages a browser sends to a server, such as Google’s. Consent mode itself has no banner and does not collect consent<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Having consent mode in place does not mean GDPR compliance. Technically, it only passes consent on. I wrote up what most often goes wrong with the banner in The 5 most common mistakes in cookie bar settings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consent types in consent mode<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Consent mode works with seven consent types. For four of them, Google documents how its tags change behavior accordingly; the other three you can use for your own tags. Each has a value of granted<\/code> or denied<\/code> (documentation<\/a>). The v1 and v2 labels in the table are two generations of consent mode; I describe the difference below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Type<\/th>What it is for<\/th>Who reads it<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
ad_storage<\/code><\/td>storage (cookies, device IDs) for advertising<\/td>Google tags (since v1)<\/td><\/tr>
analytics_storage<\/code><\/td>storage for analytics, for example visit duration<\/td>Google tags (since v1)<\/td><\/tr>
ad_user_data<\/code><\/td>consent to send user data to Google for advertising<\/td>Google tags (since v2)<\/td><\/tr>
ad_personalization<\/code><\/td>consent to personalized advertising (remarketing)<\/td>Google tags (since v2)<\/td><\/tr>
functionality_storage<\/code><\/td>functional storage, for example language<\/td>your own use<\/td><\/tr>
personalization_storage<\/code><\/td>personalization, for example recommended videos<\/td>your own use<\/td><\/tr>
security_storage<\/code><\/td>security, authentication, fraud prevention<\/td>your own use<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The consent types form two logical pairs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n